The mystery of when the young woman buried in a coffin above the Polish village of Bagicz died has finally been solved, according to a new study published in the journal Archaeometry.
In 1899, the young woman’s coffin, made of a hollowed-out oak log, had tumbled from an eroding cliff above the Baltic coast village. She was given the nickname the “Princess of Bagicz" by locals.
The coffin, carved from a single tree and measuring over two meters in length, is the only fully preserved one of its kind from the Roman Iron Age in Poland, and likely survived thanks to its wet, humid environment.
Bronze jewelery, amber and glass beads, a pin, and a mid-second century bronze fibula brooch were found alongside her remains, placing her burial somewhere between 110 and 160 CE, which may have been placed on cow-hide, with a wooden stool at her feet, according to the study.
Further grave goods may have been initially buried with her, but stolen by looters or destroyed during the cliff’s erosion before the coffin was found in 1899.
Researchers also believe that her burial was not singular, and could have been part of a larger, ancient cemetery associated with the Wielbark culture related to the Goths and "was gradually destroyed due to coastal erosion.”
“The burial provides rare insight into wooden coffin preservation in the Wielbark culture, offering valuable data on funerary practices and environmental conditions that allowed for the exceptional survival of organic materials,” the study added.
But archaeological confusion began when radiocarbon dating, which estimates age based on the decay of carbon isotopes in organic material, was done on a tooth taken from the princess in 2018.
Results of the dating showed that the tooth was roughly 100 to 200 years earlier than the grave goods suggested.
The reservoir effect
In 2024, researchers, led by archaeologist Marta Chmiel-Chrzanowska, were permitted to date the tree rings of the coffin itself, which showed that the oak used for it was felled around 120 CE, aligning with the date of the grave goods, meaning that the radiocarbon date from the tooth was wrong, or skewed.
Researchers believe that this was due to the “reservoir effect,” which can make the radiocarbon age of a person appear older than they actually were.
The effect is caused by consuming a large amount of freshwater fish from hard, calcium-rich water sources, leading a person to absorb older-dated carbon from the ocean.
Water samples taken from the streams near Bagicz confirmed unusually high mineral content, lending support to the hypothesis, as “hard water should be considered as a potential factor influencing radiocarbon dating.”
“The burial provides rare insight into wooden coffin preservation in the Wielbark culture, offering valuable data on funerary practices and environmental conditions that allowed for the exceptional survival of organic materials," the study concluded. “The study demonstrates the importance of using interdisciplinary methods [. . . ] to address inconsistencies in dating.”
Regarding the princess herself, Chmiel-Chrzanowska told Live Science that she “did not exhibit any paleopathologies that could indicate the cause of death,” though she did have osteoarthritis, possibly from work-related overuse.
“I am going to Warsaw for DNA testing” to learn more about the woman, Chmiel-Chrzanowska added, even though previous DNA analysis attempted on the remains was unsuccessful.
“We will attempt to drill into the skull in such a way as to obtain material from the temporal [skull] bone, without the need to damage it.”