22. 7. 2004 Calendary

22. 7. 2004 Remains of a ritual murder

Categories: Finds and rescue research in the Czech Republic , Calendar

Nearly four thousand years old skeletons were discovered by archaeologists during work on the future D1 motorway near Hulín in the Kroměříž region. In one of the pits they found the remains of three children and two adults who apparently died violent deaths.

In total, archaeologists found dozens of graves in the area. One of them, dating back to the Bronze Age, held a surprising find. Buried there were people who were believed to have been sacrificed to the gods. Not only the placement of the bodies, but also the shells that the experts found on the skulls.

The ritual was probably a way for the people to have a better harvest and full granaries in the following season. Archaeologists took the skeletons to special laboratories for DNA analysis. to find out why people were buried together.

"Apart from the burials in the old bronze pits, there is another larger part of the site. The oldest one there so far is a small burial culture with corded pottery. The skeletons are mostly decomposed, but we found ceramic charity there," Jaroslav Peška, director of the Olomouc Archaeological Centre, said at the time.

Four years later, archaeologists discovered precious metal jewellery at the same site. Ninety per cent of them are ceramics.

"But we also found imitation drinking horns, fragments of glass bracelets and iron or bronze clasps. The number of ornaments made of precious metals or amber is also very high, coming from the burial site of the people of the bell-shaped cup culture, which is about 4,500 years old," Peska explained.

Archaeologists also discovered the skeleton of a woman and a child in 2010 during research on the old road from Hulín to Břest in the Kroměříž region. They were buried in a crouched position, facing each other. The woman was lying on her right side, with two hair ornaments made of bronze wire on her head. On her hand rested a child of about five years old.

"The two persons were placed in the grave according to the ritual practices customary for that time. But the strange thing is that this was a burial in a settlement, in a place that must have been inhabited," noted Miroslav Daňhel, the head of the research.

Sources: www.lidovky.cz, www.ceskatelevize.cz,

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