In Poland, archaeologists have found a mesolithic tomb in which the bones of four people facing each other – a typical arrangement for the time. Such “mass graves” from the Middle Stone Age are already known from other places, but it is the first such find in Poland. More detailed analyzes should now provide information about whether the dead were a family, how they lived and what they died of.
Near the Polish village of Orłowo in the municipality of Inowrocław, archaeologists came across an old grave during construction work. The bones found therein were probably buried there between 8,000 and 7000 BC. This would come from the Mesolithic, as the research team around Piotr Alagierski reports. If this is confirmed by radiocarbonation, this would be the first “mass burial” from the time that was discovered in Poland.
Four people in close hugs
Because the grave facility contained the remains of not only one, but four people. The bones belonged to a man, a woman and two children. “Four people were buried in the grave: an adult man and an adult woman, with a child aged seven to eight years. The man is another child aged three to four,” reports Alagierski’s colleague Justyna Marchewka-Długońska from the Cardinal Stefan-Wyszyński University in Warsaw.
Her bones were arranged as if they hugged themselves. So the deceased seem to have been buried. This arrangement suggests that the four people are members of the same family. “We now want to confirm this with DNA tests. With the DNA analyzes, we also want to confirm the gender of adults and receive an indication of the gender of the children, which is very difficult to achieve with their remains,” explains Marchewka-Długońska.
More detailed studies by the bones should also provide information about the body -sized and age of the adults as well as about the origin, nutrition and way of life of the group. The archaeologists also hope for indications of the possible cause of death. “At first glance, there are no signs of violence on the bones that would indicate that the deceased were killed by another group. Their death was probably caused by a sudden event that could have leaded, for example, to hypothermia,” said Alagierski.
Three indications of the Middle Stone Age
The archaeologists have estimated the preliminary age of the bones based on three factors. “The first is the geology of the location. Black earth dominates in the region, which began to form in Kujawia 7,000 to 8000 years ago,” explains Alagierski. However, when exploring the burial site, the researchers did not come across black earth. “Therefore, we conclude that the grave pit must have been excavated before the black gods have formed.”
The second age notification is a flint tool that was under the skull of one of the children and was probably placed there on purpose. “It is a broken fragment made of high-quality flint. This Stone Age multitool was used to produce blades and knives and is typical of the mesolithic,” reports Alagierski.
The third factor that provides information on the age of the grave is its similarity to other burials in France, Scandinavia and the Karelia adjacent to the east. “With similar burials, the arrangement of the deceased is almost identical: slightly bent legs, very family poses. The deceased seem to be huged and kept,” explains Alagierski. However, this arrangement of the body is only typical of graves from the Mesolithic period and no longer occurred in later periods.
Source: Pap – Science in Poland