Technology
German Stonehenge was ‘ancient sacrifice village’ littered with ‘skeletons of brutally murdered women and children’
THE ANCIENT remains of murdered women and children have been found at a site known as ‘Germany’s Stonehenge’.
Broken skull and rib bones have been found at the site near Berlin which is called The Ring Shrine of Pömmelte.
Ancient bones have been found at the site, which has been partially reconstructed[/caption]
The bones belong to children, teenagers and women.
At least one of them had their hands tied together before they died.
It’s thought the ancient circular shaped site was used between 2300 BC and 2050 BC for ancient rituals.
The bones were found in pits at the site and date back to around 2300 BC.
It looks a bit similar to Stonehenge in terms of its shape[/caption]
Some of the posts have been reconstructed[/caption]
Neolithic people are thought to have built the structure for a similar reason to the people who built Stonehenge in the UK.
Its seven circular ditches, pits and posts can align with the path of the Sun.
The remains of the women and children suggest it was also used as a site to worship the dead, according to experts.
André Spatzier at the State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Württemberg in Esslingen and François Bertemes at Martin Luther University Halle studied the site.
About 29 shafts around the site contained mutilated human bones, animal bones, drinking vessels and axes.
It may have been destroyed ritualistically.
Dr Spatzier told Live Science: “It looks like at the end of the main occupation, around 2050 BC, they extracted the posts, put offerings into the postholes and probably burned all the wood and back-shovelled it into the ditch.
“So, they closed all the features. It was still visible above ground, but only as a shovel depression.”
Their findings have been published in the journal Antiquity.
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In other news, a love of pointy shoes in Medieval Britain left one in four of the population with bunions on their feet.
Roman skeletons dating back 1,700 years have been unearthed at three Roman cemeteries in Cambridgeshire.
And, the mystery surrounding the age of the Cerne Abbas Giant may have finally been solved.
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