(ORDO NEWS) — Archaeologists have unearthed painted bones dating back about 5,000 years at a burial site in southeastern Europe where unusually tall men were buried.
The burial, located in Vojvodina in northern Serbia, was excavated by researchers in 2016-2018. However, an expert analysis has only recently been carried out.
The burial consisted of two large mounds 131 feet across and 10 to 13 feet high.
According to Piotr Włodarczak of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, one of the leaders of the excavations, in a statement to the state information service “Science in Poland“, the researchers found that some of the bones were stained red, which is believed to be related to ” using ocher on the bodies of the dead.”
Ochre is a type of earth colored with iron oxide. This can give it a red tint and has been used as a coloring pigment. Red, in particular, was considered sacred, Wlodarczak said.
Another feature of the remains, which the researchers drew attention to, is that the height of the deceased men was more than 1.8 meters.
That would have been taller than average for the time – the men are believed to have been buried around 3,000 BC, and men living in this part of Europe were typically around 1.6 meters tall, Science in Poland reports.
Genetic analysis of the remains suggested that the men themselves came from this region or were direct descendants of such people.
According to Wlodarchak, the influx of nomads from the eastern to the western regions of Europe during this period had a significant impact on the culture of Europe.
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