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Ancient Jigsaw Puzzle: The Mystery of the Assembled Skeleton
Over 40 years ago, archaeologists in Pommeroeul, a small town in southern Belgium, unearthed a skeleton that seemed, at first, to be a straightforward Roman burial from 1,700 years ago.
But when researchers revisited the site in 2019 to perform radiocarbon dating, they stumbled upon a startling discovery.
The skull indeed dated to the Roman era, but the other bones told a different story altogether.
They were from various historical periods and, even more unusually, came from at least five different individuals. This mysterious skeleton, it appeared, had been pieced together like a morbid puzzle.
According to Barbara Veselka, archaeologist and lead author of the study, the burial may have been altered over time, with bones added by subsequent visitors.
“There were other bones scattered around the ‘individual,’ suggesting that people could also have come back to the burial,” Veselka told Live Science.
Why would someone do this? Researchers believe superstition might hold the answer.
Veselka theorizes that disturbing the burial could have required a ritual reassembly to ensure the deceased’s “agency” in the afterlife.
Another possibility is that the “individual” was intentionally assembled in the Gallo-Roman period, combining Neolithic bones from the area with a Roman-era skull, creating a composite figure to satisfy ancient beliefs.
“Disturbance of the burial may have necessitated reparations through the completion or construction of an individual with agency in the afterlife,” said Veselka.
“A second possibility is that the entire ‘individual’ was assembled during the Gallo-Roman period, combining locally sourced Neolithic bones with a Roman-period cranium.”
The post Ancient Jigsaw Puzzle: The Mystery of the Assembled Skeleton appeared first on Anomalien.com.
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