1,500-year-old burial of lynx with 4 dogs stacked on it puzzles archaeologists (www.livescience.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The discovery of a lynx buried with four dogs at an early-medieval settlement in Hungary is confounding archaeologists, as these wild cats are rarely found in archaeological digs.

The fifth-to-sixth-century pit, which was about 4.6 feet (1.4 meters) deep, contained a complete lynx skeleton at the bottom and the skeletons of four dogs — the size of present-day pointers or German shepherds — layered on top of it. Possible interpretations of the unique find, such as a hunting accident and a lynx cult, are detailed in a new study published March 21 in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

That’s what I’m thinking. The lynx took down those dogs before finally being overpowered, and the dogs’ handler(s) buried them all together to show respect for the impressive fight that the lynx put up.

this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024

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Archaeology

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Archaeology or archeology[a] is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes.

Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time.

The discipline involves surveying, excavation, and eventually analysis of data collected, to learn more about the past. In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Read more...

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