maximus otter
Recovering policeman
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2001
- Messages
- 13,933
Two 3,000-year-old mummies found buried in the fetal position in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides turned out, upon closer inspection, to be made of six people intentionally merged together.
During excavations at a Bronze Age site in Cladh Hallan on the island of South Uist in 2001, archaeologists found what looked like two well-preserved skeletons. The bodies showed signs that they had been preserved in a peat bog for some time, before being moved for their burial.
While people have fallen into the bogs and become preserved naturally, bones found at the site indicated that Bronze Age inhabitants of Cladh Hallan deliberately placed bodies in peat bogs to preserve them, something we weren't aware took place in Bronze Age Britain. The bodies were moved quickly enough that bones did not break down, suggesting they had knowledge of the preservation process.
To add a much weirder element to the mystery, archaeologists noticed odd details about the skeletons. In the male skeleton, the lower jaw had all its teeth, while the upper jaw had none. The lower teeth showed signs of wear consistent with having a full set of upper teeth during life, suggesting something was amiss.
The bodies were analyzed using DNA testing and found to be from six different people, none of whom shared the same mother. While isotopic dating showed that the parts for the female skeleton date to roughly the same time period, the male skeleton contained parts from people who died a few centuries apart.
One of the skeletons was assembled between 1260 BC and 1440 BC, while the other was Frankensteined between 1130 BC and 1310 BC. Though there is overlap, archaeologist at the University of Sheffield Mike Parker-Pearson said that "the statistical probability is that they were assembled at different times," adding that though body parts could have been stuck together through some sort of mix-up, the fact that this happened twice "makes this unlikely".
https://www.iflscience.com/the-scottish-mummy-that-turned-out-to-be-made-of-three-people-67224
maximus otter
During excavations at a Bronze Age site in Cladh Hallan on the island of South Uist in 2001, archaeologists found what looked like two well-preserved skeletons. The bodies showed signs that they had been preserved in a peat bog for some time, before being moved for their burial.
While people have fallen into the bogs and become preserved naturally, bones found at the site indicated that Bronze Age inhabitants of Cladh Hallan deliberately placed bodies in peat bogs to preserve them, something we weren't aware took place in Bronze Age Britain. The bodies were moved quickly enough that bones did not break down, suggesting they had knowledge of the preservation process.
To add a much weirder element to the mystery, archaeologists noticed odd details about the skeletons. In the male skeleton, the lower jaw had all its teeth, while the upper jaw had none. The lower teeth showed signs of wear consistent with having a full set of upper teeth during life, suggesting something was amiss.
The bodies were analyzed using DNA testing and found to be from six different people, none of whom shared the same mother. While isotopic dating showed that the parts for the female skeleton date to roughly the same time period, the male skeleton contained parts from people who died a few centuries apart.
One of the skeletons was assembled between 1260 BC and 1440 BC, while the other was Frankensteined between 1130 BC and 1310 BC. Though there is overlap, archaeologist at the University of Sheffield Mike Parker-Pearson said that "the statistical probability is that they were assembled at different times," adding that though body parts could have been stuck together through some sort of mix-up, the fact that this happened twice "makes this unlikely".
https://www.iflscience.com/the-scottish-mummy-that-turned-out-to-be-made-of-three-people-67224
maximus otter
