The remains in the Bronze Age tomb belong to a man who died between the ages of 40 and 60. A large stone block was left on top of the lower part of the body, which researchers say was probably placed to prevent the deceased from resurrecting.
"We know that even in the Stone Age people were afraid of ghosts. Back then it was believed that the dead sometimes tried to come out of their graves," says Susanne Friederich, Project Manager.
Archaeologists associate this burial site with the Beaker, or bell-shaped pottery culture. This people emerged in Europe around 2,800 BC and spread across the western part of the continent and parts of Africa. The Beaker people are characterized by leaving items such as pottery in graves.
FEARED RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
Zombie graves have been uncovered across Europe, some of them more recent, indicating a fear of the dead rising from the dead.In some burial sites, stones were tied to the limbs of the corpses in an attempt to pull their weight down, while in others stones were placed in their mouths.
In 2018, a 1,500-year-old cemetery was found in Italy, where more than 50 babies and children were buried.A 10-year-old boy, the oldest person in the cemetery, thought to be buried with children who died in the malaria epidemic that broke out around 450 AD, had a stone placed in his mouth.
Dr. David Soren, an anthropologist from the University of Arizona, later told Live Science, "There was a great fear of mysterious forces and ghouls (such as witches) who could use the spirits of the dead for their own gain.Stones placed in the mouth or on the corpse to protect the unharmed community were seen as apotropaic (having the power to ward off evil). " he said.
