Excavation reveals that the bones of the dead were sorted and categorised before burial

(Source: Cphpost.dK ) – Danish archaeologists have unearthed a burial site in an ancient town in southern Jordan that suggests the dead were not buried until they had decomposed to skeletal remains. The skeletons were then dismantled and bones of similar types were buried together

Danes discover 9,000-year-old skeletons

“It might sound a bit like something from a splatter movie,” Moritz Kinzel, a researcher at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen, told Videnskab.

“The body parts have been sorted and buried in collective graves, where we find the specific categories of bones together.”

Large numbers of children
Danish researchers are still in the process of excavating the site, called Shkārat Msaied. So far they have found the skeletons of more than 70 people.

“It is interesting there are an unusually large number of children buried, ranging from small babies to adolescents,” said Kinzel. “There seems to have been a strong tendency to bury children inside the houses.”

Kindle said they had unearthed three new burial sites containing at least 10 children and two adults, and that they still had several more sites to look at.

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Animal bones, including birds, foxes, goats and sheep, have been found buried along with the human remains.

“We do not know if the burials are related to something religious, but there seems to be some kind of ritual behaviour associated with the funeral,” said Kinzel.

SOURCE: http://cphpost.dk/

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