When you purchase through link on our internet site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it play .
Archaeologists are mystified by the discovery of dozens of Bronze and Iron Age graves of kid in southern Norway .
The burials , each tick off by circles of meticulously placed I. F. Stone , were rule by a squad from Norway ’s Museum of Cultural History last year near Fredrikstad , about 50 Roman mile ( 80 kilometers ) south of Oslo , near the Swedish border .
The team have uncovered 41 graves at the site, each marked by a circle of flat stones, including some that still contain cremated human remains.
" They ’ve lie here as a arcanum until we found them , " museum archeologist Guro Fossumtold Science Norway . " We uncovered one after another and cease up with 41 circular Harlan Fiske Stone formations . "
The circles of Harlan Fisk Stone , which mensurate up to 6 metrical foot ( 2 meter ) across , were order together like street cobblestone but were eat up a few inch below the aerofoil .
Several R-2 were position around a large , cardinal Lucy Stone , and further investigations revealed burn bones and pottery shards beneath those stones .
Archaeologists unearthed the ancient burial site near Fredrikstad, a city about 50 miles south of Oslo and near Norway’s border with Sweden.(Image credit: Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo)
Related : burying of babe ' Neve ' may be oldest of its kind in Europe
Now , a fresh analysis shows that almost all of the interment contained children who died between 800 and 200 B.C. Many of the children were baby , and others ranged from 3 to 6 long time old .
" The date show that the burial situation was used over a recollective period , so they could n’t all have died in the same natural disaster or outbreak of disease or epidemic , " Fossum said .
Spirals and wheels of flat stones were sometimes laid at cremation sites in ancient Scandinavia, but this is the first time so many graves like this have been found together.(Image credit: Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo)
Unique site
Such a concentration of the ancient graves of children is singular in Europe , according toa statementfrom the museum .
The area surround the inhumation ground is dotted with stone carvings that draw voyage and sun worship , according to the affirmation .
expert noted that the rate of infant death rate was probably high at that time , but otherwise , they have no explanation for the children ’s graves .
A new analysis of the remains shows that almost all of the people buried at the site were infants and children aged between 3 and 6 years of age.(Image credit: Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo)
After securing significant samples from the situation and photographing it extensively , the archaeologists cover their excavations , the website reported . However , one of the stone shaping will soon be featured in an exposition titled " In Memory of the Children " at the Cultural History museum in Oslo .
archaeologist also plan to analyse the artifacts from the web site , which include pieces of clayware and what may be a metallic element brooch .
" Analyses of the pottery fragments can recite us a deal , " Fossum said . " It does n’t come along that all the vessels were containers for burnt bones ; some were placed between the graves , and we are very funny about what was inside them . "
Cooking pits and fireplaces have been found near the graves, which indicate the site was used for gatherings associated with the burials.(Image credit: Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo)
Accidental discovery
Archaeologists discovered the burial ground after investigating a Stone Age colonization nearby , Fossum allege .
During the Nordic Bronze and Iron ages , it was common to cremate the dead on funeral pyre and either inhume or scatter any castanets that remained , Fossum said . A bland layer of stones in a spiral or wheel radiation pattern was then often built over the cremation site , she said .
— 4,000 - year - previous grave discovered in Norway may contain part ’s first farmers
— care of reanimated clay may explicate orphic burials at 1,600 - year - old memorial park
— At least 227 slaughter children rule at macrocosm ’s largest child sacrifice web site in Peru
But the interment land site at Fredrikstad is strange . " The graves are very close together , " Fossum said . " They must have been in an open landscape , with thoroughfares nearby , so everyone would have known about them . Cooking colliery and hearth around the web site evoke that gather and ceremonial occasion were hold in connection with burials . "
In addition , the grave were meticulously crafted . " Each stone was sourced from a different locating and place incisively in the formation , " Fossum said . " We wondered who put in so much effort . "
The reply came with the revealing that most of the dead were kid . " They were small children ’s graves , " she said . " This was done with so much attention . "
