When the Smithsonian discovered an ancient Egyptian colony in the Grand Canyon
At 277 miles (445 kilometers) long, up to 18 miles (28 kilometers) wide, and 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) deep, the Grand Canyon is one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring places in the United States.
The Zoroaster and Brahma Temples are seen in the distance from the South Kaibab Trail in the Grand Canyon National Park
The Hopi Indians believe it is the gateway to the afterlife. Its sheer immensity and mystery attracted more than 6 million visitors in 2016.
But what those people probably don’t know is that the Grand Canyon might once have been the home of an entire underground civilization.
But where are they now? And why did they abandon the canyon? Hosts Matt Frederick, Ben Bowlin, and Noel Brown jump straight into the folklore, the legends, and of course, the conspiracies to find out what really happened to the Grand Canyon’s Lost Civilization in this episode of Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know.
In the article, a cross-legged idol resembling Buddha is described along with a large tomb filled with mummified humans: a veritable mash-up of Egyptian and East Asian cultures.
It all started in 1909 when purported Smithsonian Institution explorer G.E. Kincaid discovered strange caverns during an expedition directed by Smithsonian anthropologist S.A. Jordan. The entrance to the cavern was nearly inaccessible, but Kincaid was able to get in to make an incredible discovery.
The enormous caves, which radiated out from a center cavern-like spokes on a wheel, were full of artifacts, including statues, copper weapons, even granaries full of seeds. Its size indicated that 50,000 people could live inside comfortably.
But even more amazingly, the artifacts didn’t match up to anything in the known record. Rather than appearing to be of Native American origin, as one might expect, the objects had distinct Egyptian or Tibetan designs. Could there actually have been an entire civilization of Egyptians living there? If so, how did they get there?
The story caused a huge sensation when it broke in the Arizona Gazette in 1909, but was soon met with skepticism: The Smithsonian has no record of either of the scientists, nor their discoveries, and firmly quells any claims that Egyptian artifacts have been found in either North or South America.
And no one has been able to find these supposedly massive caves since. Was this some elaborate hoax, may be perpetrated by the Gazette to sell papers?
That’s certainly a possibility, but it doesn’t fly for many conspiracy theorists. Some argue that the Smithsonian Institution has purposely wiped Kincaid and Jordan from their records and actively destroyed artifacts that don’t agree with the “status quo story” of human history.
Others think the caves hold a passage to the fourth dimension, where the reptilians (yep!) who have secretly run the world for thousands of years emerge into our world. Still, others believe the area is top-secret and closely guarded, like Area 51.
So is this series of caverns proof of a long-lost, possibly Egyptian civilization that’s simply being covered up by the Smithsonian, or is it a passageway into this dimension for our reptilian overlords? One thing is for sure.
400-year-old underground complex found in the Grand Canyon
Courtesy & Full Credit: The National Reporter
A group of hikers who had been exploring a virtually untouched area of the Grand Canyon happened upon an opening in the side of the canyon wall last July. Peter Marlington and his friends had discovered the entrance to an underground complex that has been estimated to be over four hundred years old and built in the late 1500s.
“It was hot as hell out and we were hiking up the side of the cliff to get into a wooded area for the shade.” Peter Marlington explained. “When we reached the shrub line we felt a cool breeze coming from the high weeds that were growing on the side of the cliff. It seemed very odd that a cool breeze would be coming from nowhere like that, so we poked around to see why.
When we pushed our way past the shrubbery we came to the entrance of a large brick-lined tunnel. We could tell right away that it was very old, but we had no idea that it would turn out to be as old as they say it is.”
The entrance to the complex has been cleared of the shrubbery that kept it hidden for 400 years.
“We were a little hesitant at first to go inside because we didn’t know what it was. We thought it might be a flood tunnel and we could be drowned in a sudden storm came up. And it was really kind of creepy too. I don’t believe in ghosts, but I’ll tell you when you are staring into an old dark musty smelling tunnel like that, it will give anyone the creeps. After a few minutes of debating whether or not we should go inside, the spirit of exploration overruled our fears, out came our flashlights, and into the tunnel, we went.
It went for quite a distance all on very level ground. We knew that if it was a flood tunnel that it would be slopped upward, we were relieved when we realized that we weren’t going to be flushed out in a sudden deluge. After a few hundred feet the tunnel stopped, it was boarded up.” The National Reporter – Did you turn back?
