Familiengräber von Eulau

The Familiengräber von Eulau stand on a high terrace near the town of Naumburg in Saxony-Anhalt. Four multiple burials were discovered here in 2005 during gravel extraction. Archaeologists lifted the graves in blocks and took them to Halle for study. The site is important because DNA analysis revealed the world’s oldest confirmed nuclear family. The graves date to the late third millennium BC, in the Copper Age Corded Ware culture. Thirteen people were buried in four graves, with clear signs of violent death among five of them. Researchers found arrow wounds and skull fractures caused by stone axes. Visitors to the Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte in Halle can see three of the graves on permanent display. The skeletons lie in tight huddles, some facing each other so that hands and faces almost touch. Men were buried with stone axes, women with flint tools and animal-tooth pendants, and all had pig bones as food offerings. The careful arrangement and grave goods show the survivors followed the usual burial rites despite the sudden violence.