Archaeologists in Denmark discovered 300 ancient skeletons while restoring a courthouse

Archaeologists in Denmark, restoring the ancient building of the High Court in the city of Viborg in the west of the country, found about 300 ancient skeletons in the ground. As reported on December 5 on the website of the Museum of Viborg, due to the discovery, the deadline for the completion of work on the project had to be shifted.

The Viborg Museum stopped exhibiting in 2017. It was expected that the repository would move back in 2021 to the restored old building of the western High Court, where it would be given a new name - the Wibergis Museum. The move has since been postponed more than once.

"The construction of the Wibergis Museum <...> is unfortunately postponed until 2026. The reason was an unexpected archaeological excavation that reveals up to 300 skeletons under the basement floor," the press release stated.

As experts point out, the courthouse was built on top of the former territory of the monastery cemetery. Archaeologists pointed out that it will take a long time to complete the excavations due to the fragility of the ancient building. In addition, the discovered skeletons are too close to each other in a relatively small area.

Earlier on December 5, it was reported that archaeologists conducting excavations in Chersonese Tauride on the territory of modern Sevastopol, found in the necropolis finds of the Roman period, thanks to which they were able to reveal new data on funeral rituals adopted 2 thousand years ago. Specialists for the first time were able to compare data on the place of cremation with the place of subsequent burial of ashes.

Thus, on one of the sites for cremation were found gold jewelry. Having analyzed them, experts have established that the ashes of the man whose body was burned were buried in the crypt on the outer side of the city wall, as the details that were included in the set of one ornament were also found in the crypt near the Chersonesos gate. This suggests that this person was from the top of social society and had special merits.