Pile of rocks turns out to be 4,000-year-old grave with ‘high quality’ weapons. See it
On an island in Denmark, a weapon-filled grave sat “untouched” for 4,000 years — until an archaeologist noticed the pile of rocks. Photos show the “very unusual” ancient burial.
The rock pile on a Funen island hilltop looked quite ordinary to the untrained eye, but something about it caught the attention of an archaeologist with the Museum Odense, the museum said in an Oct. 2 Facebook post.
The site turned out to be an ancient stone grave from the Neolithic period.
“The grave was very well preserved and has been untouched for more than 4,000 years,” museum officials told McClatchy News via email. “The buried individual was almost gone, except for the person’s teeth.”
A photo shows the ancient teeth poking out of the sandy ground.
Archaeologists also found three flint daggers, “all very high quality and excellent craftsmanship,” the museum said. Two of the daggers were still whole. The other had been broken in half.
A photo shows the trio of weapons ranging from dark red to dull black-gray in color. The complete daggers appear larger than a person’s hand.
“No doubt these daggers (would) have belonged to a person of high status in the Neolithic society and (have) accompanied their owner into the afterlife,” the museum said.
The ancient grave was also an “impressive size,” measuring about 11 feet by 6 feet. Another photo shows the large stones arranged in a narrow, rectangular shape.
“Finding graves of such (an old) age is very unusual,” officials said. “Hopefully further analysis can bring us even closer to this person who lived and died on Funen more than 4,000 years ago.”
Funen is an island in central Denmark and a roughly 100-mile drive southwest of Copenhagen.
Google Translate was used to translate the Facebook post from the Museum Odense.
This story was originally published October 3, 2024 at 1:01 PM with the headline "Pile of rocks turns out to be 4,000-year-old grave with ‘high quality’ weapons. See it."
