A Bronze Age burial discovered at a cape on Maloe More near Chernorud at Lake Baikal in Russia revealed an ancient couple of an elderly man and his wife or concubine. The site is a sacred burial place since Neolithic times overlooking the waters of Lake Baikal. The individuals were buried on their backs heads to the west, hand in hand.
Experts from Irkutsk National Research Technical University and Laboratory of Archeology, Paleoecology, and Life Support Systems of the Peoples of North Asia believe the burial to be 4500-5000 years old and connected to the Glazkov culture.
The male skeleton is complete but rodents destroyed the upper part of the female. A large jade knife measuring 13 cm in lengths and 7 cm in width was found near the woman. Pendants of red deer and musk deer teeth were found on the male skull. The man’s skeleton had a ring made of rare white jade over one eye socket and three more on his chest.
Samples of the bone of the couple have been sent to Canada for radiocarbon analysis. A small leather bag between male’s kneecaps was found with some kind of a metal implement but the contents of the leather pouch is yet to be revealed.
(after The Siberian Times)