WROCŁAW, POLAND—A second Neolithic burial was discovered in a Roman-era cemetery in southwestern Poland, according to a Live Science report. The man had been buried with two human heads, amber beads, a flint blade, a necklace made of 42 animal teeth, and a battle ax made of serpentinite, a greenish rock. Paweł Dąbrowski of the Medical University of Wrocław said that the style of the ax helped researchers to date the burial to about 2900 B.C. “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,” Dąbrowski said. All of the teeth were found to be incisors and canines from large mammals, such as wolves, deer, bears, and perhaps humans, he added. “It’s possible we’ve discovered the grave of a warrior or hunter, but because of this necklace, we can assume it was someone important, for example, the leader of a family clan,” Dąbrowski explained. The skulls are thought to have been buried with the man as gifts or offerings. Further analysis is expected to reveal whether the individuals had been decapitated. Researchers will also attempt to determine if the two people, who are thought to have been members of the Corded Ware culture, were related to each other. To read about Corded Ware graves in Germany that contained pierced dog teeth, go to "Canine Couture."
