Archaeologists’ find in a pyramid-shaped building kept a terrible secret for 4,300 years: an unusual arrangement of bones caught the eye

The monument, now in the flooded area of ​​Tel Banat, is also the first example of a special type of monument described in ancient Mesopotamian writings, in which the remains of enemies or their own soldiers were buried in a very orderly structure, he writes livescience.com.

The finding also shows that “ancient peoples respected the people who died during battles, just like we do,” Anne Porter, a professor of Middle Eastern civilizations at the University of Toronto, said in a press release. “We don’t know if they won that battle or lost. All we know is that they (people from Tel Banat) brought the remains of the dead from somewhere else, perhaps even some time after the incident, and buried them in a giant burial mound that was visible for miles, ”he wrote. . AA Goalkeeper.

The burial mound was somewhat reminiscent of the stepped pyramid of Joser in Egypt, except that the layers of the monument are made of earth and plaster, not stone, archaeologists wrote in a May 28 article in Antiquity magazine. People living in the area today called the burial mound a “white monument” because the sunlit plaster glowed white, archaeologists noted.

From 1988 to 1999, the site was excavated by a team of archaeologists led by A. Porter and Thomas McClelland, who were involved in the Euphrates Salvage Project at the time, but the true purpose of the mountain has only now been clarified. Excavations were carried out before the construction of the Tishrin Dam, which flooded the area.

During the period since these excavations, the same archaeologists, along with students from the University of Toronto, carefully examined the finds and found that the site was likely a war memorial, perhaps the oldest known monument of its kind in the world. They also discovered that this monument was built on a previous building.

Dead army

Archaeologists have noted that the remains were scrupulously buried. “Collections of human bones were deposited on the ground when horizontal (monumental) steps were built. The skeletons were placed directly on the ground without any special covering or demarcation, the team wrote in Antiquity magazine. “Although small, fragmented and scattered, the bones were nevertheless deliberately grouped together.

Human bone remains were fragmentary, and in many cases archaeologists have been unable to determine their gender or age. When successful, studies have shown that the deceased were men, ranging in age from adults to children between 8 and 10 years old. It is unclear why the latter were found on a war memorial.

Archaeologists have discovered that the bones were excavated and reburied in the burial mound. “The bones may have been collected from an ancient graveyard or battle site. In any case, they were carefully collected, assembled and finally buried long after death, ”the archaeologists wrote.

Some of the remains were buried with knights, “donkey-like animals seen pulling carriages in old drawings,” the authors said in a press release. Soldiers buried with knights could play the role of carriage drivers, archaeologists assumed.

Shots were also found near some of the remains. The ancients often fired from galleries, and these weapons can show what role the dead played while they were still alive.

“We noticed that the burials had a clear order: pairs of corpses and equine skins lay in one place, and people with clay bullets in another part of the monument,” Porter said, adding that the order shows that the dead belonged to an ancient Army. The old organized army was probably divided into units such as chariots and infantry and armed infantry units.

“Emerging patterns show that the people buried here not only participated in the battle, but also did so in an organized way: they belonged to an army with its own structure divided into chariots and infantry,” the archaeologists wrote.

His team also found a model of a covered carriage next to one of the dead: a clay figure representing a lord and a carriage.

Source: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/their-corpses-will-reach-the-base-of-heaven-a-thirdmillennium-bc-war-memorial-in-northern- mesopotamia / 664312804723289D33D9D5CA2E32D1C2