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Prehistory

Graves, hoards and ancient DNA: who inherited status before writing, who was left out, and the fights over the remains today.

33 storiesEvery story with sourcesFilter all stories

What do the prehistory estate cases show?

Who inherited was settled by birth into the core family; living in the household gave the others nothing to pass on. Under a treasure law the finder owns nothing, so every sale after the dig was a crime and every buyer lost the money.

Stories
33
Years
40000 BCE to 1500
Main regions
Europe, Latin America, North America
Legal traditions
Civil law, Royal and church law
Updated
30 October 2026

Every case in prehistory, best-known first

Best-known first: cases from 1900 on, then the United States, then Europe, and the people most read about on English Wikipedia each month. Fiction, scripture and legend come last.

Map of Germany, marked on the globe2000 BCE · Lech valley, south of Augsburg, Bavaria, GermanyBronze Age farmsteads in Germany's Lech valley kept a rich core family and poor unrelated dependants side by side for 700 yearsIn 2019 Alissa Mittnik, Philipp Stockhammer, Johannes Krause and colleagues published genome-wide data from 104 people buried in cemeteries attached to farmsteads in southern Germany, from the Late Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age.Journal article (DOI) and 1 moreHimmelsscheibe von Nebra - Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte in Halle - HD: Nebra Sky Disc - State Museum of Prehistory in Halle1600 BCE · Mittelberg near Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt, GermanyTreasure hunters sold the Nebra sky disc for 32,000 marks, and the museum director who posed as a buyer had the dealers arrested in a Basel hotelOn 4 July 1999 Henry W. and Mario R., searching with metal detectors on the Mittelberg hill, dug up a bronze disc with gold inlays, two swords, two axes, a chisel and bracelet fragments. Henry W.archive.archaeology.org and 2 moreChaco Canyon Pueblo Bonito digital reconstruction: A digital model of ancient Pueblo Bonito (Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, United States) before it was abandoned.800 · Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USAPueblo Bonito's richest crypt held one maternal line for 330 years, and scientists sequenced it without asking the Pueblo tribesIn 1896 an American Museum of Natural History expedition dug Room 33 at Pueblo Bonito, a crypt of about two by two metres. On a prepared floor lay a man in his 40s who had died from a blow to the head.par.nsf.gov and 2 moreEgtved Girl: Egtvedpigen1370 BCE · Egtved, Vejle Municipality, Jutland, DenmarkThe Egtved girl was buried at 16 to 18 with a child's cremated bones, and scientists still disagree on whether she came from Germany or from EgtvedOn 24 February 1921 an oak coffin was found in a Bronze Age mound near Egtved. The tree was felled in summer, and a yarrow flower on the coffin dates the burial to summer 1370 BC.europepmc.org and 4 moreFace and funeral golden jewelry, 4600-4200 BC, AM Varna, Varm21: Imprint of the face and funeral golden jewelry. Predecessor of gold funerary mask? Burial place near Varna. Chalcol4340 BCE · Varna, BulgariaAt Varna on the Black Sea, one old man was buried with a third of all the gold in a 6,000-year-old cemetery, and the richest graves held no bodiesIn October 1972 an excavator operator, Raycho Marinov, found the Varna cemetery by accident. Ivan Ivanov excavated it from 1972 to 1991.journals.uni-lj.si and 2 moreAnzick Site 12iv15 03a: Information as for above entry, but without the arrow.10700 BCE · Anzick site, Shields River valley near Wilsall, Montana, USAConstruction workers found the Clovis child on the Anzick family ranch in 1968, the family's geneticist sequenced him, and six tribes reburied him in 2014In 1968 construction workers Ben Hargis and Calvin Sarver uncovered a burial on land owned by the Anzick family near Wilsall, Montana.pure.psu.edu and 2 moreSpirit Cave Mummy: Remains of the Spirit Cave mummy still in the wrapping and cloth it was buried in. Spirit Cave is located in Fallon, Nevada. Discovered in 1940. This image was p8600 BCE · Spirit Cave, near Fallon, Nevada, USANevada held Spirit Cave Man for decades against his tribe, a judge called it arbitrary, and the tribe agreed to DNA to prove he was theirsIn 1940 Georgia and