Bronze Age Burial Found in Aosta Valley (Northern Italy)

From stonepages.com

17 July 2011
5,000-year-old skeleton unearthed in Northern Italy

The 5,000-year-old skeleton of a woman was recently found in Aosta Valley (Northern Italy). "The Lady of Introd", as it has been nicknamed, was in perfect conditions, but the archaeologists found no sign of any burial items apart from the bones themselves.

The tomb was discovered in the small Alpine village of Introd, today home to about 600 people and located not far from the main town Aosta. An archaeological survey made before a planned extension of the local kindergarten allowed scientists to discover the ancient burial. The human remains have been found on a hill near the village; in the same area there is also a castle, the parish church and a shack. The skeleton found at Introd is contemporary to Oetzi, the famous iceman found 20 years ago in Trentino-Alto Adige, the mountainous region on the border between Austria and Italy.

"This discovery is of great importance, and we are looking forward to organizing special meetings in order to allow local community to fully understand the value and the related historical information of such a find. We'd like to give access to our heritage to as many people as possible," regional Cultural assessor Laurent Vierin said.

The remains are now in a lab, and they will be carefully studied to assess the cause of death. In any case, the children of the local kindergarten have been granted the right to choose the official name of their ancestor.

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This is very interesting.  A lone burial with no artifacts in the burial at all - not a single pot or offering of food? I wonder if this woman's burial was a lucky "escape" - it sounds as if there has been quite a bit of development in the immediate vicinity of the grave over the years and who knows what may have been destroyed along the way, unknowingly - or knowingly?  It's sad in a way.  Her body has survived 5,000 years (incredible when you think about it), but we may never know any more about her other than her approximate age, maybe a cause of death, and maybe a guess at ethnicity unless a DNA sample is taken and analyzed.