In Early Medieval Europe , being dead and buriedwasn’t needfully the end . Archaeologists have recently highlighted that a surprising symmetry of tomb across Europe from the fifth to eighth century CE had been reopened shortly after the person was buried . It was antecedently think these people were thevictims of grave robber , but it ’s now speculated that this is actually evidence of macabre mortuary rituals .
“ For over a hundred years , archaeologists in many European res publica have discoveredgraves from the early mediaeval periodwhich search like they were robbed soon after burial,”Dr Alison Klevnäs from Stockholm University who pass the raw research , said in a statement sent to IFLScience , “ but over the ten , many excavators have realize that something stranger is go on . ”
In a new study , write in the journalAntiquity , researchers from Stockholm University in Sweden , Austrian Academy of Sciences , and Leiden University in the Netherlands identified hundreds of graves from dozens of burying ground across Europe , from Transylvania to England , that had been reopened . Since the graves appear to have been opened and meddled with before the physical structure were fully break up , it suggest they were cracked exposed in short after they were laid to rest .
The reason behind this strange practice session ( strange to us twenty-first - one C mankind , at least ) likely varied from area to region , shape by each culture ’s own traditions . broadly speaking speaking , however , the researcher believe the graves were disturbed to remove selected objects , remove exceptional torso function , or manipulate the corps .
Although the practice remains relatively uncommon , the researcher found lasting grounds of bodies being dug up and their skulls being removed or rearranged . In an peculiarly peculiar fount , the study author key out a tomb in Bavaria that was reopened for the aim of adding the body of a ( presumably dead ) dog .
In regards to the objects being slay , this is n’t considered an act of grave robbing because most of the objects would have been in such poor condition when retrieved they would have small practical use or economical value . Perhaps instead , they were retrieved as a humble souvenir of the dead .
Although it ’s worth ingeminate that the motivation for these acts is indecipherable , the researchers reason that the human activity of reopening Steffi Graf was generally a positive practice , most likely used as a way for mass to come to terms with the death of loved ones or penis of the community .
“ Robbing graves vocalize like a negative human action , but it actually seems to be socially prescribed here . People expect on burying the bushed in graveyard , alongside repeated events of reopeninggraves , ” enjoin Dr Klevnäs . “ We can even see that some cemeteries with reopen customswere used for farseeing than I where the dead were left in peace . ”