Sydney Wheeler found a man of about 40 in Spirit Cave, wrapped in a rabbit-skin blanket and reed mats and wearing moccasins. They thought he was 1,500 to 2,000 years old.scientificamerican.com and 2 moreMap of United Kingdom, marked on the globe3700 BCE · Hazleton North long cairn, Hazleton, Gloucestershire, EnglanAncient DNA from a Cotswold tomb shows five generations of one man's family, buried by father's line, with his sons by four women in separate halvesHazleton North is a stone-built long cairn on the Cotswold Hills, excavated in 1979 to 1982 by a team led by Alan Saville; the finds went to the Corinium Museum in Cirencester.ebi.ac.uk and 1 moreVix krater: Châtillon-sur-Seine480 BCE · Vix, at the foot of Mont Lassois, Côte-d'Or, FranceThe Vix grave held the largest metal vessel of the ancient world, buried with a woman, and some scholars questioned whether the body was a woman'sIn January 1953 Maurice Moisson and René Joffroy uncovered a burial chamber at the foot of Mont Lassois, a fortified hilltop near Vix. It had not been robbed.musee-vix.fr and 2 moreTwin burial model - Sungir - Vladimir Palaty: Twin burial model. Sungir 2, 3.The building of the formet provincial administration – Palaty. Vladimir.32000 BCE · Sungir, near Vladimir, RussiaTwo disabled boys at Sungir were buried head to head with 10,000 ivory beads, and DNA showed they were not brothersSungir was found in 1955 in a clay pit near Vladimir and excavated over 16 seasons to 1977. It holds a man of about 40 and, in a second grave, two boys of about 10 and 12 laid head to head.cam.ac.uk and 3 moreLlullaillaco Volcano in Salta province, Argentina: The summit of South America’s Llullaillaco Volcano has an elevation of 6,739 meters (22,110 feet) above sea level, making it the 1500 · summit of Volcán Llullaillaco, Salta, ArgentinaThe Inca chose a 13-year-old girl for sacrifice a year before her death, fed her elite food, and gave her coca and alcohol until she died on LlullaillacoIn March 1999 Johan Reinhard and Constanza Ceruti found three frozen children near the summit of Llullaillaco at 6,739 metres. The eldest, the Llullaillaco Maiden, was 13; the others, a girl and a boy, were 4 to 5.nationalgeographic.com and 2 moreKeltenmuseum Hochdorf 01: Celt's museum Hochdorf in Eberdingen, administrative district Ludwigsburg, Germany.530 BCE · Eberdingen-Hochdorf and Asperg-Grafenbühl, Ludwigsburg distrDNA showed the Celtic prince of Hochdorf was the uncle of the prince of Asperg, through his sister, and power passed down the mother's lineThe Hochdorf grave was excavated in 1978 and 1979 under Jörg Biel.europepmc.org and 3 moreLake Mungo lunette: A section of Lake Mungo's lunette40000 BCE · Lake Mungo, Willandra Lakes, New South Wales, AustraliaMungo Man and Mungo Lady, Australia's oldest known people, came home after decades in Canberra, and their reburial split the three nations who own themIn 1968 geologist Jim Bowler found burnt bones on the dry bed of Lake Mungo. They were a woman, later called Mungo Lady, and the oldest known evidence of human cremation. In 1974 a man, Mungo Man, was found nearby.Smithsonian Magazine and 3 moreBelt Mount: Avar; Belt fitting; Metalwork-Copper567 · Rákóczifalva, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, Hungary (with three otheAvar family trees show widows taken by their husband's son or brother, and one male line that vanished from its own cemeteryIn April 2024 a team led by Zuzana Hofmanová and Guido Alberto Gnecchi-Ruscone published genomes of 424 people from four fully excavated Avar cemeteries in Nature. About 300 had a parent, child or sibling in the same cemetery.europepmc.org and 2 moreSiberian Ice Maiden inside her wooden sarcophagus (reconstruction, Anokhin Museum): Siberian Ice Maiden inside her wooden sarcophagus (reconstruction, Anokhin Museum)400 · Ukok Plateau, Altai Republic, RussiaArchaeologists flew the Ukok princess to Novosibirsk in 1993, the Altai people blamed her removal for an earthquake, and she came home to a museum mausoleum in 2012In summer 1993 a team from the Novosibirsk branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences opened a frozen burial mound on the Ukok Plateau near the Mongolian border.culturalsurvival.org and 2 moreReconstruction of face from the Grave Circle B, AM Mycenae, 090994: Reconstructions of faces from the Mycenaean Grave Circle B. Arachaeological Museum of Mycenae. Skull