Archaeologists in Germany have discovered the remains of three women of the copper age who were buried with what could have been “” illuminated baby carriers: large bags decorated with hundreds of teeth of dogs and wolf.
The fabric or leather of the bags has been gone a long time ago, but the teeth of misunderstood animals of the three separate tombs suggest that the bags were sewn in the bags in a staggered pattern similar to the roof tiles, the researchers said.
The bags come from the culture of articles with cable, whose people lived throughout Europe, from Scandinavia, to the Alps, to what is now Ukraine – between 2900 and 2350 a. C.
“The disposal of teeth in the tombs is a rare track in a generally completely perished category,” Oliver DietrichAn archaeologist and spokesman for the State Office for the Management of Heritage and Archeology of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany who did not participate in the finding, said Live Science in an email. It would have been difficult to acquire the dog’s teeth and make the bags, so these decorated bags were “more likely markers of a high social status,” he said.
Archaeologists think that the bags had approximately 12 inches (30 centimeters) wide and 8 inches (20 cm) deep. Each one was covered in almost 350 dog teeth, specifically the canines and incisors of medium -sized dogs similar to the small modern münsterlanders that were raised for this purpose and were killed at an early age, according to a translated statement.
Elite women probably wore the bags in a wide strap decorated with wolf teeth. A handful of teeth and fox imitations carved in bone suggest that they were used to replace the dog or wolf teeth if they were lost, the statement said.
Related: The Viking age woman was buried with her dog in an elaborate ‘ship’s tomb’, the excavations reveal
The dimensions of the bags and the presence of children’s bones within one of them indicate that the bags were used as baby carriers. The head, arms and legs of a baby would not have fit inside the bag, but the babies that lying on his back were probably covered with small blankets that were bordered by dog molar, according to the statement. The blankets were searched, but it is not clear what material these ornaments were made.
The beautiful bags can explain why they have been found alone in a small number of burials of the culture of laces, Dietrich said. The new excavations, which were carried out before a planned electricity line near the Krauschwitz village in Saxony-Anhalt, discovered 10 female burials of the culture of the articles with cordon, but only two of the bags. A third funeral with a bag was unearthed in Nessa, a town to a little more than 1 mile (1.7 kilometers) of the main archaeological site.
“Similar Boldes are known by other sites in Saxony-Anhalt,” which means that these are not the first findings of its kind, said Dietrich.
In the funeral of Nessa, the bag contained the remains of a newborn. Researchers will analyze the remains of women to determine their age at death. If it is enough of the newborns DNA It is preserved, they will also prove the child’s relationship with the woman, Dietrich said.
The burials near Krauschwitz were located near the older ones Mounted 6,000 -year burial from Baalberg culturewhich existed between 4100 and 3600 AC, during the Neolithic period. The people of the Baalberg culture buried their dead under the wooden structures, but these had gone out of fashion when the culture of cord articles arose in the age of copper, also known as the eneolithic.
“Each culture has a unique set of rules and norms throughout which social relations evolve,” Dietrich said. “Unlike the previous neolithic cultures, the eneolithic people intentionally emphasized the gender of the deceased in burials, as well as certain social roles.”
The men in the culture of the articles with laces were buried lying on their right side, while the women were buried lying on their left side. Tombs such as axes were reserved for male warriors, while jewels and ornaments were placed in female tombs. Both sexes were almost always buried with their heads in front of the south, according to the statement.
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