The tomb had remained intact since the Stone Age. The Tiarp burial chamber, located near Falköping, Sweden, was built more than 5,500 years ago, during the early Neolithic, and was discovered in 1929. Almost a century later it has been studied in depth for the first time and the results obtained are surprising.
It is not just that the first analyzes carried out by archaeologists from the universities of Gothenburg and Kiel have confirmed that the domen is one of the oldest stone graves in Sweden. The researchers also discovered that many of the skeletons buried at the site were missing some parts, especially skulls and large bones.
“This is a tomb built around the year 3,500 BC. What we don’t know is if these missing body parts have to do with the funerary rituals of the time or if there is something else behind it,” says the archaeologist. Karl-Göran Sjögren.
After examining the material from the chamber, researchers have discovered that it contains bones of hands and feet, fragments of ribs and teeth, as detailed in an article published in the Journal of Neolithic Archeology. But the heads and parts of the thighs and arms are very few.
“This differs from what we normally see in megalithic tombs, that is, stone burial chambers from the Neolithic,” explains Sjögren. “Usually the missing bones are smaller bones in the feet and hands,” she adds. At least 12 people are buried in Tiarp, including babies and the elderly.
“We have not seen any injuries among the buried people, so we do not believe that they died due to violence. However, we continue studying their genetic code in order to check if they suffered from any disease,” says Karl-Göran Sjögren.
The Falköping region has long been known for its numerous passage tombs (narrow passages of large stones) dating from a somewhat later period, approximately 3300 BC. Agriculture had arrived in the area around 4000 BC. So, in all likelihood, the people buried in the dolmen were farmers, archaeologists say.
“They lived by growing cereals, raising animals and consuming dairy products,” says Sjögren. Several samples were taken in the summer, including DNA from the skeletal remains. “The preliminary results show that it is well preserved, so we will be able to reconstruct the family relationships between them,” she adds.
“This dolmen is older than the corridor tombs, between 200 and 150 years older, making it one of the oldest stone burial chambers in Sweden and all of Scandinavia,” he says. In addition, there is a small niche at each end, “something unique to the tombs in the area,” concludes Sjögren.
