The girl with finches

Cave burials are generally absent from historical periods in Europe. Consequently, the discovery of a post-medieval inhumation of a child buried with at least one bird head placed in the mouth in Tunel Wielki Cave (southern Poland) is an exceptional find. The aim of this paper is to discuss this unique burial based on multiproxy analyses conducted on the human and avian remains, including genetic and isotopic analyses as well as CT scans, radiocarbon dating, and anthropological and paleontological assessment. The results reveal the burial was that of a 10–12 year old girl of likely Fennoscandian or Baltic genetic ancestry, who died in the post-medieval period and was buried in the cave with the placement of one, and possibly two, bird heads in the mouth of the deceased. We propose that the girl is associated with Finno-Karelian troops of a Swedish garrison stationed at the adjacent Ojców Castle during King Carl Gustav's invasion of Poland in 1655–1657

欧洲历史时期的洞穴墓葬整体较为罕见。因此，在波兰南部的维尔基洞穴（Tunel Wielki Cave）中发现的一座后中世纪时期儿童土葬墓——其口中至少放置了一枚鸟头——实属罕见的考古发现。本文旨在通过对人类与鸟类遗骸开展的多代理分析（multiproxy analyses），涵盖遗传学分析、同位素分析、计算机断层扫描（CT扫描）、放射性碳定年法，以及人类学与古生物学鉴定，来探讨这一特殊墓葬。分析结果显示，该墓葬主人为一名10至12岁的女孩，其遗传血统大概率属于芬诺斯堪的亚（Fennoscandian）或波罗的海（Baltic）族群，死于后中世纪时期，下葬于该洞穴时口中被放置了一枚（亦可能为两枚）鸟头。我们推测，这名女孩与1655至1657年卡尔·古斯塔夫国王入侵波兰期间，驻扎在邻近奥伊楚夫城堡（Ojców Castle）的瑞典驻军麾下的芬诺-卡累利阿（Finno-Karelian）部队存在关联。