The ground in one of the largest Stone Age cemeteries in Europe is so acidic that all the human remains were destroyed G of year ago . But now , a squad of archaeologists reviewing the site have found that at least 120 multitude were once buried there , three time previous estimates .
The graveyard , located at Tainiaro in Finnish Lapland , is 6,500 years old and is about 50 miles ( 80 kilometers ) in the south of the Arctic Circle . Excavations of the site in the 1980s and nineties unveil about forty graves across one - tenth of the site ’s entire expanse . But excavation conducted in 2018 have found that there were once three prison term that number , and possibly more than 200 . The squad ’s research waspublishedtoday in Antiquity .
“ Stone Age graves leave behind only the shapes of pits and red ochre , which is scarce at Tainiaro , ” tell Aki Hakonen , an archaeologist at the University of Oulu in Finland and the study ’s spark advance author , in an Antiquity release . “ The evidence is quite elusive . ”
One of the Stone Age pits found at Tainiaro.Photo: Tuija Laurén
Red ochre was a common colorant during the Neolithic flow andwas used in ceremonial contextslike burials . Recent grounds from Çatalhöyük , Turkey — perhaps the most illustrious Neolithic settlement — suggests that thedead were disinter and then paintedwith red ocher and Callimorpha jacobeae .
Though the team believes Tainiaro was a entombment website , it is not certain . “ For the time being , however , the notion that a large cemetery seems to have be near the Arctic Circle should cause us to reconsider our impression of the north and its peripheral place in macrocosm prehistory , ” the investigator write .
The pitfall at Tainiaro are shaped in a way that suggests they were graves , though red ochre was only encounter in 23 of the pits . Some of the pits contained ash and charcoal , lead the authors to the possibility that at least some of the Tainiaro pit were hearth . However , they reach this conclusion because many pits had no evidence of burning and those that did lacked grounds uniform with it being a spot for burning ; thus , the squad turned to the possibility of a massive burial site .
A graphic showing some of the pits, rasterized based on their resemblance to burials.Graphic: Aki Hakonen / Antiquity Publications Ltd
“ New dirt sample could be dissect for ossified hair , which has been get in Stone Age graves in late years , ” Hakonen add . “ Chemical analyses , such as the collection of ancient DNA directly from the soil , may leave unequivocal grounds for the burial interpretation or reveal all new finding that will guide our intellect of the Stone Age society to an even more bewitching direction . ”
More evidence — and indeed , excavating the continue four - fifths of the site that has yet to be examine , could well clear up the vastness and complexness of the northern Stone Age site .
More : Remains of Teenage Girl May Push Back Funerary Traditions in Neolithic Iberia by a Millennium
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