Ancient warrior grave unearthed in western Poland

Archaeologists are working to uncover the secrets of a burial ground hidden in a forest in western Poland.

Credit: Tempelburg Historical and Cultural Association and Kostrzyn Fortress Museum

To the ordinary observer, the site looks like a forest, somewhere in the area around the town of Gorzow Wielkopolski in western Poland.

The trees are relatively recent: they were planted in the 20th Century, during the communist era. Before that, the site was used as farmland.

There is more to the forest than meets the eye, as a strong wind in 2017 revealed. The wind knocked down a tree, bring spearheads to the surface. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be part of a warrior’s grave.

Now, with the help of volunteers, archaeologists are trying to understand who used the burial ground. They also want to find its boundaries to determine where the burial ground ends.

Credit: Tempelburg Historical and Cultural Association and Kostrzyn Fortress Museum

For now, not much is known about the site. It may have been a village earlier – a few days ago, a 4,500-year-old vessel was found on the site.

It seems that people started being buried there later. Archaeologists suggest that the site was used as a burial ground by the inhabitants of another village, although it is unclear which one.

Since this year’s research began last month, the team has already found a few graves. “In previous studies, we found warriors’ graves here, this time we also found two graves of ordinary people.

Credit: Tempelburg Historical and Cultural Association and Kostrzyn Fortress Museum

“This confirms that this area must have served the inhabitants of a nearby settlement centuries ago,” the archaeologist overseeing the research, Krzysztof Socha, who works at the Kostrzyn Fortress Museum in western Poland.

Some of the bodies were cremated: the researchers found an urn containing burned bones and milk teeth, which appear to have belonged to a child who was around 8-19 years old.

They also found items including a necklace of glass beads from around 2,000 years ago and, in other graves, ceramic vessels and a bronze ring.

Credit: Tempelburg Historical and Cultural Association and Kostrzyn Fortress Museum

Marcin Gojtka from the Templeburg Association which is involved in the work said: “This is a great adventure and a unique history lesson for us.

“We are constantly working under the supervision of an archaeologist and we learn a lot. It is a great satisfaction to be able to discover something that has been in the earth for thousands of years.”

The exact location of the site is being kept a secret to keep intruders away.

Author: Anne Chatham | Source: The First News [October 16, 2019]