In Słomniki, Poland, archaeologists have unearthed a remarkably well-preserved skeleton, estimated to be around 7,000 years old, during the renovation of a town square near Kraków. The Neolithic remains, accompanied by pottery fragments indicative of the linear pottery culture, suggest a burial dating back to the same period. The skeleton, found in soil with a non-acidic chemical composition, owes its excellent preservation to these conditions. While the individual’s identity remains unknown, further analysis by an anthropologist and radiocarbon dating are expected to provide more insights into this ancient discovery.
The burial site in Słomniki, Poland, also revealed fragments of flint placed alongside the burial, although some grave goods suffered damage due to the past leveling of the upper grave layer, as explained by Paweł Micyk. Małgorzata Kot, an archaeology professor at the University of Warsaw unrelated to the excavation, expressed excitement, deeming the discovery significant. According to Kot, the burial is associated with the earliest Neolithic farmers who migrated from the south, crossing the Carpathians and arriving in Poland during the 6th millennium.
Of these early farmers “we still know little about [their] culture and especially the burial practices. They bury their dead either within the settlements or in separate cemeteries, but cemeteries are very rare,” Kot said. It’s possible that this skeleton will shed more light on these people, Kot said.
“You must imagine that these early farmers were entering an absolutely new land for them. Land of the deep forest of Central European Lowlands. Land of harsher climate but also a land already inhabited by other people,” Kot said, noting that they would have encountered hunter-gatherers who were already living there.
The farmers and hunter-gatherers coexisted for about two millennia, but how they interacted is not entirely clear, Kot said.