The Mystery Of The Heads Cut in The 7,000-year-old Cemetery! Only One Was Different
The Mystery Of The Heads Cut in The 7,000-year-old Cemetery! Only One Was Different
An unprecedented 7,000-year-old mass grave has been found at the Vrable-Velke Lehemby archaeological site in Slovakia. All but one of the 38 bodies found in the cemetery were killed in the same way.
The 7,000-year-old mass grave found in Vrable-Velke Lehemby in Slovakia, one of the largest settlements of the Neolithic Age in Europe, brought mysteries with it. All the bodies in the cemetery, where 38 skeletons were found, were killed in the same way. But except for one…
Preliminary archaeological studies of the mass grave show that the bodies in the cemetery were decapitated after they died. The only difference between the 38 bodies was the skeleton thought to belong to a 6-year-old boy. This skeleton was not decapitated and its skull was intact.
Archaeologists are trying to decipher how the skulls were cut in such a methodical way. Among the theories about severed heads are those that it could be some sort of warning to enemies, a burial, or a way to honor the dead.
VERY DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS
Anthropologist Katharina Fuchs of the University of Kiel in Germany says the headless skeleton burial is different from traditional burials in the same area. According to Fuchs, initial examinations of the remains indicate that the heads were deliberately cut off.
Examination of the neck bones shows that the vertebrae just below the skull remained intact, meaning that the heads were cut with very sharp tools.
Speaking to Business Insider, Fuchs says that heads cut with a sword or ax in the Middle Ages always had crushed vertebrae in their necks.
Martin Furholt, a professor of prehistory and social archeology at the same university, says it’s not clear whether the heads were cut off before or after death. According to research, after people died in the Neolithic age, their heads were cut off and placed next to their corpses.
Furholt also says that the heads are often placed in homes or elsewhere. Furholt added that the heads may not have been cut off to deter enemies from fighting, or they may have been taken as trophies.
DIFFERENT TOMBS IN THE SAME REGION
Two more important mass graves were found in Talheim and Herxheim, in the area of the severed head burial ground.
Skeletons of 34 men, women and children were found in Talheim, Germany. These skeletons are thought to have been cut up and left to rot by the neighboring village.
Again, 450 bodies were found in a mass grave in Herxheim, Germany. The corpses in this cemetery were dismembered and buried in the ground.
A 2009 study suggested that it was a type of cannibalistic ritual. However, other scholars had rejected this claim, arguing that the archaeological site was a large necropolis.
Vrable-Velke Lehemby are three settlements occupied between 5,250 BC and 4,950 BC.
Other headless skeletons had been uncovered during previous excavations in the area, but they were less in number among other burials.
