Sequence
Careful excavation in the undestroyed part of the tomb revealed ten discernible layers of burials (numbered 1–10 in the order of discovery from the top down, i.e. the reverse to the order of deposition), most of them consisting of disarticulate, often sorted, groups of bones. The ten layers could be grouped in three phases.
Phase 1 (layers 10–7): Layer 10a, on the floor of the chamber, included a pyramid of bones (six skulls mixed with short and long bones, including the near-complete skeleton of a child), as well as a pair of legs lying parallel to the chamber. Layer 10 had two articulated skeletons, lying on their back with their arms crossed on the chest, at right angles to the chamber. Layer 9 consisted of several caches of longbones, mostly parallel to the chamber, and the bottom halves of three articulated skeletons at right angles to the chamber. Layer 8 contained three badly preserved, but articulate, skeletons, this time parallel to the chamber, again with the arms crossed over the body. Layer 7 had inarticulate bone remains mixed with many stones; it was separated from layer 6 above it by a deposit of earth. It included a skull accompanied by a flint knife.
Phase 2 (layers 6–3): Layer 6 was also quite mixed, but had a grouping of long bones in the north, a nest of five skulls and a copper spiral further south, as well as individual skull set off by a stone setting. Also in layer 6, a row of skulls running across the chamber near the partition wall was started, which contained through 5 and 4a. Layers 5 and 4 appear to follow a different pattern from previous practice. Apart from the above-mentioned row, skulls are mainly placed along the west, bones to the east, long bones in the north and parallel to the chamber. Most of the copper and amber finds were from these layers. They were covered with a paving-like deposit of large carefully placed limestone slabs.
Phase 3 (layers 2–1): Layer 2, on top of the limestone slabs, contained three skulls and two partially articulated lower bodies, parallel to the chamber, as well as some long bones. Layer 1, the top of the burial deposit, had a mixture of short and long bones spread all over the excavated area, as well as more than fifteen skulls.
Read more about this topic: Niedertiefenbach (megalithic Tomb)
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