Germany Stone Age Exhibition

3,300 BC - Mysterious Stone Age dead persons and their world
State Museum of Prehistory in Halle, central Germany
14 november 2013 - 18 may 2014

An extensive high plateau in the middle of Germany: more than 5 000 years ago something mysterious was going on there. Today archaeologists find human remains in pits full of sherds and hundreds of skulls in a kilometre-long ditch around this huge enclosure. Some were lovingly placed on shells or buried with their tools. Others, however, as part of strange rituals and ancient ceremonies, appear not to have received a funeral. Several skeletons show traces of massive violence.  One pit especially, with nine bodies, throws up many questions. It was sealed with more than 10 000 ceramic sherds and pieces of wall daub from buildings: did the dead fall victim to a catastrophe or a ritual? 

The world of the ritual site Salzmünde is a world of spiritual forbears, mysterious signs and ritual  practices. With state-of-the-art analyses science wrests individual biographies from these mysteries and allows the visitor to delve into a strange, long lost world of Neolithic times. More info

Link 2 (Photos)

3/9. A woman cleans 5,300 year old human skulls during the preparations for the exhibition. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)