Two disabled boys at Sungir were buried head to head with 10,000 ivory beads, and DNA showed they were not brothers

Sungir 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. More than 13,000 beads were found across the burials, about 10,000 hours of work. The boys had more than 10,000 mammoth-ivory beads, more than 20 armbands, about 300 pierced fox teeth and 16 mammoth-ivory spears. Two human fibulae, lower-leg bones, lay across their chests. Beside them was an adult thigh bone packed with red ochre. In 2018 Erik Trinkaus and Alexandra Buzhilova re-examined the boys. Both showed periods of starvation. The 10-year-old had short, bowed thigh bones but was active. The 12-year-old had been bedridden and ate soft food. The man's burial had similar goods but far fewer. The boys had long been called twins or brothers. In October 2017 Martin Sikora and Eske Willerslev's team published genomes of four Sungir people in Science. All four were male, and none was closer than second cousins, including the two boys. The ochre-filled thigh bone came from someone no closer than a great-great-grandfather. Willerslev said the groups "understood the importance of avoiding inbreeding."