Sex and Gender in the Mesolithic: Adults and Children from the Strøby Egede Burial, Køge Bugt, Denmark

Gron, Kurt J.; Meiklejohn, Christopher; Pedersen, Kristoffer Buck; Stewart, Nicolas A.; Alexandersen, Verner; Sørensen, Lasse; Montgomery, Janet

doi:10.1017/ppr.2022.7

Sex and Gender in the Mesolithic: Adults and Children from the Strøby Egede Burial, Køge Bugt, Denmark

Gron, Kurt J.; Meiklejohn, Christopher; Pedersen, Kristoffer Buck; Stewart, Nicolas A.; Alexandersen, Verner; Sørensen, Lasse; Montgomery, Janet

Authors

Dr Kurt Gron k.j.gron@durham.ac.uk
Research Development Manager

Christopher Meiklejohn

Kristoffer Buck Pedersen

Nicolas A. Stewart

Verner Alexandersen

Lasse Sørensen

Professor Janet Montgomery janet.montgomery@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

In the summer of 1986 a mass grave was discovered along the bank of the river Tryggevælde Å where it empties into Køge Bugt, the bay south of modern Copenhagen, Denmark. The human remains, dating to the late Mesolithic Ertebølle culture, consisted of eight individuals of multiple ages, ranging c. 35–45 years old to newborn children. Four were arranged on one side of the grave, with four on the other, placed head to foot. How they were related and what befell them is a mystery. Herein, we present a bioarchaeological assessment of these individuals for the first time and apply an acid etch-based analysis of dimorphic sex chromosome-linked tooth enamel peptides to confirm their biological sex. Our results allow a direct connection between engendered grave treatment and biological sex in non-adult individuals as young as c. 4 years of age. We conclude with a discussion of the possible circumstances of their deaths and their possible relationships to one another.

Citation

Gron, K. J., Meiklejohn, C., Pedersen, K. B., Stewart, N. A., Alexandersen, V., Sørensen, L., & Montgomery, J. (2022). Sex and Gender in the Mesolithic: Adults and Children from the Strøby Egede Burial, Køge Bugt, Denmark. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 88, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1017/ppr.2022.7

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jul 21, 2022
Online Publication Date	Sep 15, 2022
Publication Date	2022-12
Deposit Date	Sep 15, 2022
Publicly Available Date	Mar 15, 2023
Journal	Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society for ...
Print ISSN	0079-497X
Electronic ISSN	2050-2729
Publisher	Prehistoric Society
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	88
Pages	1-23
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1017/ppr.2022.7

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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.