In 1946, a scientific team found, in a peat bog in Naestved, Denmark, the skeleton of a man with an arrow stuck in the bridge of his nose. It has since been discovered that the Porsmose man was shot 5,600 years ago and, for a long time, it was believed that the fatal arrow was the one stuck in his head.
However, according to the “Daily Mail”, a team led by graphics expert Cicero Moraes has just, in a study published in the journal OrtogOnLineMag, provided interesting details on this Nordic cold case. The bone arrow which caused the death of the man, “aged around thirty and measuring around 1.65m”, according to the British daily, is in fact the one which ended up in his chest. “While the arrow in the face is visually striking and uncomfortable, and can be fatal depending on the situation, it is the one in the chest that has impacted important structures,” including the aortic arch and pulmonary vein, explains the Brazilian specialist.
To reach this conclusion, the experts first set out to reconstruct the bones of the victim, then his face – “using forensic techniques” – then the bust, “including the areas affected by the points of the arrow”. “In the chest area, where an arrow hit the sternum, we also reconstructed other bones and the circulatory system. It was therefore possible to assess the place where the deadly arrow had passed,” says Cicero Moraes.
If the causes of the death of the man from Porsmose are now clarified, the circumstances remain mysterious. “History does not say whether he was executed (a theory favored by the National Museum of Denmark, editor’s note) or whether he fell in combat,” concludes the “Daily Mail”. We barely know that his body was thrown or fell into the water.
