From little children finding ancient bones to entire mass graves,
here are 9 creepy archaeological discoveries made by accident.
9. Tens Of Thousands Of Bodies
London is a city steeped in history, with layers upon layers of past buildings and artifacts
sitting beneath the ground that people walk on every day without a second thought.
That is until a new discovery is made!! In 2018, construction was set to begin near Euston train
station to make room for the construction of a new high-speed rail line. A mandatory
archaeological survey revealed a shocking discovery. There were around 40,000 bodies
in a 118,000-square-foot (11,000 meters2) area. Senior osteologist Mike Henderson said that it was
likely the largest-ever archaeological excavation of bodies ever undertaken in the country.
Situated beneath St. James Gardens, the sprawling property served as a cemetery between
1788 and 1853. Many of the graves contained remarkably well-preserved coffins and bodies
thanks to the large amount of clay in the ground, which prevented water damage.
Discoveries like this help researchers learn more about daily life during one
of London’s most significant historical periods,
according to Henderson, who explained that having such a large data set to glean information from
could be important when it comes to things like mortality rates and diseases of the time.
The team found evidence of tuberculosis, broken bones and other traumatic injuries,
and dental procedures -- including dentures, and surgeries,
like skulls with saw marks. 2020 may have been bad, but you do NOT want surgery in the 1800’s!
As with many large construction projects the rail project proved controversial because it
required the demolition of hundreds of homes, but it proved valuable for archaeology and history.
8. PREGNANT MUMMY
Researchers were taking a look at an Egyptian sarcophagus with inscriptions suggesting that
there was a male priest inside. However, when they scanned the mummy they got quite the shock!!
It wasn’t a man at all but a pregnant woman! It is the first discovery of
a mummified pregnant woman ever, with even her soft tissue still preserved.
The team of archaeologists examined it as part of the Warsaw Mummy Project. They were looking
for signs of ancient diseases and causes of death when they discovered that the
person described on the coffin was someone entirely different than who it contained.
Donated to the University of Warsaw in 1826, the mummy somehow evaded close investigation
until recently, when the researchers performed X-Ray and CT scans of what they thought were
the remains of a priest named Hor-Djehuty from ancient Thebes. This was most certainly not him!
Measurements of the fetus’s head suggest that the
woman was between six-and-a-half and seven-and-a-half months pregnant when
she died between the ages of 20 and 30 years old during the first century B.C.
The mummy’s abdominal cavity is filled with four bundles that likely contain her lungs,
liver, stomach, intestine, and heart, which were extracted, embalmed, and put back
inside her according to Ancient Egyptian burial customs. But the fetus was still in her womb,
untouched, leading the team to believe that the culture saw unborn babies
as part of their mother, rather than as individuals deserving of their own afterlives.
The quality of the embalming indicates that she was of a high social status.
While it’s unknown why the mummy was inside a man’s coffin, mismatches like this are known to
happen, and likely resulted from looting and illegal excavations. Damage to the woman’s
neck suggests that grave robbers yanked valuable jewelry and amulets before selling her to someone.
The cause of death is unknown, but it was common for women to die during pregnancy and
childbirth during ancient times, indicating that her pregnancy likely played a role.
The team is going to analyze small samples of blood to see if they can find out more.
7. BEHEADED EARL’S RING
While searching for treasure late last year on the Isle of Man
(a small island situated between Ireland and Great Britain), metal detectorist Lee
Morgan found a 370-year-old gold and crystal ring bearing the letters “J.D.” or “I.D.”
Dating back to the late 1600s, the slender Stuart-period ring may have been crafted
in honor of an earl who lived -- and died -- during the English Civil War.
If the letters are “J.D.,” the jewelry was perhaps the property of James Stanley,
7th Earl of Derby and Lord of Man, who signed his name as “James Derby,” hence the initials.
The ring’s high quality is a good indicator that it was created for someone wealthy,
according to Allison Fox, curator of archaeology at Manx National Heritage.
Stanley’s widow, Charlotte, likely had it made in his honor.
Also known as Baron Strange and the Great Earl of Derby,
James Stanley was a Royalist who supported King Charles I,
an authoritarian monarch who ruled over England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1625 to 1649.
The king’s tyrannical ways did not vibe well with English Parliament, and in 1642, the animosity
between the two erupted into the English Civil War. Charles I’s reign ended with his execution.
