Bodies and treasures in a Polish lake turned out to be traces of water burial rituals

Experts believe that the scale of the burial is most similar to a sacrifice.

A new study suggests that the ancient population of Poland’s Chelmno made massive deposits of bronze jewelry and artifacts. Scientists have determined that the treasure found in those places may be associated with ancient ritual burials in water.

Metal detectors have discovered jewelry at the site of a long-dried lake in Poland. During the subsequent excavations, researchers discovered more than 550 bronze artifacts, as well as human bones, making the site “one of the most eloquent evidence of Lusatian period ritual activity in Poland,” according to a study published in the journal Antiquity.

According to scientists, between 1200 and 450 BC the site was occupied by the Chelmno group, part of a larger northern European culture called the Lusatian population, which was active during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. Previously, historians knew that other Lusatian groups used metal for ritual purposes, but it was believed that such practices were not carried out in the Chelmno lands – until the recent finds in Papovo Biskupje.

“The scale of metal found at this site is extraordinary,” says Lukasz Kowalski, an archaeologist from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow. “Until now we thought that this material was unpopular in the social and ritual strategies of the Chełmno group.”

Researchers also discovered the skeletal remains of at least 33 human bodies – including infants, children, teenagers and adults – at the bottom of the lake. After radiocarbon dating, they determined that the bones dated between 1040 and 780 BC.

The collection of artifacts found at the excavation site includes hand and neck accessories such as a necklace made of oval and tubular beads and “dovetail pendants.” Researchers believe that many of the metal items were made by local residents. However, the glass bead from the necklace traveled a greater distance, providing new insights into community involvement in the trade.

“The bead is made from low-magnesium glass that was sourced from the Eastern Mediterranean region,” Kowalski tells Live Science. “This expands the use of evidence that the power elites of the Chelmno Group became involved in a metals trading network that connected much of the European continent. in the first millennium BC.”

Radiocarbon dating also shows that metal jewelry was buried in the lake some time after the bodies. According to Antiquity, this gap sheds light on a cultural shift within the Chelmno group: at first they only buried bodies in the lake, and later added metal as they adopted new traditions.

“Although the Chełmno group differed in many ways from other members of the Lusatian culture, it appears that the ritual practices and their belief systems later aligned,” notes Newsweek’s Robin White.