The mystery of prone remains

Placing a corpse lying on the stomach in a grave is a form of humiliation or punishment for the dead in ancient societies, a Swedish scientist asserts.

Two remains of Vikings' coffins in Sweden.Bodhi remains in the corner of the image are detected in the prone position.Photo: Caroline Arcini.

Many works in world treasures of history and literature refer to the ritual of burying the dead in a prone position. This phenomenon is controversial in modern anthropology. Some argue that the prone posture of the remains is the result of unintentional behavior or accidental incident. But many other experts claim it is an unusual burial rite and show some point of view of the living person to the dead.

Caroline Arcini, a scientist from the Swedish National Heritage Council, said: 'Ancient societies admit to placing a prone corpse as a form of humiliation or punishment for the dead. That is one of the most basic acts of humanity . '

Arcini studied thousands of literary, historical and research works around the world to find out how to bury a dead person in a prone position. She discovered more than 600 people buried in such positions in 215 cemeteries, from Peru to Korea.

The grave has prickly remains and is usually shallow and without coffins.Photo: flickr.com.

For about 26,000 years, most people buried in prone posture are men. Prone skeletons appear in all graves (single graves, double graves, mass graves). These graves are often shallow and located at the edge of the graveyard. Most of them do not have coffins. Some corpses are tied to the legs and arms. The situation shows that they are criminals or prisoners of war.

But in many cases the form of burial in the prone posture is related to the social position. People have found 80 bodies in unusual positions in a cemetery in Mexico. They were buried between 1150 and 850 BC. Among them, six male remains were found sitting, while the remaining 74 were prone.

'It is possible that those who are buried in a sitting posture have a higher social status than a prone,' Arcini commented.

Arcini argued that religious and cultural conflicts could be one of the causes of strange burial forms. For example, most of the prickly remains of Sweden are buried in the Viking era (from the end of the 8th century to the 11th century), when Christianity began to enter Scandinavia.

The Vikings, who did not believe in gods, could not accept Christian community members. So they buried the bodies of religious people in a prone position to show contempt. According to Arcini, after executing witches, monks violate the canon, the ancients also buried them in a prone position.