Puzzling patchwork skeleton in Belgium contains bones from 5 people

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(Image credit: Veselka et al.)

A skeleton excavated from a Roman-era cremation cemetery in Belgium amazed archaeologists when they discovered it was in fact 2,500 years older than they had actually presumed. Looking carefully at the skeleton, the archaeologists found something a lot more unanticipated: It was comprised of bones from a minimum of 5 individuals who lived 3 centuries apart.

“I think that, initially, the ‘individual’ was made at once,” Barbara Veselkaan archaeologist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel who led the research study, informed Live Science in an e-mail. “There were other bones scattered around the ‘individual,’ suggesting that people could also have come back to the burial.”

Excavation of the cemetery in the town of Pommerœul, Belgium, near the border with France, in the 1970s yielded 76 cremation burials and one burial of a body in a fetal position. The associated artifacts and burial design recommended the cremations were Roman and dated to the 2nd to 3rd centuries A.D. Although the burial of a skeleton in the fetal position is uncommon for a Roman cemetery, the excavators discovered a Roman-style bone pin near the skull and concluded that the severe most likely dated to the Roman age.

Radiocarbon analysis in 2019 validated that all of the Pommerœul cremations were from the Roman duration. Remarkably, the radiocarbon dates from the undamaged skeleton came from 3 various ages in the Neolithic duration(7000 to 3000 B.C.), leading archaeologists to examine the tomb and its distinct contents.

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In a research study released Oct. 23 in the journal AntiquityVeselka and a global group of scientists clarified the significance of the composite burial by means of numerous methods, consisting of skeletal analysis, radiocarbon dating and ancient-DNA sequencing.

“It is likely that more than 5 individuals contributed to the ‘individual’, but 5 were confirmed by DNA,” Veselka stated. A Roman bone pin discovered near the skull was radiocarbon-dated to A.D. 69 to 210, and hereditary analysis of the skull identified it was from a female who resided in Roman times, around the 3rd to 4th centuries.

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A Neolithic tomb in Pommerœul, Belgium, which contains the bones of a minimum of 5 individuals. The color suggests the bones evaluated for DNA analysis. (Image credit: Paumen, Wargnies and Demory, Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles)

These analyses raised extra concerns: Why was a Roman lady’s skull positioned in a Neolithic burial, and why was the Neolithic burial comprised of several individuals’s remains?

The Romans might have inadvertently interrupted an uncommon Neolithic tomb while burying cremated remains and after that included a skull and bone pin to the ancient tomb to finish it before covering it up, the scientists recommended. Another possibility is that the Romans produced the patchwork skeleton from spread Neolithic bones and a Roman-era skull, organizing the remains into a composite individual.

“Whether the assembly of the bones occurred in the Late Neolithic or in the Roman period,” the scientists composed in their research study, “the presence of the ‘individual’ was clearly intentional.”

The Romans’ inspiration for contributing to this burial, however, is lost to time. “Perhaps this community was inspired by superstition or felt the need to connect with an individual who had occupied the area before themselves,” the scientists composed.

“This is an incredibly fascinating and complex study,” Jane Holmstroma bioarchaeologist at Macalester College in Minnesota who was not associated with the research study, informed Live Science in an e-mail. “It provides an interesting possibility of land-claiming through burial during the Neolithic, with family groups within the clan asserting claim together, with the Romans furthering the land claim to assert their authority over Gaul.”

In spite of their cultural distinctions, it’s possible that individuals from both Neolithic and Roman times picked the burial area for its distance to a river.

“Throughout the ages, rivers and other bodies of water were considered to be important, both geographically and spiritually,” Veselka stated. “Pommerœul was located near a river, which may have been a powerful place.”

Kristina Killgrove is an archaeologist with specializeds in ancient human skeletons and science interaction. Her scholastic research study has actually appeared in many clinical journals, while her newspaper article and essays have actually been released in locations such as Forbes, Mental Floss and Smithsonian. Kristina made a doctorate in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and likewise holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in classical archaeology.