“Oh, hell no. We broke through. We had to. If we quit just because of some old rotten wood blocking our way and turned around, we would have spent the rest of our lives going crazy wondering what was on the other side of that door.”
The National Reporter – I can understand that. As a staff member of The National Reporter, I would have continued on as well to satisfy my curiosity and to bring yet another award-winning news story to my readers. So, What was on the other side of the wooden barricade? “Another tunnel. It was a lot smaller than the one we were in, it was more like a doorway in the wall. It was pitch black inside and it smelled kind of funny, like something that has been dead for real long time, you know, like dried up and dusty smelling. We made our way inside and soon came to another tunnel that went off to the right and another one about twenty feet ahead that went to the left.
We didn’t go down either of them, we just kept going straight.”
The first tunnel was covered with a wooden barricade. Inside were more tunnels that went off to the right and the left.
“We continued down the pitch-black tunnel until we came to a huge chamber. Our flashlights were barely bright enough to light the entire area up because of its immense size. Down below the brick floor looked like it had collapsed and there appeared to be some sort of tunnel system that had been exposed. We had no idea what the tunnels were for, but they were definitely big enough for large groups of people to move through.”
The National Reporter Did you go down to see what was inside of them? “We did after a while. The other guys were getting kind of scared, I have to admit it was getting kind of creepy. Graveyard creepy,..you know what I mean?”
The National Reporter – I know exactly what you mean. “I went down by myself, the other guys were too scared. It took a few minutes to get down to the collapsed floor where the tunnels were. It was pretty dangerous because the morter was all crumbled and powdery and the bricks were loose. I figured that was why the floor had collapsed. I entered the tunnel on the far left and walked for about fifty feet, then it stopped at a bricked-up wall. There was a loose brick in it, so I pushed on it and jiggled it around until it fell into the room on the other side.”
The floor of the immense chamber appeared to be collapsed revealing several passageways underneath.
The National Reporter – What was inside of the room?
“I don’t know, I couldn’t see. “The hole wasn’t big enough to stick the flashlight in and look in at the same time, so I just put the camera into the hole and snapped a few pictures. I had the weirdest feeling while I was doing it like there was something on the other side of the wall watching me the whole time. I’ll tell you this much, it spooked the hell out of me and I ran out of there with the hair standing up on my neck.”
The National Reporter – What did you do then?
“We left.” He said. “When I told my buddy’s that it felt like something was watching me from the other side of that wall, that was it. We ran out of that place so fast nothing could have stopped us.” The National Reporter – What did you do when you exited the complex, Did you report finding it right away?
“Yeah, pretty much. We went to the park rangers’ office and told them what we found. Naturally, they didn’t know what we were talking about. They checked their map and there were no tunnels or underground facilities in that area. They thought we were making the whole thing up.” The National Reporter – What did you do then?
“We took them out to the tunnel so they could see it for themselves. They didn’t want to go at first because they still thought we were on something. I guess I would have thought the same thing if I was in their position. The whole thing sounds so made up.”
The National Reporter – I can understand that most people would think that you made this story up. It’s a good thing you have photographs to prove it’s all true. Your photographs coupled with the integrity and reputation of The National Reporter as being one of the most reliable news sources in the nation is guaranteed to make believers out of many skeptics.
“I know, that’s why I contacted The National Reporter and not one of those silly tabloids who make up ridiculous stories.” The National Reporter – What did you think when you found out that the underground complex that you and your friends discovered was 400 years old?
“It blew our minds. I mean,..who the hell built it? The Indians sure as hell didn’t have the know-how to build something like that and there were no European settlers that far west at the time and even if there was, they sure as hell didn’t have the equipment to dig out an underground complex of that size and manufacture the millions of bricks it took to build it.”
The National Reporter – The complex was to be opened to the general public after your discovery, but those plans were quickly cancelled when a government agency closed it down suddenly for some unknown reason. Do you have any ideas on why they did that?
“I have my suspicions. Remember when I told you about how I stuck my camera into the hole in the wall and snapped a few photo’s and it felt as though something was watching me?”
The National Reporter – Yes, was there something in the photographs? “Take a look for yourself.” He said, handing it to me. “If this is 400 years old, then something really weird was going on back then that people don’t know about and they sure as hell aren’t going to find out what it was from reading their history books, I’ll tell you that.”
