According to the Daily Mail recently, when Polish construction workers were clearing land to construct a highway called S19 in Jezowe area, Nisko town, Podkarpackie province (Poland), they suddenly discovered show the remains of the dead. This stretch of road is part of a road project stretching from Greece to Lithuania.
After digging further, they discovered more remains so they immediately reported it to local authorities. Archaeologists and scientists were quickly called to the scene.
The ancient cemetery was discovered by Polish construction workers during road construction.
A total of 115 sets of remains were excavated, of which 70-80% were children. But what is even more remarkable is that some children’s remains have coins placed in their mouths. According to archaeologists’ predictions, this cemetery dates back to the 16th century.
They also confirmed that this was not a mass grave where bodies were thrown into a hole, but the position of these remains showed that they were buried very carefully. All were placed with their backs on the ground, their arms folded straight at their sides, and archaeologists were surprised to see that some still had coins in their mouths.
Two sides of one of the coins were found.
Archaeologist Katarzyna Oleszek said these coins represent the beliefs of the ancients. They are called the obols of the dead or the obols of Charon, which come from an ancient pre-Christian burial custom but were still practiced by Pope Pius IX in the 19th century. The obols were placed in the mouth of the dead before the burial. This is the toll or bribe to Charon, the ferryman who ferries souls across the river that separates the worlds of the living and the dead.
It was those coins that helped archaeologists estimate the time the bodies were buried. The newly discovered coins at Jezowe were minted during the reign of King Sigismund III Vasa, who ruled Poland from 1587 – 1632, and King John II Casimir, who ruled from 1648 – 1668.
Another special discovery in the cemetery was four children lying next to each other. Their heads are tilted to one side, their legs and arms touching. Among them, one child is much younger than the other three and is placed on the outside.
Besides coins, there were no other items in the grave such as buttons, screws, or coffin handles. This shows that the people buried were very poor.
“The arrangement and state of preservation of the remains show that this is a Catholic church cemetery, with a caretaker taking care of it. The new graves do not damage the old graves, meaning the caretaker is in charge of clearly know their location,” Oleszek said.
The research team also believes that this is most likely an area for children in the ancient cemetery, whose parents may be located nearby.
(Source: Daily Mail)
