Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a young pregnant woman believed to have lived roughly 9,000 years ago inside a cave on Lilla Karlsö, a small island off the western coast of Gotland, Sweden. The discovery suggests humans inhabited the island shortly after it emerged from the Baltic Sea following the last Ice Age.
The woman, estimated to have been between 14 and 19 years old, was found in one of the deepest layers of the Södra Vagnhus cave. A well-preserved fetus aged between 32 and 34 weeks was discovered inside her uterus. Alexander Roesen Sjöstrand, an independent researcher collaborating with Uppsala University who has led excavations at the site since 2023, called the find highly unusual and noted the body appeared fragmented, likely from a partial cave collapse.
Initial estimates place the burial between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago, with 9,000 years considered most probable. Researchers plan to conduct carbon-14 dating to establish a more precise age.