A few years ago, an ancient burial was discovered near the Polish city of Sandomierz. A local resident accidentally stumbled upon him when he began to dig the foundation for his garage.
When archaeologists got to the bone remains, it became clear that the grave is very unusual. Among the human bones, which were the dismembered remains of a man and a child, lay a severed bear paw. The bones are at least 4500 years old - Late Neolithic.
Finding animal bones in prehistoric graves is not uncommon, but the remains of a bear in a burial with human bones were first encountered by archaeologists.
According to scientists, some very ancient rite took place here, perhaps a bear's paw was placed in the grave as a protective amulet.
"This ritual included animal bones placed in a human grave, as well as lighting a fire, traces of which we found nearby," says archaeologist Monica Baika.
The grave also contained the bones of cattle and the lower jaw of a pig. According to Monica, pig bones were most often placed in burials in that era, but the bear's paw is something alien to these customs. Moreover, the paw, judging by a number of signs, was laid in one piece, and not in the form of gnawed bones (bear meat was often eaten).
Now archaeologists are trying to find a similar among the customs of neighboring peoples, in order to understand whether this ritual came from somewhere outside or it was a local phenomenon.
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Another mystery is why the bodies of the man and the baby were dismembered. 6 thousand years ago, a similar custom to dismember the dead before burial existed in the Orkney Islands (Scotland). And in Ireland, they recently found a 5-thousand-year-old grave, where the bodies were cut to pieces. Presumably, this made the way to another world easier for the dead.
However, this has not yet been found in cultures more geographically close to Poland.