I took the photograph from him and to tell you the truth, I was speechless by what I saw. I could understand what Peter Marlington meant when he said something weird was going on back then. I won’t say anymore, I will just present you, readers, with the image Mr. Marlington captured on film and leave you to ponder on it.
7,000-Year-old Horned Face Image found Under Ancient Polish Home
In the area of a large, prehistoric settlement populated by a group identified by specialists as the Linear Pottery culture, the discovery in Biskupice was completed.
Marta Korczyńska, Field Work Chief at the Institute of Botany of the Polish Academy of Sciences said: “The fragments of pottery that we discovered are decorated with a plastic ornament depicting a stylized outline of a human face. There are two bumps on the forehead, reminiscent of horns.”
She added that only a part of the unusual ornament has survived, including the eyes and nose. The preserved fragment measures approx. 10 cm in width.
This photo clearly shows the eyes, nose and two bumps over the eyes that are presumed to be horns.
Project leader Dr Magdalena Moskal-del Hoyo from the W. Szafer Institute of Botany PAS said: “Today we are not able to clearly interpret this image. It seems likely, however, that such an unusual artefact could be related to the sacred sphere to some extent.”
According to Professor Marek Nowak from the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, who was also involved in the research, this type of artefact is evidence the inhabitants of the settlement had contact with people living in the area of today’s Hungary and Slovakia.
This is indicated not only by the discovery of the broken bowl, but also products made of obsidian, a raw material not found in Poland. It is a volcanic glass with a black and shiny surface.
Korczyńska said that while vessels with similar ornamental motifs are known from that period in Slovakia and Hungary (although they usually do not have stylised horns), this is the first such object been found in Poland.
The archaeologists also found over 3,000 artefacts, including obsidian tools and so-called cores, stone blocks used to strike stone flakes and chips that were later used to make tools. These products were primarily used as leather scrapers, tools for processing wood and bones, and sickle blades.
In addition to archaeologists, experts in the field of botany are also involved in the project. ‘It may be surprising that the employees of the Institute of Botany PAS conduct archaeological research, but in this interdisciplinary project, next to ceramics and other artefacts, plant remains are an equal, unfortunately often overlooked source of information on material culture and old customs’, said Dr Moskal-del Hoyo.
She added that the remains of plants from sites dating back to the early Neolithic period (the time when farming began) were and are relatively rarely collected and studied by excavation leaders.
Meanwhile, in her opinion, they can provide very important information about the people of the time and their crops.
The project is financed by the National Science Centre.
Archaeologists say they’ve found a massive underground structure that could be four times the size of Stonehenge
Archaeologists have confirmed that the ruins of a significant, modern prehistoric stone monument, buried less than 3 kilometres (186 miles) from Stonehenge have been identified.
Artist’s concept of how the stones at Durrington Walls may have been positioned.
The site is 15 times the size of Stonehenge. The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project team – a group of British archaeologists – used multi-sensor technologies to reveal evidence for a row of about 90 standing stones hidden beneath the bank of what is now called Durrington Walls, a super-henge in Britain.
Durrington Walls is one of the largest known henge monuments measuring 500 meters (0.3 miles) in diameter. It’s thought to have been built around 4,500 years ago.
The word henge refers to a particular type of earthwork, typically consisting of a roughly circular or oval-shaped bank with an internal ditch surrounding a central flat area. Henges may have contained (or may still contain) ritual structures such as stone circles, timber circles and coves.
Durrington Walls may have contained an ancient village at one time. The henge surrounds several smaller enclosures and timber circles and is associated with a recently excavated later Neolithic settlement.
The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project team, using non-invasive geophysical prospection and remote sensing technologies, discovered evidence for a row of up to 90 standing stones, some of which may have originally measured up to 4.5 meters (14.8 feet) in height. Many of these stones have survived because they were pushed over and the massive bank of the later henge raised over the recumbent stones or the pits in which they stood.
These stones have been hidden for millennia.
Durrington Walls is less than 3 kilometres (1.86 miles) from Stonehenge. It is a circular earthwork, some 15 times larger than Stonehenge.
Artist’s concept of standing stones beneath Durrington Walls super-henge.
At Durrington, more than 4.5 thousand years ago, a natural depression near the river Avon appears to have been accentuated by a chalk cut scarp and then delineated on the southern side by the row of massive stones. Essentially forming a C-shaped ‘arena’, the monument may have surrounded traces of springs and a dry valley leading from there into the Avon.
