Scientists uncover unique ‘zombie grave’ in Germany designed to hold person underground if woke from the dead
- Body was buried with a massive stone placed over bent legs to prevent escape
- This particular person, aged between 40 and 60 when he died, was buried with no cultural relics for the afterlife
Zombie apocalypses are an iconic feature of modern storytelling, but the idea of once-dead humans rising from their eternal slumber to attack the living is nothing new.
Archaeologists working for the Saxony-Anhalt State Museum of Prehistory in Oppin, Germany – northwest of Leipzig in the east of the country –announced in April they had unearthed a unique tomb dating back to the Neolithic period.
As the team dug further, they discovered a large flat rock that seemed to be deliberately placed on the body of the deceased, “lying over the angled legs of the dead”.
“It must be assumed that the stone was placed there for a reason. Possibly to hold the dead in the grave and prevent it from coming back,” wrote the museum in a Facebook post.
According to Newsweek, the people living in the region at this time were previously known to have been scared of “revenants”, reanimated spirits or bodies that likely returned from the dead.
Susanne Friederich, the project manager for the excavations and a scientist working for the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt, told the magazine that ancient peoples attempted to use magic to prevent revenants.
“Back then, people believed that dead people sometimes tried to free themselves from their graves. Sometimes, the dead were laid on their stomachs. If the dead lies on his stomach, he burrows deeper and deeper instead of reaching the surface,” she told the outlet.
