“We are now standing in the area of a burial ground from the Bronze Age. Those graves belong to the Nitra culture,” says archaeologist Vendula Vránová, standing in front of several excavated graves. But there are dozens of them in a field near Křelov in Olomouc.
Altogether, archaeologists have uncovered 130 burial pits here. “It is certainly unique in terms of the number of graves. We captured three of the four sides of the burial ground. We don’t have the entire floor plan and defined extent of the necropolis,” explains anthropologist Lukáš Šín.
According to archaeologists, the burial site continues beyond the site they explored. In the graves, the skeletons lie in a crouched position. According to her, when the remains were discovered, the archaeologists were surprised by the placement of the bones.
“We have a great rarity here, that a large part of the skeletal remains were re-arranged after a certain period of time in the grave. They are not in an anatomical position,” explains Vránová. Lukáš Šín also adds that people either died elsewhere and were buried later, or their bodies were manipulated after death.
A large part of the skeletal remains were rearranged in the grave after a certain period of time.
Vendula Vránová, archaeologist
In the graves, archaeologists also found bone beads, copper ornaments and jewelry, bone awls, flint arrows for arrows, and beef ribs, which the deceased received as alms.
Archaeologists will work on site only until the beginning of April. After that, the site will be fully taken over by builders, who will start building the D35 highway.
Why were the remains of the dead manipulated? You can find out about that in the complete report attached above.
Tags: Archaeologists investigated site future highway bypass graves Bronze Age
