BAVARIA, GERMANY—According to a Live Science report, researchers from southern Germany’s Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection have discovered the sixth-century A.D. graves of a man and a woman in the Nördlinger Ries, an impact crater measuring about 16 miles in diameter with a rim rising about 660 feet off the crater floor. The man was between the ages of 40 and 50 when he died. His grave yielded the remains of a horse, a battle ax, a lance, a shield, a longsword, spurs, pieces of a bridle, and a carved ivory comb and a pair of scissors that may have been used to style his hair and beard. The grave of the woman, who died between 30 and 40 years of age, held jewelry, food items including preserved eggs, a weaving sword for tightening threads on a loom, and a well-preserved red bowl thought to have been imported from North Africa. Further study could reveal the meaning of the markings carved on the bowl’s rim. To read about recent excavations of a medieval stone basilica and cemetery in Helfta, Germany, go to "Otto's Church."
