The boys ran along the surrounding hills, which it would seem, had already been studied far and wide by the locals. They were playing their children's games, looking for rabbit holes, when they suddenly stumbled upon a hidden cave. Curiosity prompted them to climb inside, but what they saw there made the guys freeze in a daze …
This interesting story took place in 1836, in a place with which various legends were connected before. What place are we talking about? About Arthur's Throne Hill near Edinburgh, Scotland. According to myths, it was here that Camelot stood many centuries ago - the castle of the legendary King Arthur, and it was here that he gathered the knights of the Round Table. At one time, various archaeological finds were made here, proving that indeed an ancient settlement was once located here.
Of course, the locals used to endow Arthur's Throne (and they still do) with different magical and miraculous properties. For example, in their opinion, on the first day of May, dew falls on the hill, which has anti-aging properties. This, several centuries ago, and now encourages young girls to climb the hill that day and collect life-giving moisture.
Boys are not interested in this, they liked to conquer this 250-meter hill and do their boyish affairs there. So, in the middle of July 1836, the boys were climbing the Throne of Arthur and quite by chance discovered some kind of hole hidden by stones. Throwing them away, the boys saw that this was the entrance to the cave, closed by someone. They crawled into it and found a small cave, unremarkable, but still having something that frightened children - small coffins stacked on top of each other …
There were 17 of them. No, they were not coffins with children's bodies lying inside. The coffins were very small, as if carved for toys. The boys did not take them, but told the local teacher everything. He reported the find to specialists. Naturally, all this became the property of the newspapermen, and they published articles in their publications.
The coffins found were quite miniature: from 9.5 to 10.5 cm in length. They were carved from pine, each had a removable lid, and inside was a clad wooden doll with shoes painted on its feet. Studies have shown that the coffins were made at different times, from 1812 to 1820. Actually, they lay like this - "old" in the bottom row, and more "fresh" on top. It seems that over time, someone put others on the existing coffins. But who did it and why? What became the event after which another coffin was added to the cave?
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There were several versions. According to the first, the coffins were used for witchcraft, and are voodoo dolls. Some scientists argue that these are attributes of black magic, others - white. According to another version (and there are more of its supporters), coffins with dolls are a kind of counter of crimes that were committed by serial killers who operated in those places precisely in the years that the coffins are dated to. He committed a murder, carved a coffin, put it in a cave, and so on until the next atrocity.
Indeed, in those years, there were a couple of criminals who killed, as they said, in the name of science. They were William Burke and William Hare, who sold the murdered people to the famous anatomist of Edinburgh for research. Their victims were also 17, like the coffins. The only inconsistency is that the criminals killed women, and the dolls in the coffins were dressed in men's clothes.
To this day, the Scottish coffins of King Arthur's Hill have not revealed their secrets. They are exhibits of the Museum of History, however, only eight coffins have survived to this day, and the rest are lost.
And we can only hope that people will still be able to solve their mystery someday. After all, man is an inquisitive and inquisitive creature, and everything unknown and various secrets of the world have always attracted him.