Moore are ideal terrain for archaeologists, especially if their areas have largely been spared from peat extraction. Because organic material lasts much longer under the conditions there.
Researchers led by archaeologist Harald Lübke, who discovered a cremation grave with charred bones – including a thigh – in the Duvensee Moor between Bad Oldesloe and Ratzeburg, which they date to be 10,500 years old.
Hoping for ancient DNA
From and before this time, in which the Baltic Sea was just formed, no other grave is known in northern Germany, only in Danish Jutland a similarly old one was discovered, where the dead person was also cremated.
There have been archaeological excavations in the area of the Duvensee Moor for almost a hundred years, after a prehistoric paddle was found during drainage work in 1923.
In the course of the campaigns, the traces of several settlements that followed one another in time came to light in the silted lake, including flints, animal bones, hazelnut shells, charcoal, fireplaces and a dock. The latest find is to be recovered as a block and scientifically examined in Schleswig. The researchers hope to be able to extract DNA from the dead from the incompletely burned bones.
The archaeologist Harald Lübke shows the femur of a person who died around 10,500 years ago and was buried in the Duvensee Moor.
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Image: dpa
