We are searching data for your request:
Upon completion, a link will appear to access the found materials.
A medieval cemetery discovered under a parking lot of Berlin, in Petriplatz Square, revealed how hard it was to live in those days, plagued by brutality, disease and food shortages, according to a latest study.
The remains of about 3,700 Adults found there date from between 1047 and 1299.
Most of them show damage caused by weapons, while the skeletons of children show rickets and scurvy, caused by vitamin deficiencies, as well as tuberculosis.
Another find, inside a wooden box, were the skeletons of three surely rich men, with wounds caused by axes and swords.
The skeleton of a child, which was nicknamed ‘the swimmer‘He was found very distorted, with his back arched and his arms crossed, suggesting a possible presence of tetanus in the city.
«One explanation could be that at burial, the child's body was still in rigor mortis, or extreme spasm, with the muscles in the arms and legs contracted."Said archaeologist Natasha Powers, quoted by Daily Mail.
«Your posture bears a striking similarity to that produced as a result of tetanus«He explained.
Study of the skeletons found in the medieval Berlin cemetery
The three male skeletons belong to wealthy people and murdered between 1168 and 1208, and are known as Kiste's burial.
One of the skeletons presents blows of a serrated blade to the head and fine cuts to his hands, suggesting that he raised them in an attempt to defend himself.
The second skeleton has traces of a hit with a weapon it pierced his jaw and destroyed his teeth, as well as injuries to his forearm.
The brain of the third skeleton was probably penetrated by blows to the head, which killed him instantly.
Along with one of those bodies were found a silver clasp, keys and a bucklewhile another had silver coins in the mouth, which suggests that they were people of high social status.
The ravages suffered by the inhabitants of that time have links with the government of Albert I of Brandenburg (1100-1170), also called Albert the Bear, who launched famous crusades against the Slavs, east of present-day Germany, to colonize lands beyond their limits.