Information about graves

Archaeologists excavated a Stone Age tomb in central Germany and found that the bones in one tomb belonged to a family of four. This is the earliest known nuclear family in the world. Prehistoric Tomb This tomb, located in Varo, Saxony-anhalt, was discovered in 2005. According to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on 18, archaeologists identified it as being built 4,600 years ago and belonging to the late Neolithic period. There are nearly 100 skeletons in the tomb, most of which belong to women and children. Only one skeleton was identified as an adult male, aged between 25 and 40. Some bones were buried together. Archaeologists studied four burial tombs, which contained the bones of adults and children, all of which were buried face to face. Most bones show signs of injury. One female skeleton has the scars of throwing stones on the spine, and the other skeleton has cracks on the skull. Some bones belonging to hands and forearms also have scars, indicating that these people tried to protect themselves before they died. Archaeologists speculate that these people may have died from attacks by hostile tribes. Later, the survivors of the same tribe returned to their place of residence and buried the dead. Nuclear family archaeologists examined the DNA in the excavated bones and found that four bones in a grave belonged to a nuclear family consisting of a parent and two children. It was identified that the father was between 40 and 60 years old and the mother was between 35 and 50 years old. They were buried face to face with their heads facing east. The two boys, aged 4-5 and 8-9, were buried with their parents, with their heads facing west. There are also couples buried together in other graves, all face to face. There is at least one child in each grave, ranging from newborns to children aged 10. Archaeologists believe that another buried grave may belong to a reorganized family. There are a pair of adult men and women and three children, including a baby girl and two boys. The results of DNA test show that the two boys are brothers, but they are not related to the women in the same tomb. Archaeologists speculate that women may be the stepmother of menstruation or two children. Archaeologists have studied human bones and tools found so far in the Stone Age for many years, but few clues have been found to show the social relations of human beings at that time. The family tombs discovered this time fill this gap. Professor Wolfgang Huck of the University of Adelaide in Australia, who is in charge of the study, said: "The arrangement of bones in these buried tombs reflects their social relations ... which is not common in other tombs at the same time." Alistair Parker, a professor at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom who participated in the study, said: "The people who buried these dead obviously knew that they were a family. He thought it was important to bury their families face to face." The researchers also tested the strontium content of teeth found in burial graves. According to the test results, archaeologists speculate that the mother, husband and children of a family of four did not grow up in the same place. So we can know that at that time, all tribes were intermarried, and women married their husbands. This avoids inbreeding and strengthens the ties between different tribes. Huck believes that this discovery shows that the nuclear family has begun to be regarded as the basic unit of human society during the period of Wen-rope culture. However, he added: "this does not mean that the nuclear family has become a common phenomenon ... for example, according to ethnographic research data, it was mostly polygamous at that time." (