James Stanley was executed two years later, in 1651. A plaque stands in his honor today
in the town of Bolton in Manchester, near the site where he was put to death.
Although Morgan was seeking treasure when he found the ring,
actually finding it is rare, making it a surprising discovery. And while the
ring itself may not be creepy, knowing it might have commemorated a decapitated earl
certainly adds eerie overtones to it. Would you wear it? Let me know in the comments below!!
6. ANCIENT BURIAL MOUND
In 2006, a group of kindergarteners scared adults half to death when they started pulling up human
bones and playing with them! They were on their school playground in Saint-Laurent-Médoc, France
when they unintentionally dug up bits of human bone. A closer look by experts revealed that
the school was built atop a large ancient burial mound dating back thousands of years.
But nobody knew just how old the human remains were until a 2019 study of the
burial mound ( known as Le Tumulus des Sables,) determined that the site is
much older than originally thought. The oldest remains date back 5,600 years,
and the dead were placed there for a 2,000-year period starting in 3600 B.C.
during the late Neolithic era and ending during the Iron Age, around 1250 B.C.
A team of archaeologists excavated at least 30 bodies, including 20 adults and 10 children,
who were buried just 1.6 feet (50 cm) in the ground. They also unearthed a plethora
of grave goods, including broken ceramics, metal, and animal bones.
While the researchers made some headway in determining how old the site is and how long
it was used for, they failed to figure out why it was a chosen burial site for the prehistoric
local population. As lead study author Hannah James said in a statement, it’s not particularly
prestigious or significant in any way -- it’s not located on a hill or any other obvious location,
yet people returned to it time and time again to lay their dead to rest.
The people buried at the site are also a mystery to experts,
who determined through dental analysis that most of the dead were locals, and that they
sourced their food from the land rather than by fishing in a nearby river or the Atlantic Ocean.
5. Skull Ring
While metal detecting in the Welsh community of Carreghofa, David Balfour
encountered a gold ring decorated with a skull made from white enamel
with the surrounding inscription “Memento Mori,” a Latin phrase that translates to
“remember that you [have to] die.” This ring would probably still be popular today.
South Wales Central senior coroner Graeme David Hughes officially classified the spooky
jewelry as “treasure,” a designation that makes them the property of the U.K. government.
Based on its style, shape, and script, the ring was likely crafted between 1550 and 1650,
during either the Tudor or early Stuart periods, according to Mark Redknap of the National Museum
Wales, who said in a statement that the rare piece symbolizes the high mortality of the time,
as well as the vanity and brevity of life. It likely belonged to an elite member of society.
The memento mori theme was common in artwork at certain points in history. While these types of
artifacts tend to strike us as morbid, they were more-or-less intended as an optimistic reminder
to make the most of one’s fragile and short time on Earth. You know, seize the day and all that!
The ring was examined along with a trove of other recently discovered, less-creepy Welsh artifacts,
including three hoards of gold and silver coins, gold and silver jewelry,
and personal accessories dating back between the ninth and 17th centuries.
4. BACKYARD BURIALS
While digging a drainage hole for a patio being built in a family’s backyard in the
village of Heytesbury, England recently, a work crew stumbled upon human remains.
Robbie Kearney, the builder who made the discovery, initially thought he had found some
animal bones. But when he dug deeper and found a human skull, he and his coworkers immediately
stopped what they were doing and notified the property owner of their gruesome discovery.
Homeowners Matthew and Amelia Jackson called the police, who dispatched a crime scene crew,
including forensic officers and an archaeologist, to the site. In an interview with The Mirror,
Mr. Jackson said that the experts determined that the skeletons are not likely to be recent,
and that they possibly date back to the fifth century, during the early medieval period.
Found just 300 feet (91 meters) from the 12th-century church of St. Peter and St.
Paul, the bones are probably from a plague pit -- one of many that are rumored to be in the town,
according to local historian Joe Charlesworth. Sam Fox of Wiltshire Council explained that
the graves appear to be Christian and contain the remains of both females and males of varying ages.
The bones were sent away for radiocarbon dating to determine their precise
age. After that, they will be respectfully reburied.
