THE REMAINS of an ancient child buried for centuries under the historical town of Silves in Portugal have finally been revealed by archaeologists.
The find is so unusual because the child appears to have been ‘dumped’ there and stacked up between the remains of several animals including a horse, a sheep or goat, a cat and a bird.
6The discovery was made back in 2017 during normal urban rehabilitation works near the local church.
Archaeologists have dated the remains back to the 13th century Almóada’ period when Muslim rule over Silves was coming to an end.
They were amazed to find a child’s skeleton underneath a horse along with lots of other animals.
Although the finds are still being investigated, the researchers think that the weapons in the pit suggest that the child’s death was collateral damage of the violence during the reconquest of Silves and that no care was taken with burying the body.
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6Archaeologist Carlos Oliveira told the Barlavento newspaper: “At first it looked like an archaeological find like so many others.
“This was a structure that had been dug in the rocks and filled with rocks, construction materials and other trivial objects. But as we dug through it, we started finding an unusual amount of bones at a depth of around one metre and a half.
“We quickly reached the conclusion that many complete animal skeletons were there, which is an uncommon find.”
The horse was discovered first with its horse shoes still on and fragments of its harness.
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6The researchers also discovered either a sheep or a goat, animal carcasses that may have been partially cut and eaten, a donkey or a foal, a feline and a bird.
This unusual variety of animals piled together is what makes finding a discarded child’s skeleton even more shocking.
Oliveira said: “It belonged to a child who shouldn’t have been more than a year old. Due to his/her tender age, which we estimated after examining the teeth, we were not able to identify his/her gender.”
Smashed pottery and an arrow underneath the child’s head all suggest that their death occurred during a catastrophic scenario.
The archaeologists now suspect that the arrow was lodged in the child’s muscle but don’t know if this injury was fatal.
Oliveira explained: “The child was, surely, collateral damage. It became clear that the child was not buried. There was no care in how he/she was put there.
“The child was face down and had one of his/her hands underneath his/her body. Thus somebody threw the child into the pit with all the other animals and objects we found.”
6Experts think that whoever buried the child had to do it quickly or maybe didn’t even spot them amongst all the animal remains.
The history of Silves includes many battles and conquests by Christian and Muslim groups but the full extent of the brutality that may have occurred remains unknown.
Maria João Valente, assistant professor at the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences at the University of Algarve told the Barlavento newspaper: “My preliminary ground-based assessment is that it seems to be a rapid accumulation after a violent episode. This explains why an entire horse is thrown into a pit.
“The truth is that throughout our history there have been cases of great brutality that can only be revealed through archaeology. Personally, I think this may be one of those. It is a unique context.”
The world’s most gruesome ancient burials
Here’s some of the most haunting archaeological discoveries ever made…
- Shackled skeletons: A mass grave in an ancient Greek cemetery was found to contain 80 skeletons all with their wrists clamped in iron shackles; archaeologists think they were victims of a mass execution but why this happened remains a mystery
- Mass child sacrifice: The remains of nearly 270 children sacrificed to the gods 500 years ago were recently found in a gruesome ancient mass grave in Peru
- Family massacre: Archaeologists recently discovered that a 5,000 year old mass grave site was the result of a tragic family massacre; the burial site in Poland contains the bodies of men, women and children who all had their skulls smashed to pieces
- Bog bodies: In 1950, experts found a bog body with a “face so fresh they could only suppose they had stumbled on a recent murder.” The corpse, referred to as the Tollund man, is probably the most well-preserved body from pre-historic times in the whole world
Farmer finds jewellery and ‘laughing’ ancient man with artificially deformed egg-shaped skull in 2,000 year old ‘royal’ nomadic burial
In other archaeology news, a huge 6.5-foot thigh bone belonging to the ‘world’s biggest dinosaur’ has been found in France – and it weighs 500 kilos.
Strange stone ‘carved 10,000 years ago’ could be world’s oldest lunar calendar, experts claim.
And, the battered skeleton of a Pictish Scot ‘brutally murdered’ 1400 years ago may have been a royal.
What do you make of this unusual burial? Let us know in the comments…
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