Although none of the stones has yet been excavated, researchers are interested in a unique sarsen standing stone – a kind of sandstone boulder – which they are calling the Cuckoo Stone, in the adjacent field.
The researchers say this particular stone suggests that other stones may have come from local sources.
“Cuckoo Stone” in a field near Durrington Walls. Researchers are interested in this stone as being possibly related to the stones buried beneath the structure.
Previous, intensive study of the area around Stonehenge had led archaeologists to believe that only Stonehenge and a smaller henge at the end of what researchers call Stonehenge Avenue possessed significant stone structures. The researchers now say:
The latest surveys now provide evidence that Stonehenge’s largest neighbour, Durrington Walls, had an earlier phase which included a large row of standing stones probably of local origin and that the context of the preservation of these stones is exceptional and the configuration unique to British archaeology.
Radar evidence for hidden stones at Durrington Walls.
The earthwork enclosure at Durrington Walls was built about a century after the Stonehenge sarsen circle (in the 27th century BC), but archaeologists say the new stone row could be contemporary with or earlier than this.
Paul Garwood, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Birmingham is the principal prehistorian on the project. Garwood said in a statement:
The extraordinary scale, detail and novelty of the evidence produced by the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project, which the new discoveries at Durrington Walls exemplify, is changing fundamentally our understanding of Stonehenge and the world around it.
Everything written previously about the Stonehenge landscape and the ancient monuments within it will need to be re-written.
Artist concept of standing stones at Durrington Walls.
8th-Century A.D. Rock-Cut Temple Revealed in India
On the banks of the Arjuna River at Sivakasi ‘s M Pudhupatti village in India, a three-chambered rock-covered temple, believed to be 1,200 years old, has been identified.
The three-chambered historical site is on banks of Arjuna River at Sivakasi’s M Pudhupatti village; no idols, statues of god identified so far
The building, cut in the side of a limestone rock, was riddled with thickets and debris until a week ago when residents in the locality chanced upon it.
While archaeologists have identified the structure as a rock-cut temple,no idol, statue, or relief of gods or goddesses has so far been identified inside the temple’s three chambers — the garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum), ardhamandapam, and maha mandapam. A 20-feet long limestone mound marks the entrance to it. There are traces of cement on the walls and in the ceiling.
Archeologists believe these might have been part of the repair carried out by devotees around 100 years ago.
At several places inside the structure, the limestone is falling apart; there is a massive hole in the ceiling of the maha mandapam. Retired assistant director of the State Archeology Department Dr C Santhalingam said, “The temple is unique in three aspects.
First: It is a Sandhara-type of temple. There is no identified Sandhara-type rock-cut temple in India”. These temples have a circumambulatory passage (pradakshinapath) around the shrine.
Not all temples have these passages, said sources. “Second: The temple has two circumambulatory passages; this is very rare. While one passage moves in a clockwise direction from the ardhamandapam, the second one is adjacent to the mahamandapam,” he added.
“Third: The temple is carved entirely out of limestone,” he said. The stone is considered an inferior type owing to its features. “This is the reason why there is no artistic design, sculpture, or carving in the temple. However, there are niches on both the sides of the entrance to the garbagriha.
Moreover, there is a stone naga statue in the garbagriha,” said Santhalingam. The residents might have placed it there over a century ago to offer worship. The interior of the structure and the surrounding riverbank were cleaned by the local body.
‘From the Pandian Era’
The temple belongs to the early-Pandian era, around 8th century CE. It is similar to the Valli cave temple in Tiruchendur, which is carved out of sandstone, a rock similar in features to limestone, Santhalingam said.
Ancient Irish DNA reveals incredible secrets, including Down Syndrome
In the earliest periods of Irish history, archaeologists and geneticists led by those from Trinity have shed new light.
The Poulnabrone portal dolmen in County Clare where the fascinating discovery was made.
The amazing findings of this study include an adult male genome hidden in the heart of the Newgrange passage tomb points to first-degree incest, implying he was among a ruling social elite akin to the similarly inbred Inca god-kings and Egyptian pharaohs.
Newgrange passage tomb in Ireland is world-famous for its annual solar alignment where the winter solstice sunrise illuminates its sacred inner chamber in a golden blast of light. However, little is known about who was interred in the heart of this imposing 200,000 tonnes monument or of the Neolithic society which built it over 5,000 years ago.
