People buried with urns on their skulls and feet discovered in Transylvania

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Excavations at a 6,000-year-old cemetery in Transylvania have uncovered the remains of people buried with urns placed over their skulls or feet, reports Romanian news outlet Gherla Info.

So far, the team has been unable to determine what the urns once held, but as Ben Turner reports for Live Science, it’s likely they contained food or drink intended for the nourishment of the dead in the afterlife. An animal skull, possibly from a cow, as well as ceramic fragments that may offer clues to the settlement’s pottery-making technology, was discovered nearby.

Remnants of wooden walls found at the site suggest the Neolithic settlement’s inhabitants fortified their homes, with the wealthiest living in the most well-fortified areas.

“Their story must be told, revealed, through such excavations,” Paul Pupeză, an archaeologist at the National Museum of Transylvanian History.

The researchers are moving the finds to the natural history museum, where they will be analyzed, restored and preserved. The museum may eventually display some of the artifacts discovered at the settlement to the public.

Source - https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/neolithic-skeletons-show-odd-burial-practice-transylvania-180978556/

[bionic 50,111]

Did they think the urns would come together as the body decomposed? Like to shell the decomposed remains?

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8 hours ago, bionic said:

Did they think the urns would come together as the body decomposed? Like to shell the decomposed remains?

This is an interesting explanation. The archaeologists in Romania are unsure what was their purpose, but said they might be symbolic gifts to help the burried in the afterlife (similarly to how Egyptian pharaohs were buried with food, jewelry, etc). But your theory explains why would they specifically be placed on their heads and feet.

[Guest]

More strangeness in history remains to be unsolved. For now.