Stora Förvar

The site can be found on the island Stora Karlsö, which is situated approx. 1.5 kilometers off the west coast of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. It is the second oldest natural reserve in the world. The island is populated since some 10,000 years and first humans were seal hunters finding fruitful hunting grounds at Stora Karlsö. Among the handful of caves on Stora Karlsö is Stora Färvor, which gave rise to many Stone Age remains. First excavations started in the late 1800s and continue to date bringing to light over 7,000 discoveries mostly from the Neolithic Age.

Among the several thousand findings in the cave was a bone discovered in section F and layer 11 stemming from late the Mesolithic, approximately 3 m below the cave surface. The bone is a tibia of a partly preserved inhumation burial that got disturbed by later human activities. While no artifacts were discovered, numerous bones were found in association with this particular specimen, stemming from other humans and animals (seals) alike. Higher stratigraphic layers harbored bones and materials from the Neolithic to the Iron Age, with most depositories from the Neolithic linking it to the Pitted Ware culture.