February
26
/ 2026
A new microscopic study of Late Mesolithic graves at Skateholm in southern Sweden has uncovered traces of fur, feathers, and plant fibres that once formed striking burial clothing, including what looks like elaborate Mesolithic headgear. The surprising part is that many of these materials survived not as visible artifacts, but as tiny fragments preserved in the soil itself. Soil, not artifacts: the microscopic method that changed the picture The research, now published by Nature, focused on the Skateholm I and II cemeteries in Scania, a major Stone Age burial complex with 87 graves excavated in the 1980s. From 35 of those graves, researchers separated microscopic fibres from sediment using a water-assisted technique developed by the University of Helsinki’s Animals Make
