4,800-year-old human remains unearthed near cattle burial in Germany, experts say

Ahead of a massive construction project in Halberstadt, Germany, experts are conducting an extensive excavation of the area. And if their early finds are any indication, they could come away with valuable insight into ancient human life.

On Wednesday, Feb. 1 — the first day of their excavation — archaeologists made a “special and important find:” a human grave made from stone slabs, Oliver Dietrich, a spokesperson for the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt, said in an email to McClatchy News.

Experts have dated the grave and its contents to about 4,800 years ago, according to a Facebook post from Halberstadt’s mayor, Daniel Szarata.

Inside the grave, archaeologists found human remains, a pottery jar known as a spherical amphora and a stone ax, Dietrich said. About 10 feet away from the grave, experts discovered a second burial site, which held the remains of at least four cattle.

The remains were buried in the Neolithic Globular Amphora Culture, an archaeological time period in Central Europe that lasted from 3100 B.C. until 2650 B.C.

This finding is particularly important because it is similar to another discovery from the same period known as the “Cattle Baron” of Westerhausen, a village less than 10 miles from Halberstadt, Dietrich said.

The “Cattle Baron,” a 40-ish-year-old person who was buried near seven cattle, indicated to experts that the region had begun developing hierarchies, ruling classes and social structures by the mid-Neolithic period, according to the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle. Burial practices were an important piece of these structures, as the different classes underwent varying funeral processes.

Experts are hopeful to learn more about these societies as the excavations in Halberstadt continue through the end of March, according to Dietrich.

Halberstadt is about 130 miles southwest of Berlin.

Facebook Translate and Google Translate were used to translate the post from Daniel Szarata.

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