Францын археологичид Шампиньи-сюр-Марн дүүргээс Неолитын үед хамаарах томоохон оршуулгын цогцолбор болон 10 тонн жинтэй хүн дүрст хөшөөг илрүүлжээ.
Францын урьдчилан сэргийлэх археологийн хүрээлэн (Inrap) орон сууцны шинэ төсөл хэрэгжүүлэхээс өмнө хийсэн малтлагаар МЭӨ 4750-4300 оны хооронд холбогдох 11 булш, 30 орчим том чулуун блок, оршуулгын овоо мэт байгууламжийг олсон байна. Эдгээр олдворын дунд 3.04 метр урт, 9.7 тонн жинтэй, бүсэлхийгээрээ бүстэй, хүн дүрстэй “статуэ-менхир” хэмээх аварга хөшөө байв. Судлаачид хөшөөн дээрх тэмдэглэгээнүүд нь будгийн үлдэгдэл байж болзошгүй гэж таамаглаж байгаа бөгөөд хөшөөг анх зориуд хэвтүүлсэн эсвэл унасан эсэх нь одоогоор тодорхойгүй байна.
Оршуулгын газраас олдсон 11 булшны нэг нь бусдаасаа эрс ялгарч байсан бөгөөд нарийхан дугуй нүхэнд суугаа байрлалтайгаар оршуулсан насанд хүрсэн хүний шарил олджээ. Цаг хугацааны явцад газрын хөрсөн дэх карбонатлаг бодис нь шарилтай урвалд орж, хөлийн хэсгийг кальцитын хатуу бүрхүүлээр бүрхсэн байв. Бусад булшнаас эмэгтэйчүүдийн шарил, хэвлийдээ зэвсэг болон чулуун эдлэлүүдтэй олдсон нь тухайн үеийн оршуулгын зан үйлийн талаарх шинэ мэдээлэл болж байна.
Малтлагаар илэрсэн нууцлаг овоо мэт байгууламж нь дотроо ямар ч шарилгүй байсан нь эрдэмтдийн анхаарлыг татаж байна. Энэхүү байгууламжийг чулуу, мод, шороо ашиглан барьсан бөгөөд суурь хэсэгт нь эртний “цемент” мэт хатуурсан карбонатлаг элс, хайрганы хольцыг ашигласан нь тогтоогджээ. Судлаачид тус байгууламжийг дурсгалын зориулалттай landmark буюу тэмдэг байж болзошгүй гэж үзэж байгаа ч бүрэн тайлагдаагүй хэвээр байна.
Олдсон яс болон эд өлгийн зүйлсэд удахгүй эртний ДНХ-ийн болон изотопын шинжилгээ хийхээр төлөвлөж байна. Энэхүү судалгаагаар тухайн хүмүүсийн нас, хүйс, эрүүл мэнд, хооллолт болон амьдралынхаа туршид нүүдэллэж байсан эсэхийг тодорхойлох боломжтой юм. Эдгээр үр дүн нь Францын хойд хэсгийн голын хөндийд суурьшсан тариачдын нийгэмлэгийн соёл, зан үйлийг илүү тодорхой болгох юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
The giant lay flat on its back, still inside the hole that had once held it upright.
It was an enormous piece of stone. Measuring about 10 feet (3.04 meters) long, 5.5 feet (1.68 meters) wide and more than 2 feet (0.74 meters) thick, the slab weighed an estimated 9.7 metric tons, roughly the weight of two African elephants. Whoever carved it had given it a human form, complete with a belt around its waist. There are even signs it may once have been painted.
Archaeologists call it a statue-menhir, and it turned up this year in Champigny-sur-Marne, just east of Paris. The discovery was part of something much bigger: a 6,500-year-old cemetery containing 11 graves, around 30 large stone blocks and an unusual earthen monument that appeared to be a burial mound.
Except there was nobody buried inside.
