Tree rings of Princess of Bagicz wooden coffin resolve date dispute

"The coffin was discovered near the village of Bagicz, northwestern Poland, in 1899 when it was literally fell out of a cliff on the Baltic Sea coast, exposed by erosion. It held the remains of an adult woman buried with a bronze fibula, a bone pin, a pair of bronze bracelets and a necklace of glass and amber beads. The burial had been preserved for almost 2,000 years in the low-oxygen waterlogged sandy soil."

"In addition to the coffin, organic materials including a wooden stool and fragments of woolen clothing and bovine hide had survived in excellent condition. Unfortunately, those elements did not survive the Second World War. Because of her fine grave goods and the location of the burial in an isolated location overlooking the ocean, at the time she was believed to be someone of extremely high social status, earning her the monicker the Princess of Bagicz."

The only complete wooden coffin from the Roman Iron Age in Poland contained a buried adult woman with bronze fibula, bone pin, bronze bracelets and a glass-and-amber bead necklace. Discovered in 1899 after the coffin fell from a Baltic cliff, the burial remained preserved for nearly 2,000 years in low-oxygen waterlogged sandy soil. Organic items including a wooden stool, wool fragments and bovine hide survived until World War II. The coffin and lid were hollowed from an oak trunk, a Wielbark culture burial style (1st–4th centuries AD). Osteological analysis indicates a petite woman aged 25–30, about 145 cm tall, with lower-spine osteoarthritis consistent with heavy manual labor. Later finds show the grave was part of a larger cemetery, indicating wealth rather than royal status.

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