The survey of ancient Irish genomes, published in Nature, suggests a man who had been buried in this chamber belonged to a dynastic elite.
The research, led by the team from Trinity, was carried out in collaboration with colleagues from University College London, NUIG, University College Cork, University of Cambridge, Queen’s University Belfast, Sligo Institute of Technology and the National Monuments Service, with support from the National Museum of Ireland and National Museums Northern Ireland.
“I’d never seen anything like it,” said Lara Cassidy, professor at Trinity College Dublin, first author of the paper. “We all inherit two copies of the genome, one from our mother and one from our father; well, this individual’s copies were extremely similar, a tell-tale sign of close inbreeding. In fact, our analyses allowed us to confirm that his parents were first-degree relatives.”
Matings of this type (e.g. brother-sister unions) are a near universal taboo for entwined cultural and biological reasons. The only confirmed social acceptances of first-degree incest are found among the elites – typically within a deified royal family.
By breaking the rules, the elite separates itself from the general population, intensifying hierarchy and legitimising power. Public ritual and extravagant monumental architecture often co-occur with dynastic incest, to achieve the same ends.
“Here the auspicious location of the male skeletal remains is matched by the unprecedented nature of his ancient genome,” said Professor of Population Genetics at Trinity, Dan Bradley. “The prestige of the burial makes this very likely a socially sanctioned union and speaks of a hierarchy so extreme that the only partners worthy of the elite were family members.”
The team also unearthed a web of distant familial relations between this man and other individuals from sites of the passage tomb tradition across the country, including the mega-cemeteries of Carrowmore and Carrowkeel in Co. Sligo.
“It seems what we have here is a powerful extended kin-group, who had access to elite burial sites in many regions of the island for at least half a millennium,” added Cassidy.
Remarkably, a local myth resonates with these results and the Newgrange solar phenomenon. First recorded in the 11th century AD, four millennia after construction, the story tells of a builder-king who restarted the daily solar cycle by sleeping with his sister.
The Middle Irish place name for the neighbouring Dowth passage tomb, Fertae Chuile, is based on this lore and can be translated as “Hill of Sin.”
“Given the world-famous solstice alignments of Brú na Bóinne, the magical solar manipulations in this myth already had scholars questioning how long an oral tradition could survive,” said Ros Ó Maoldúin, an archaeologist on the study. “To now discover a potential prehistoric precedent for the incestuous aspect is extraordinary.”
The genome survey stretched over two millennia and unearthed other unexpected results. Within the oldest known burial structure on the island, Poulnabrone portal tomb, the earliest yet diagnosed case of Down Syndrome was discovered in a male infant who was buried there five and a half thousand years ago.
Poulnabrone tomb, in The Burren, County Clare.
Additionally, the analyses showed that the monument builders were early farmers who migrated to Ireland and replaced the hunter-gatherers who preceded them. However, this replacement was not absolute; a single western Irish individual was found to have an Irish hunter-gatherer in his recent family tree, pointing toward a swamping of the earlier population rather than an extermination.
Genomes from the rare remains of Irish hunter-gatherers themselves showed they were most closely related to the hunter-gatherer populations from Britain (e.g. Cheddar Man) and mainland Europe.
However, unlike British samples, these earliest Irelanders had the genetic imprint of a prolonged island isolation. This fits with what we know about prehistoric sea levels after the Ice Age: Britain maintained a land bridge to the continent long after the retreat of the glaciers, while Ireland was separated by sea and its small early populations must have arrived in primitive boats.
Saharan remains may be evidence of first race war 13,000 years ago
Humans’ remains of people killed 13,000 years ago in what scientists believe is the oldest identified race war, are today due to going on display at the British Museum in London.
Two skeletons from a massacre in the Sahara desert in 11,000BC, which killed at least 26 people, will be shown in the new Ancient Egypt gallery, alongside the flint-tipped weapons with which they were killed.
French scientists have been working with the museum to examine dozens of skeletons that were found grouped together in the Jebel Sahaba cemetery – one of the earliest organized burial grounds – on the east bank of the Nile, northern Sudan, in the 1960s.
A pair of skeletons belonging to people who were killed on a massacre 13,000 years ago as the result of climate change is going on show in the British Museum, London. Pencils pinpoint out pieces of weaponry responsible for their demise
They believe the remains of the 60 individuals found – around half of which had cut marks on their bones – represent the first communal violence between groups.
