Archaeologists in Germany have discovered a Neolithic burial ground containing human and animal remains and the remnants of a chariot that may have been part of an ancient ritual.
The excavation site is located at an industrial park near Magdeburg, the capital of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It includes a pair of 6,000-year-old “monumental mounds” that contain multiple burials, according to a statement from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt.
However, one burial in particular stands out, and researchers think it could be part of a ritualistic offering. This conclusion is based on the unique positioning of the skeletal remains of a man who was 35 to 40 years old when he died, two cattle and a chariot, which were placed in such a way to create “the image of a cart with a driver or a plow pulled by cattle,” according to the statement.
Researchers stressed the importance of the burial, since it “symbolize[s] that with the cattle the most important possession, the security of one’s own livelihood, was offered to the gods,” they wrote in the statement.
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