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A bizarre skeleton from a Roman grave has bones from eight people

Radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis have revealed that a complete skeleton found in a 2nd-century cemetery is made up of bones from many people spanning thousands of years – but we don’t know who assembled it or why

By Christa Lesté-Lasserre

31 October 2024

A skeleton from a Gallo-Roman grave in Belgium is made up of bones from at least seven individuals

Photograph courtesy of Paumen, Wargnies, and Demory; Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles

A complete skeleton found in a Gallo-Roman grave in western Belgium is not a Roman individual after all, but rather a bizarre mix of people spanning thousands of years.

Laid to rest on the right side with tucked-up legs, the remains feature long bones from seven unrelated Stone Age men and women – of varying ages and separated by several centuries – and the skull of a Roman woman who died…

Article amended on 4 November 2024

The number of people whose bones make up the skeleton was corrected in the headline.

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