Fighting probably broke out because of the environmental disaster of the Ice Age, which caused the attackers and victims to live together in a smaller area, the experts explained.
Renee Friedman, the museum’s curator of early Egypt, told The Times that the attackers and victims were hunter-gatherers who usually avoided violence by moving on when a certain area became overcrowded.
But she believed that the cold and dry conditions of the Nile valley around that time caused a ‘population crisis’, as more people moved to the same area surrounded by desert.
She said: ‘Things were probably very tight, so we think that people started picking on one another.’
The museum acquired the remains in 2002 when they were donated by Fred Wendorf, an American archaeologist who excavated the site in the 1960s.
At least 60 individuals were found and examined using modern technology. One body was found with 39 pieces of flint from arrows and other flint-tipped weapons, Dr. Friedman said.
The cemetery was discovered in 1965. It contained at least 61 individuals dating back about 13,000 years ago. The graveyard (illustrated showing the position in which the skeletons were found,) is one of the earliest formal cemeteries in the world
French scientists have been working with The British Museum to examine dozens of skeletons that were found grouped together in the Jebel Sahaba cemetery. An image of excavations at Jebel Sahaba in 1965 is pictured
They believe the remains of the 60 individuals found (a skull is pictured) represent the first communal violence between groups because almost half the remains have cut marks on them
As well as the human remains, the display will include flint arrowhead fragments and a healed forearm fracture, which was most likely sustained by a victim who was trying to defend himself during the conflict.
Over the past two years, anthropologists from Bordeaux University have managed to find dozens of previously undetected conflict marks on the victims’ bones.
The British Museum scientists are now planning to research more about the victims themselves, including their gender, age, and diet.
Meanwhile, according to The Independent, work carried out at Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Alaska, and New Orleans’ Tulane University suggests these humans were part of the general sub-Saharan originating population, who were ancestors of modern Black Africans.
Dr. Daniel Antoine, a curator in the British Museum’s Ancient Egypt and Sudan Department, told the paper: ‘The skeletal material is of great importance – not only because of the evidence for conflict but also because the Jebel Sahaba cemetery is the oldest discovered in the Nile valley so far.’
1,000-year-old Christian cemetery yields terrifying discoveries
It is suspected that the nearly 1,000-year-old find is the oldest known Christian burial site in north Poland’s Dobrzyn Region. In the year 966 Poland formally accepted Christianity, switching from paganism to Catholicism.
In the village of Starorypin Prywatny, archaeologists have now discovered possible proof of Christianity, unearthing the corpses of women and children in 30 graves.
Lead archaeologist Dr Jadwiga Lewandowska of the Dobrzyn Land Museum in Rypin said: “Until now, based on uncovered artefacts, we thought the necropolis dated back to the 12th century.
“Thanks to the physicochemical analysis of bones discovered last year, we know that it already existed in the middle of the 11th century.”
The burial site yielded a number of gruesome discoveries, including the body of a woman with a boulder on her chest. Another woman was buried on her side in the foetal position. It is likely the woman was tied up when she was buried.
A 1,000-year-old cemetery was discovered in northern Poland
And the majority of the bodies uncovered at the site were of children. These were children aged two-and-a-half to four-years-old. One of the burials also appears to have been a premature birth.
Professor Krzysztof Szostka of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw said: “What is interesting, it was in this grave that we found probably the most beautiful necklace we have so far been able to find at the cemetery.”
The oldest corpses were of men aged 40 to 45-years-old. And the women were all likely aged 25 to 30-years-old. The corpses all featured grounded down teeth, which is a sign of a diet heavy in poorly refined flour.
Alongside the corpses, the archaeologists discovered a number of small metallic crosses – evidence of the denizens’ Christian faith.
Dr Lewandowska said: “The wealth of the deceased’s items surprised us.”
From the 13th century and onwards, Christians were buried without personal effects.
And the cemetery is likely to yield many more discoveries in the years to come as only a small fraction of it has been explored so far. The 30 graves are part of a necropolis believed to cover nearly five acres of land.
So far, the archaeologists have only explored a few hundred square metres of it. The cemetery was discovered in a cornfield and, unfortunately, many of its graves have been destroyed by the ploughing of the land.
None of the bodies unearthed at the site has been linked to other religious practices outside of Christianity. The archaeologists believe this is good sign Christianity reached this part of Poland earlier than the mid-11th century.
