Archaeologists discover mysterious burial ground full of headless bodies

A large burial ground in East Kazakhstan has archaeologists puzzled over the headless corpses discovered occupying the graves, Tengiri News reports. The bodies, which belong to ancient Huns and Sarmatians, are laid out in a line, with some burial mounds surrounded by circular fences of closely stacked stones, which researchers believe were used to drive away evil spirits. However, of all the bodies found, none of the skeletons had skulls.

There are several possible theories for the decapitated corpses: Grave robbers may have stolen the skulls as a precaution to prevent spirits of the dead from taking revenge; or perhaps the heads were collected by nomadic tribes of the Early Iron Age who believed the fertility of their women depended on the number of skulls they accumulated. Others experts believe that the heads of rulers and leaders were traditionally used as objects of worship; in another version, the skulls might have been gifted to brides as macabre wedding gifts. Or perhaps the heads were simply taken by the researchers of Catherine the Great, or nabbed by enemies as war trophies.

Other bodies in the region have also been found without their heads, in mounds dating back to the first centuries B.C. and A.D.

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