STOCKHOLM: The remains of a pregnant Stone Age woman, believed to be some 9,000 years old, and her foetus have been discovered in a cave on a small island in Sweden, an archaeologist said on Monday.

Archaeologist Alexan­der Roesen Sjostrand, an independent researcher connected to Uppsala University, said the “very unusual” find was made in a cave on a small island off the coast of the Swedish island of Gotland, which he had been excavating since 2023.

Sjostrand and another researcher had now reached the deepest layer of the cave, which was from the Stone Age.

“We have now found the remains of a young woman who has been buried in one way or another. With a very well-preserved foetus in her womb,” the researcher said.

He said that they estimated the remains to be from 7,000 to 10,000 years ago, but most likely 9,000 years ago due to where the remains had been found. Sjostrand said the remains would be carbon-dated to determine the age.

According to the researcher, the find of a pregnant woman from so long ago indicated that people were living on the island just after it emerged in the Baltic Sea after the last ice age, and it was not just an exploration party.

“It’s really exciting because it gives an insight into how exploration was carried out. How people travelled around during the hunter-gatherer time of the Stone Age,” Sjostrand said.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2026