Forty-two teeth drilled through the root<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The teeth appeared first, lying in the central chamber of the mound in a tightly fitted row. “The arrangement of the 42 teeth was precise, and upon further inspection, it turned out that all of them had holes drilled through their roots. They must have formed a kind of necklace,” D\u0105browski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cord itself rotted away long ago. \u201cIt was clear at first glance that there could be no question of chance here,\u201d D\u0105browski said in the statement. \u201cAlthough the string or cord that connected them has not survived, there is no doubt that it was an ornament made by human hands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on their features, he suspects the teeth came from members of the dog family, bears and hoofed mammals, and he has not ruled out that some are human, according to the statement. Genetic tests on the teeth are meant to settle which species they belong to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Digging deeper, the team reached the nearly complete skeleton of an adult man, who was probably the necklace’s owner. His battle ax still lay under his right elbow. It’s carved from serpentinite, a greenish metamorphic rock, and the grave also gave up amber beads, small bone disks and a flint blade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there are the skulls. Pieces of two more adults’ skulls lay in the same grave, both badly broken, and D\u0105browski and Gralak have floated the idea that they were severed heads, buried with the man as a kind of offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So far it\u2019s only an idea. D\u0105browski will search the fragments for cut marks left by a sharp-edged tool, and each set of human bones from the mound will get its own radiocarbon date to see if they really are the same age. The man\u2019s skeleton will also be checked for injuries, strain-related changes and signs of inflammation that could say more about his way of life, activity and health, the statement says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The style of the stone ax points to around 2900 B.C., the middle phase of the Neolithic in Poland, according to the university\u2019s statement. That puts the mound more than 3,200 years before the Roman-era graves around it. The researchers think the people buried there may have been linked to the Corded Ware culture, a group known for pottery decorated with impressions of twisted cord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Of course, all of these skeletal remains and objects will be examined in detail, but I can already say today that we have come across traces of the presence of people from 5,000 years ago,” D\u0105browski said in the statement, which we translated from Polish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The human remains will now be radiocarbon dated to check whether they all come from the same period, the statement says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The ax bore traces of use, its blade is slightly chipped, so it probably served as a combat tool or for hunting,” D\u0105browski said in the statement, in our translation. The household stone axes of the period were smaller, the statement says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The university\u2019s statement says the large necklace was probably meant to underline the dead man\u2019s special position, and that he may have been a great hunter, a warrior or the patriarch of a clan, a point Gralak has stressed. That kind of status also marks other graves built for a person of high rank<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At almost the same time, another archaeological team found a similar mound in Iwiny, another village near Wroc\u0142aw, D\u0105browski said in the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Combined, the two sites could show whether groups linked to the Corded Ware culture, which migrated west from eastern Europe and possibly from as far as the Caspian Sea region, reached what is now Lower Silesia, much as a 5,000-year-old burial mound in Wales<\/a> has added to the picture of prehistoric Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of what has been said about this grave is still guesswork, and the researchers say so. Until the radiocarbon results come in, the date hangs on the style of a single ax, and no one has yet checked the skull fragments for cut marks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The remains are also fragile. Some of the bones were in such poor condition that they were lifted out together with blocks of earth so they would not fall apart, and the material will be X-rayed before it is cleaned, according to the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Row](\"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/en-13-medio1-drilled-tooth-necklace.jpg\")
A man buried with a battle ax and two skulls<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The ax dates the grave to around 2900 B.C.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Warrior, hunter or clan leader<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A second mound a few miles away<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What the lab work can and cannot settle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n