F. Fojtík
The two women were between 30 and 40 years old, were low and had clear eyes
They were probably sisters, had suffered a hard life and disease, and were buried for over 6000 years in a neolithic Sleep Mine in the Czech Republic, along with a newborn baby-who mysteriously was not the son of any of them-and a dog.
A team of investigators discovered skeletons of two women and a newborn buried for over 6000 years in a Sumilant Mine in the Krumlov Forest in southern Morávia, Czech Republic.
O, recently published in the magazine Archaeological and Anthropological Sciencesreveals that women They were probably sisters And they had suffered a hard life and illness.
The authors of the study believe that their burial in the mine may have been part of a ritual linked to ancestors or a sacrifice human.
The Krumlov Forest has been known since the nineteenth century for its abundant flint deposits -The most used prehistory rock to make tools, remember the.
Excavations in this forest, which began in the 1990s, allowed to find out one of the largest mining areas in Europeexplored from the mesolithic Until the Iron Age.
Among the hundreds of wells found, well number 4 of the mine kept a macabre surprise: Two female skeletons, one with a newborn lying on his chest, accompanied by the remains of a small dog.
The two women had between 30 and 40 years old and were notably lowS for its time, measuring about 1.48 and 1.46 meters, and showed signs of child malnutrition, although in adulthood their diet was rich in flesh – something unusual to the region’s neolithic populations.
Both were weak, sick and malnourished during childhood, but as adults consumed more meat and performed heavy worknote the study. Marks on their bones as worn vertebrae and poorly healed fractures reveal a life of extreme physical effortprobably related to mining.
The genetic analyzes performed to the two skeletons confirmed that women they were appeared and possibly sisters, and provided surprising details about their appearance: One had green or light brown eyeswhile the other, with 90% probability, had blue eyes.
Surprisingly, The newborn was not the son of any of the womenone mystery that the investigators could not resolve. It cannot be excluded that the child died during the same period, they observe, although their presence in the well remains a mystery.
Bone pathologies tell a story of suffering in which both women supported children’s diseases, evidenced by growth lines interrupted in their bones, and in adulthood have suffered chronic lesions.
One of them had a Poor cured fracture in the elbowindicating that he continued to work despite the injury. Their vertebral columns showed signs of premature arthritis and disc hernias, probably by working curved while extracting Salex. The combination of spondylolysis and osteophytes indicates excessive spinal stress During its lives, the report explains.
O burial place does not seem to be a coincidence: A mine that was active during millennia and may have had sacred meaning to the neolithic communities. The forest became a holy landscapeallowing contact with the underground world of ancestors, the study points out.
The authors suggest that women may have been buried there as part of a reconciliation ritual with the land, perhaps as offerings to ensure the prosperity of excavations.
Another theory, darker, suggests that they were forced workers: The emergence of non -Neolithic patriarchy It may have led the hardest jobs to fall upon those who could be forced to perform them, notice the text.
To rebuild the faces of the two women, the study authors used forensic anthropologywith which they have created hyper-realistic busts-which are now on display at the Moravia Museum in BRno.
The cause of death could not be determined – admits the team – but its burial in the mine opens a window for the beliefs and social organization of the first agricultural communities in Europe.