A Stone Giant in a Paris Suburb
The excavation took place at 134–148 rue de Verdun, a plot earmarked for a new housing development. Before construction began, France’s preventive archaeology institute, Inrap, was brought in at the request of the regional archaeology service to investigate what lay beneath the ground.
The remains date to the Middle Neolithic, between about 4750 and 4300 BC, when farming communities were establishing settlements along the river valleys of northern France.
Burials from this period are known in the Paris region, but they usually appear as isolated graves. Finding an entire cemetery, together with standing stones and other monuments, is another matter.
And the biggest stone was hard to miss.
The statue-menhir had been carefully worked. Its makers first pecked across the surface before carving a belt using a combination of pecking and grooves. They also enlarged a series of natural pits in the rock into small, round hollows known as cupules, arranged along an arch.
Some of the tool marks still contain black and white staining. Archaeologists suspect these may be remnants of paint, raising the possibility that the stone figure once looked quite different from the bare slab found underground.
At some point, though, the giant came crashing down.
It was discovered lying inside its original setting pit, the hole that had once held it upright. Whether the stone toppled naturally or someone deliberately pulled it down remains unknown.
Two smaller sandstone blocks stood nearby. One had been shaped into a small stele, while the other may have marked the edge of the cemetery.
Eleven Graves on a River Terrace
The burial ground occupied the upper part of a terrace formed by the Marne River.
Eight graves were packed into an area of roughly 60 square meters (650 square feet). Another three lay farther north, close to the statue-menhir and two other large stones. Parts of the northern section had already been disturbed by modern building activity.
Only two graves were identified during the initial survey. Both contained women, buried on their backs and aligned east to west.
When archaeologists excavated the rest of the plot, they uncovered nine more.
Most of the individuals had been laid out fully extended in large burial pits. Beside several skulls, the excavators found postholes, suggesting that wooden markers once stood above the graves.
Those markers may have allowed people to identify the burial places long after the bodies had been covered.
The graves also contained belongings. Among the finds were flint blades, arrowheads and a sandstone axe made from locally available rock. Two burials held worked bone objects as well.
A Mound With No One Inside
In the southeastern corner, archaeologists encountered a structure that was harder to make sense of.
A dome of brown silt covered roughly 30 square meters (320 square feet). Above a complicated arrangement of pits, fenced ditches, stone blocks and wooden posts stood a small stone stele, broken into two pieces.
Everything about the structure suggested a burial mound. But digging underneath revealed no grave.
One possibility is that it served as a landmark, a monument visible from some distance. It may have had another purpose entirely. Archaeologists cannot yet say, although its location beside the graves suggests it belonged to the same funerary landscape.
The way the monument was built brought another surprise.
Across the site, the Neolithic builders had mixed carbonate-rich sand and silt with gravel and water. Once dry, the mixture hardened into a material resembling primitive cement.
They used it in several places: along the edges of graves, inside the pits supporting standing stones and within the mysterious mound itself.
Similar materials have been identified at Neolithic sites elsewhere in Western Europe, particularly in houses and settlements around the Mediterranean. Their use was already known, but mostly in domestic buildings rather than burial monuments.
The Champigny discovery shows that communities in the Paris region were also using this construction technique, and that they were putting it to work in places associated with the dead.
The Seated Burial
Among the 11 people buried at the site, one stood apart.
Rather than being laid flat in a broad grave, this adult had been placed sitting upright inside a narrow, circular shaft that resembled a well.
The position was unusual enough. What happened to the remains afterward made the burial even more remarkable.
Over thousands of years, water filtered through the carbonate-rich ground, gradually depositing calcite around the bones. The buildup eventually formed a hard crust that completely encased the individual’s lower legs and feet.
Why the person was buried in this position is still a mystery.
There is no clear explanation for the narrow shaft or for why this individual received a treatment so different from the others buried nearby.
The bones themselves may eventually offer clues. Researchers plan to carry out ancient DNA and isotope analyses to investigate the individuals’ age, sex, health and diet. The results could also provide evidence of where they grew up and whether they moved between different places during their lives.
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