This six-month-old baby is one of the oldest infant skeletons found in Europe. It was buried 8,400 years ago by hunter-gatherers near Berlin. [Photo by Remi Benali, National Geographic]
Posted on 02/16/2016 9:31:39 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists in Germany have uncovered the bodies of children and of one adult man who was buried, strangely, standing upright.
One of the oldest cemeteries in Europe has recently been discovered, with graves dating back almost 8,500 years. Two of the most intriguing finds are the skeleton of a six-month-old child and a mysterious upright burial of a man in his early 20s.
The German cemetery, called Gross Fredenwalde after a nearby village, belongs to a time known as the Mesolithic, when Europe was populated by hunter-gatherers. At a press conference Thursday morning in Berlin, excavators announced that nine skeletons have been uncovered on the hilltop burial site so far, five of them children younger than 6 years old. And the researchers found ample evidence that more graves remain unexcavated...
Excavations in 2013 and 2014 uncovered evidence of the prehistoric graveyard, found 50 miles north of Berlin on a hill 300 feet above the plains below. The hilltop's hard, rocky soil would have been a tough place to dig graves. With no water sources nearby, it would have been a bad place for a settlement, too.
In a paper published in the journal Quartar, Thomas Terberger, the archaeologist who led the recent dig, says the burials are evidence of careful planning...
The infant skeleton is rare, too. Researchers say it's the earliest infant skeleton ever found in Germany, and one of the oldest in Europe. Excavators removed the fragile remains from the cemetery in a single, 660-pound (300 kilogram) block of earth, making it possible to carefully expose the 8,400-year-old skeleton in the controlled setting of a lab.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
This six-month-old baby is one of the oldest infant skeletons found in Europe. It was buried 8,400 years ago by hunter-gatherers near Berlin. [Photo by Remi Benali, National Geographic]
Very interesting.
I hope they can obtain gene samples.
That may answer a few questions.
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8,400 years ago and they were doing weird things in the cemetery.
Could it be that these people were just learning how to bury people and no one wrote the book yet?
Nope? Ok, I will come up with another theory.
Maybe they only had post hole diggers.
My pleasure.
Bodies of children. One man buried standing up. In an unlikely and remote location. Hmmm...
Betcha this is the first record of a child molester/murderer executed by burying him with his head exposed. Next to an anthill.
The hilltop's hard, rocky soil would have been a tough place to dig graves.
A lot easier to dig a 2 foot square hole 6 feet deep than a six by 3 foot hole 6 feet deep in that kind of ground.
Maybe an abandoned well?
The simplest answer is usually the best answer.
Well said, BBell, and I second your comments.
“Maybe they only had post hole diggers.”
Or pile drivers.
The article suggests possibly a badger hole. Read the whole article.
I did read the entire article and there is no mention of badgers. There is a COMMENT by a person from Colorado who says badgers dig holes in the “too rocky to dig by a human” soil up at the tree line there, but that’s only speculation by a commenter, and not the article itself.
It's easier to pull rocks out when digging a ditch than it is when digging a posthole.
Good point! It’s not like they had a gas-powered auger, is it?
I guess it depends on the tools you use. Maybe they dug the hole a little wider, to accommodate a couple of sinewy youths who could jump in and wrestle rocks out?
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![This six-month-old baby is one of the oldest infant skeletons found in Europe. It was buried 8,400 years ago by hunter-gatherers near Berlin. [Photo by Remi Benali, National Geographic]](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/2016/02/11/baby_skeleton/01_baby_skeleton.adapt.590.1.jpg)
