Nearly 6,000 years ago, in what's now Denmark, a Neolithic crafter fashioned a ring from a piece of deer antler or bone. During the process, or soon after, the piece broke in two. It was apparently dropped — perhaps discarded in frustration — near other items, including a wooden spear that was also broken.
And there the ring waited, over time buried by debris and dirt, and eventually submerged beneath the sea.
After almost 6 millennia, the ring's time has finally come: Thanks to a new approach to understanding the past, researchers have been able to reconstruct much of its story, right down to the species of animal that provided the raw material.
