Skull of Motala
The two 8000 year old skulls from Motala were found in the remains of a massive stone packing at the bottom of a shallow lake, which probably served as a grave. In 2011 , archaeologists came across the two oldest skulls impaled on sticks in central Swedish Motala on the Göta Canal in Östergötland County . The staked skulls date from the 6th millennium BC. BC ( Congemosis culture ) and are a unique find from the Mesolithic .
The archaeologists had already recovered skull fragments of eleven people of both sexes and different ages (including children and infants), while other bones were almost completely missing. Some of the other skulls show signs that they too had been mounted in this manner. It is uncertain whether they testify to a ritual form of burial or whether they are head trophies. Animal bones and tools made of antlers, bones and stone were also found.
In the area around the city of Motala, numerous Mesolithic finds have come to light in recent years (including the Mesolithic horn tool from Motala ), which have been well preserved in the soaked and oxygen-poor floodplains. Arrowheads and knives prove that hunters and gatherers or fishermen lived there at a time when the place was closer to the Baltic Sea coast.
Web links
- Daniel Koch: Staked skulls pose a mystery . Spectrum of Science Online, from September 23, 2011 (German-language report and images, accessed on July 31, 2014)
- Jennie Cohen: Human Skulls Mounted on Stakes Found at Stone Age Burial Site History , History in the Headlines, September 20, 2011 (detailed description in English with illustrations, accessed July 31, 2014)
- Radio Sweden : Historical find: Stone Age skull discovered . Radio Sweden P6, news in German, September 20, 2011, accessed July 31, 2014
- Julia Rienäcker: Sweden: Stone Age people impaled the heads of their dead on G-story , from September 22, 2011 to July 31, 2014
- Impaled Mesolithic Skulls in a Lake: Kanaljorden, Motala, Sweden still chills . Microburin, accessed July 31, 2014
- Heads on stakes - unique Stone Age finds at Kanaljorden, Motala, Sweden . Taenketanken, blog at academia.dk, from September 24, 2011 (English description and pictures, accessed on July 31, 2014)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quoted from the web link Spektrum der Wissenschaft et al