Bronze-Age Dane was an ancient immigrant.

Denmark’s The Local looks at the mummified remains of a woman who was anything but local, new research has found. One of the iconic ancestors of Denmark came there from somewhere far away:

A groundbreaking new study has shown that the Skrydstrup Girl, who was discovered in a burial mound in 1935, was neither born nor raised in Denmark.

The new information about the famous Bronze Age remains was revealed on national broadcaster DR’s big-budget documentary series Historien om Danmark (The History of Denmark).

“This is going to change a whole lot about our understanding of the entire Bronze Age,” Professor Karin Margarita Frei of the National Museum of Denmark says in the programme.

Researchers found that the Skrydstrup girl arrived in Denmark at the age of 13 or 14, before which she lived in a region “several hundred kilometres” away – possibly the Czech Republic, France or central Germany.

The young woman lived in the area around Skydstrup for four years before dying as a 17-year-old in around 1300 BCE, according to the DR report.

Remnants of tooth, bone and hair enabled researchers to map out the life of the woman in a way not possible with previous finds such as the Egtved girl.

“Her burial place in Denmark suggests that she was a member of society’s elite, probably from prior to her arrival. For example, her teeth tell us that she had a nutritious diet from a young age, which can be a mark of high status,” Frei said.

The sudden long-distance migration may be the sign of an alliance between tribes or an arranged marriage, Frei told DR.

[via Archaeological News]