The necropolis dates to the Copper Age and contains 22 tombs.

Archaeologists in Italy have unearthed a Copper Age necropolis that contains nearly two dozen tombs and a collection of weapons.

The discovery was made in November at San Giorgio Bigarello, a municipality in northern Italy, during the construction of a community garden. However, researchers had no idea how extensive the 5,000-year-old burial site was until excavations earlier this year revealed 22 tombs containing human remains. Many of the burials included flint weapons, including daggers, "perfect arrowheads" and blades, according to a translated article in ArchaeoReporter, an archaeology-focused newspaper based in Italy.

  • happybadger [he/him]
    ·
    8 months ago

    Archaeologists noticed that many of the skeletons were buried on their left sides "with legs bent to their chests and heads oriented to the northwest," according to ArchaeoReporter.

    "The positioning of the bodies suggests that there might have been some correlation with another Copper Age culture from northern Italy known as the Remedello," Sestito said. This is because members of that culture buried their deceased in a similar fashion, thus "leading to some parallels between the two societies."

    I wonder what northwestern feature is special enough to orient toward for them. None of the articles seem to speculate.