Face of Stone Age Man Thought to Have Drowned 4,000 Years Ago Revealed

A prehistoric man thought to have died by drowning around 4,000 years ago has been reconstructed, revealing what he may have looked like when he was alive.

A team with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim re-created the man's appearance based on measurements of his skeletal remains, as well as DNA data.

The remains were originally unearthed in 1916 on the island of Hitra, which is off the west coast of Norway, by workers who were upgrading a road leading up to a farm.

The remains are those of a man who died in his mid-20s toward the very end of the Stone Age, around 4,000 years ago.

The sea level in the area where the man died was higher than it is today, and the location where his remains were found would have been around 13 feet underwater. As a result, archaeologists believe he may have drowned.

"We think that he drowned. Parts of the skeleton are well preserved, and must have been covered with shell sand on the seabed shortly after he died," archaeologist Birgitte Skar with the NTNU University Museum said in a press release.

Measurements of the man's remains indicate that he was approximately 5 foot, 6 inches tall. Meanwhile, experts were able to reconstruct the color of his hair, skin and eyes thanks to DNA analyses of several other individuals from the same period who had a similar genetic profile. These investigations indicated that he had fair hair and blue eyes.

Artifacts found alongside the man suggest that he may have been a "warrior," according to Skar. These objects include a dagger and an arm guard—an oblong-shaped bone item that would have been attached to the wrist of one hand to protect it while using a bow and arrow.

At present, it is not clear whether the Hitra man drowned accidentally or during some form of combat. The time in which he lived, however, was characterized by significant changes in the nature of prehistoric human societies in the region—notably, the rise of agriculture.

"Elements of agriculture had been introduced in southern and eastern Norway earlier, but in central Norway, along the coast in the west and in northern Norway, agriculture was first established during this period," Skar said.

This seismic socioeconomic shift may have sometimes resulted in violence, according to the researcher.

"We believe that agriculture was introduced by migrating people who arrived in Norway to get more land—and they were willing to use weapons to do so. We must therefore expect that there were violent clashes between the people who already lived here and the newcomers," Skar said.

The migrants brought new agricultural knowledge to the region as well as novel ideas about organizing human societies.

"They lived in hierarchical societies, had a different understanding of the world, another religion, and a large network of contacts down in Europe," Skar said.

A complete picture of this turbulent period in Scandinavian history has yet to emerge, but researchers are trying to shed light on the era. Analyzing human remains from the period, such as those of the Hitra man, is a key part of this effort.

Experts with the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Center at the University of Copenhagen are analyzing the Hitra man's DNA with the hope of yielding new insights into his life.

Researchers at the NTNU University Museum have been carrying out isotope analyses of his remains. Isotopes are atoms of a given element that have the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons.

"Among other things, this provides insight into what the Hitra man had eaten and information about whether it is likely that he migrated over large geographical distances during his life," Skar said.

"We already know that the vast majority of the food he ate came from the land. So even though he was found on Hitra—in a place that was underwater at the time—it wasn't primarily seafood he ate," she said.

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