Zeta 59 fro1550 BCE · Grave Circle B, Mycenae, Argolis, GreeceDNA showed a woman in Mycenae's royal Grave Circle B was buried beside her brother, by right of birth, not as a wifeGrave Circle B at Mycenae was used from about 1675 to 1550 BC and overlaps the more famous Grave Circle A by about 50 years. Its 35 burials held weapons, pottery, gold ornaments and an electrum face mask.manchester.ac.uk and 2 moreAlmoloya Diadema: Diadema de plata. Ajuar de enterramiento. Almoloya. Descubren un palacio y un rico ajuar funerario de la Edad del Bronce en un yacimiento de Murcia. (2014)1650 BCE · La Almoloya, Pliego, Murcia, SpainA woman in a silver diadem was buried under the council hall of La Almoloya, and most of the grave's wealth was hers, not the man's buried with herIn 2014 excavators at La Almoloya, a hilltop seat of the Argaric culture, found Grave 38 under the floor of a large hall with benches for about 50 people, a podium and a hearth.the-past.com and 2 moreMap of Serbia, marked on the globe1800 BCE · Mokrin, Kikinda, Vojvodina, SerbiaAt Mokrin a rich mother's teenage son was buried with nothing, and a poor mother's son was buried with an axeMokrin is an Early Bronze Age cemetery of 312 graves. In 2021 a team led by Aleksandra Žegarac and Joachim Burger published 24 genomes from it in Scientific Reports. Fifteen of the 24 people had relatives in the sample.researchconnect.stonybrook.edu and 1 moreAmesbury Archer - Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum: The Amesbury Archer. An early Bronze Age man whose grave was discovered during excavations at the site of a new housing deve2300 BCE · Amesbury, Wiltshire, EnglandA man from the Alps was buried near Stonehenge with Britain's oldest gold; the younger man beside him shared a rare foot bone, but DNA rules out father and sonIn May 2002 Wessex Archaeology excavated a grave at Amesbury, about three miles from Stonehenge, ahead of a housing development.wessexarch.co.uk and 2 moreMap of Germany, marked on the globe2600 BCE · Eulau, Saxony-Anhalt, GermanyAt Eulau a mother, father and two sons killed in a raid were buried facing each other, the oldest family proven by DNAIn 2005 archaeologists at Eulau found four graves, dug at the same time, holding 13 people: children from newborns to about 10 and adults of 30 or more. No teenagers or young adults were among them.bristol.ac.uk and 2 moreGlobular amphora burial 1: Globular Amphora culture tomb - stone cist grave2776 BCE · Koszyce, southern PolandFifteen members of one family were killed with blows to the head at Koszyce, and the fathers who were missing from the grave appear to have buried themIn 2011 archaeologists near the village of Koszyce in southern Poland excavated a grave holding 15 people: women, children and young men. Every one had been killed by blows to the head, possibly in a raid on their settlement.europepmc.org and 2 morePassage leading from chamber of Newgrange passage tomb in Ireland: A section of the passage leading out from the chamber of Newgrange passage tomb in Ireland.3000 BCE · Newgrange (Brú na Bóinne), County Meath, IrelandThe man buried in the inner chamber of Newgrange was the son of a brother and sister or a parent and childNewgrange is a passage tomb built about 5,000 years ago, aligned so the winter-solstice sunrise lights its inner chamber.europepmc.org and 2 moreRicostruzione di Ötzi - Particolare del volto: Ricostruzione di come doveva essere l'aspetto di Ötzi3300 BCE · Tisenjoch (Giogo di Tisa), Ötztal Alps, South Tyrol, ItalyTwo hikers found Ötzi in 1991, a survey put him 92 metres inside Italy, and the finders fought South Tyrol in court until 2010 over the rewardOn 19 September 1991 Erika and Helmut Simon, hikers from Nuremberg, saw a body in melting ice at 3,210 metres.archive.archaeology.org and 5 moreGurgy les noisats S6 Fig: Map featuring the frequency distribution of informative haplotypes shared between Gurgy and modern populations4500 BCE · Gurgy "Les Noisats", Yonne, FranceOne founding father's bones were carried to Gurgy and reburied, and his descendants over seven generations lie around him, with almost no adult daughtersGurgy "Les Noisats" is a cemetery of more than 100 people buried between 4850 and 4500 BC, excavated by Stéphane Rottier from 2004 to 2007.europepmc.org and 2 moreMap of Germany, marked on the globe6800 BCE · Kurpark, Bad Dürrenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, GermanyThe