The 1,500-year-old tomb of 5 creatures confused archaeologists

An ancient tomb with 5 different levels of burial has just been found in Hungary, arranged in a complex way but not intended for humans.

According to an article published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology , the strange ancient tomb was made in the form of a burial pit , up to 1.4 m deep and contained 5 skeletons.

Preliminary analysis shows that they are the bones of a lynx and four dogs, buried 1,500 years ago and arranged in a very strange way.

Structure of a special ancient tomb in Hungary - (Photo: International Journal of Osteoarchaeology)

In particular, the lynx skeleton was placed in the deepest place at the bottom of the grave, then layers of soil were used to stratify, burying 4 more dogs on top, each animal per layer with a depth of 100 cm. 85cm, 65cm and 25cm.

The ancient tomb was discovered at the site of Zamárdi-Kútvölgyi-dűlő in Central Western Hungary, an area called Pannonia that was once ruled by the Romans.

The site appears to have been a small settlement, in which people living around the same time as the ancient tomb obtained their food mainly from livestock and crops rather than from wild game. Several ancient buildings, pits, wells and ovens were also found at the site.

Study co-author Lászlo Bartosiewicz from Stockholm University (Sweden) said it is difficult to explain this ancient tomb.

Remains of lynx have been found in several archaeological sites in Europe and Asia, but are extremely rare because people on these continents usually do not eat lynx meat. The remains were mainly lynx claws, buried in human graves.

It is very rare for intact skeletons to be found as was the case in Hungary.

Archaeologists can only speculate that this burial may have been ceremonial. The death of these animals can occur after a fierce fight between them.