3. ANCIENT CHILD’S TOYS
Some of the oldest toys known to exist in the world were discovered in 2017 in
the Republic of Khakassia in southern Siberia. Found in the grave of a child
from the prehistoric Okunev culture at the Itkol II burial ground, the finds included
the heads of an ancient doll and a figurine of an unidentified creature resembling a horse.
Dating back roughly 4,500 years, the toys’ bodies were made from organic material which wore
away before they were unearthed. Measuring just two inches (5 cm) high and carved from a soft,
talc-based rock called soapstone, the doll head contains what archaeologist Andrey
Polykav described to The Siberian Times as “carefully worked-out facial features.”
The animal head was carved from antler or horn, and it’s unclear what creature it represents.
Archaeologists are unsure what the toys’ specific purpose was, but clarified that
the artifacts came from the grave of a commoner, rather than a child from an elite background.
Other Okunev toys have been found in the past, including a figurine of a pagan god and ghoulish
figurines that doubled as rattles, making them the oldest known baby rattles ever found.
Thought to have ancient links with Native Americans,
the Okunev culture’s presence in Siberia dates back to the second millennium B.C.
It’s believed that the ancestors of the diverse and artistically rich group were among the
travelers who crossed into North America via the Bering land bridge around 12,600 years
ago. Evidence suggests that the Okunev originally came north to Siberia from what is now Kazakhstan,
further suggesting that Native Americans could have genetic roots in that region.
2. DEFORMED ‘ALIEN’ SKULLS
During the Roman collapse in the fifth century, the empire swiftly abandoned its Pannonian
territories in what is now western Hungary as the conquering Huns invaded central Europe. Meanwhile,
foreign groups went to Pannonia seeking refuge and joined the local Romanized settlements.
These rapidly changing population dynamics resulted in a cultural
shift that modern experts are still trying to fully understand.
Since 1961, dozens of deformed skulls have been unearthed at an ancient graveyard in
Mözs-Icsei dűlő. Out of 96 burials, 51 bore evidence of a practice called skull binding,
which involves artificially stretching a person’s head by tightly wrapping it during childhood,
permanently altering it to resemble what some liken to an “alien-like” appearance.
Dating back to the Paleolithic era, this tradition of extreme body modification spread
across central Asia during the 2nd century B.C. and into Europe shortly thereafter,
according to lead study author Corina Knipper and co-authors István Koncz,
Zsófia Rácz and Vida Tivadar, who spoke with Live Science about their findings.
The graves at Mözs-Icsei dűlő represent three distinct groups of people and span
three generations from around 430 A.D. to 470 A.D.,
when the site was abandoned. An isotope analysis of their bones
revealed that some of the individuals from later burials were from the immediate area and had lived
there under the Romans, while others migrated there after being displaced from other regions.
While these groups had noticeably different burial customs, all three practiced skull binding,
reflecting its spread across cultures. They used different skull binding techniques,
further suggesting that it was one of several cultural practices that
were exchanged between the groups as they adjusted to living in a
shared community. Did you know that there were these types of skulls in Hungary??
1. MASS GRAVE OF CHILDREN
In mid-2020, workers in southeastern Poland dug up human bones while working on a roadway
and summoned a team of archaeologists, who made what they described as a “frightening”
discovery of a mass 17th-century burial of at least 119 graves belonging mostly to children.
Found in the village of Jeeowe, the youths were buried with coins in their mouths
as part of a pre-Christian tradition called ‘obols of the dead’ or ‘Charon’s obol,’ which lasted well
into Christian times, archaeologist Katarzyna Oleszek explained in a First News interview. The
coins were placed in the mouths of the dead as payment to Charon,
the mythical ferryman who carried the souls of the newly deceased across
a river separating the land of the living from the land of the dead.
Some of the coins date back to the reign of Sigismund III Vasa,
who was king of Poland from 1587 to 1632. Other coins, known as boratynki, were minted
between 1648 and 1668 during the reign of John II Casimir.
The absence of grave goods indicates that the deceased came from a very poor community.
Oleszek said that based on the arrangement of the burials, the cemetery is undoubtedly Catholic in
nature, and that the graves were well cared for. Between 70 and 80 percent of the individuals
found were children, possibly reflecting the high child mortality rate of the time.
The cemetery’s presence confirms long-standing local rumors of a nearby children’s graveyard.
After being exhumed and studied, the remains will be reburied.
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