infant buried with the shaman of Bad Dürrenberg was not her son but a descendant four or five generations down, added to her grave decades laterIn 1934 workers laying a pipe for a fountain in the spa gardens at Bad Dürrenberg struck a grave. Conservator Wilhelm Henning dug it out in a hurry so the gardens could reopen the next day; no photographs were taken.idw-online.de and 2 moreCueva del miron: Hallados restos humanos en la cueva del Mirón (Cantabria, España) que podrían corresponder al primer enterramiento del Magdaleniense encontrado en la Península Ibé16700 BCE · El Mirón Cave, Cantabria, SpainThe Red Lady of El Mirón was buried behind an engraved rock, then her skull and long bones were taken away and the rest re-painted redIn 2010 the El Mirón cave team led by Lawrence Straus and Manuel González Morales looked into a gap about a metre wide between the cave wall and a large fallen block. They found most of a woman's skeleton.archaeology.org and 2 moreFu Hao: Fu Hao Tomb and Statue, c. 1200 BC, Reign of King Wu Ding, Shang Dynasty (10197821303)1200 BCE · Yinxu, Anyang, Henan, ChinaFu Hao led the Shang king's armies, the oracle said her childbirth was "not good" because she had a girl, and hers is the only Shang royal tomb found intactFu Hao was one of the many wives of King Wu Ding. Oracle-bone inscriptions show her leading the king's best generals against neighbouring peoples and performing ancestor sacrifices.english.henan.gov.cn and 2 moreCastillo de Huarmey: Grabado del siglo XVII que representa al Castillo de Huarmey (Guarme), costa central del Perú, actual Áncash. Es una antigua construcción preinca, centro admin750 · El Castillo de Huarmey, Áncash, PeruLooters had dug all around it, but the Wari tomb at Castillo de Huarmey held 58 noblewomen and their queens, untouchedEl Castillo de Huarmey is a hill four hours north of Lima, pitted by looters' holes.nationalgeographic.com and 2 moreReconstitution de la Dame de Cao (Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Paris): Reconstitution en taille réelle de la Dame de Cao datation de la tombe : 450 ap. J.-C. Culture Moch450 · Huaca Cao Viejo, El Brujo, Magdalena de Cao, La Libertad, PeThe Lady of Cao was buried with war clubs and a crown, the first Moche woman found with a ruler's emblems, with a teenage girl beside herBefore 2005 archaeologists believed only men held high rank in Moche society. In 2005 a team led by Régulo Franco Jordán, funded by the Wiese Foundation, found a burial chamber in the Huaca Cao Viejo pyramid at El Brujo.andina.pe and 3 moreTomb of the Lord of Sipan: Tomb of the Lord of Sipan250 · Huaca Rajada, Sipán, Lambayeque, PeruLooters emptied a Moche tomb at Sipán in 1987, police shot their leader, and the archaeologist called in found the Lord of Sipán untouched below itIn early 1987 a gang led by Ernil Bernal tunnelled into a mud-brick pyramid at Huaca Rajada near the village of Sipán. On 6 February 1987 they ransacked a tomb and carried gold and silver out in rice sacks, smashing pots and bones.motherjones.com and 3 morePuabi: Queen Puabi with attendants2550 BCE · Royal Cemetery, Ur (Tell el-Muqayyar), Dhi Qar, IraqQueen Puabi of Ur was buried in gold, and the attendants Woolley said drank poison were killed with blows to the headFrom 1922 Leonard Woolley dug about 2,000 burials at Ur for the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum. In tomb PG 800 lay a woman of about 40.almanac.upenn.edu and 4 moreNoin-Ula carpet, fighting sceneNoin-Ula carpet, fighting scene: Noin-Ula carpet, fighting scene1 · Takhiltyn Khotgor, Mankhan, Khovd Province, MongoliaOn the Xiongnu frontier the great tombs were built for women, each flanked by commoner men in simple gravesThe Xiongnu were the first nomad empire of the eastern steppe, from about 200 BC to the late first century AD.europepmc.org and 2 moreÇatalhöyük, 7400 BC, Konya, Turkey - UNESCO World Heritage Site, 02: Population 5,000 - 7,000. Large numbers of buildings clustered together. The inhabitants lived in mudbrick hous5950 BCE · Çatalhöyük East Mound, Konya, TurkeyÇatalhöyük buried its dead under the house floor along the mother's line, and baby girls got five times the grave gifts of boysÇatalhöyük was a town of mud-brick houses built against each other and entered through the roof. Its people buried their dead in pits under the house floors.haber.metu.edu.tr and 2 more