Powerline Project Exposes Ancient Secrets
During preparatory work for Germany’s massive SuedOstLink powerline project (a 105-mile-long high-voltage transmission route), electrical workers near Gerstewitz, Saxony-Anhalt, uncovered twelve circular pits initially hidden beneath farmland. This accidental discovery halted construction and prompted a full archaeological excavation led by the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt, in collaboration with energy company 50Hertz. The pits, dating back 5,000 years (3400–3050 BCE), were identified as ritual sites created by the Salzmünde culture—a regional group within the broader Funnelbeaker cultural complex that inhabited the Saale River basin. This discovery adds significantly to understanding this enigmatic Neolithic society known for its complex death rituals.
Inside the Haunting Ritual Pits
Structural Design: Each pit measured 6.5–9.8 feet wide and 6.5–8.2 feet deep (2–2.5 meters), enclosed within a larger ditch system, indicating deliberate, significant construction efforts.
Ceremonial Contents: Archaeologists found a deliberate mix of materials:
- Charred Building Materials: Burnt remnants of house walls, including daub (loam), suggesting homes were intentionally burned, and rubble ceremonially deposited.
- Sacrificial Offerings: Intact, carefully placed ceramic vessels found in one pit, indicating their use in rituals rather than daily life .
- Animal and Human Remains: Dog bones (often found in anatomical order with signs of burning) and human skulls showing no weathering. One pit contained a dog skeleton beside a human skull.
- Converted Spaces: An ancient oven pit repurposed as a grave held two human individuals who had decomposed elsewhere before burial.
Evidence of Multi-Phase Mortuary Rituals
The arrangement and condition of remains point to prolonged, complex ceremonies:
- The juxtaposition of anatomically intact dog bones (exposed to fire) alongside an unweathered human skull in the same pit suggests these features were open for extended periods. Researchers propose the dog may have been buried first or preserved elsewhere before being placed alongside the later-added skull.
- The two bodies found in the repurposed oven pit showed signs of having decomposed at a different location prior to final burial. This indicates a funerary practice involving staged processes—temporary storage or display before internment.
- These findings align with known Salzmünde practices involving reburials, particularly skulls, and burial under layers of ceramic shards and burnt house debris, hinting at a cosmology deeply connected to ancestral veneration and transformation through fire.
Hellbound and Down 