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Archaeologists in France have discovered ancient pits containing the skeletal corpse of more than two dozen stallions , which may have been part of a sacrificial ritual .
The 3 - Accho ( 1.2 hectare ) excavation site , located in a valley near the commune of Villedieu - sur - Indre in central France , dates to sometime between the fifth and 6th centuries . It includes several buildings and ditch , as well as a grouping of nine pits , according to a translatedstatementfrom the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research .
An aerial view of the excavation site that includes pits containing mass burials of horses.
So far , archaeologist have excavated two of the pits , which carry the cadaver of a total of 28 horses . The stallion were " cautiously place " on their right sides , with their heads facing to the south , and were " organize in two rows and on two levels , " consort to the statement . Based on this locating , the investigator determined that all of the horses were buried at the same time in an " sinful " burial .
Radiocarbon datingshows that the animals died sometime between 100 B.C. and A.D. 100 . Because the gymnastic horse are pocket-sized — roughly 3 feet ( 1 metre ) grandiloquent — researchers distrust the animals were French livestock . All of the sawbuck skeletons are from adult males .
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One pit also contained a duet of intermediate - size adult hound that were buried with their heads facing west . Archaeologists are unsure of the animals ' cause of end , but they theorise that the horses and blackguard may have been part of a sacrificial ritual .
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Further inquiry is necessary , but archaeologists think the site also might be related to aNeolithic burial site in Auvergneto the south , where excavations several 10 in the beginning disclose dozens of ancient burying and artifacts that were part of a aggregated forfeit .
Archaeologists think the newly detect burial , as well as another horse burial at the Gallic site of Gondola containing " eight riders and their horses , " may be linked to the Gallic Wars , which were head by theRomangeneralJulius Caesarbetween 58 and 50 B.C.
