ANCIENT BURIALS

Hokitika Guardian, 26 February 1931, Page 8

ANCIENT BURIALS

DIEN FEARED RESURR ECTION. The 4000-year-old grave of a bronze age chieftain is among the many interesting relies which have been discovered in the. course of digging pits for brick works at Sciileinback, near Vienna. Twentyone different caches and graves from the second century, 8.C., have now been laid hare. The chieftain’s grave lias been reconstructed as it was first discovered and placed on exhibition in the Lower Austrian Museum in Vienna. It contains two skeletons lying face upward, stretched out close together, in contrast to the skeletons of ordinary tribesmen found in eleven other graves. These were placed in a crouching position the Legs being drawn up and bound in chains weighed with stones, owing to the fear of the resurrection of the bodies. The second body in the grave was doubtless that of the chief’s wife, and scientists are convinced that she was placed in the grave alive, fastened to him by metal bands from the ankle to the waist, and further weighed down to prevent resurrection. Before the earth was thrown into the grave, the woman was apparently killed by shattering her skull with a twelve-pound stone, which was found lying between the skeletons.