Archaeologists Shocked to Find Ring of Children's Skulls Around a Lake, Unearth a Strange Ancient Ritual

Human sacrifice is one of those brutal practices that were carried out through different periods in history for various reasons. In some of the most gruesome sacrifices, children were also offered to gods during macabre rituals. A ring of children's skulls was found buried in areas of Germany and Switzerland in 2014, according to Live Science. Archaeologists from the Basel University of Switzerland discovered the skulls which were kept in a way forming a protective ring around a human settlement in that area.

The findings indicated that ancient people inhabiting those areas used to bury the children around the lakes, following the age-old tradition of sacrificing humans to the water gods. The study conducted by experts from the university believed that the sacrifices were carried out to prevent flooding in the settlements. The skulls were found with various traces of head trauma such as blows from axes that resulted in broken bones and slash marks. The researchers theorized that the children faced violent deaths possibly due to war and were later buried.

These skulls were retrieved much later during the Bronze Age by communities of people who strategically placed them around the water bodies in the area, hoping to prevent flooding. "These skulls are a rare find," Benjamin Jennings, an archaeologist at Basel University told Live Science, "The remains are found at the perimeter of the settlement — not inside and not outside but at a liminal position on the border between in and out, suggesting they were used to protect against rising waters."

The study on the skulls that was originally published in the Antiquity journal, elaborated that the children do not appear to have been human sacrifices but the skulls may nonetheless have been offerings to the gods by communities faced with the threat of environmental change, stated Daily Mail. The study also dived into the details of the ancient settlements in that area. "The houses were either elevated on stilts (if the village was erected close to or in the water) or on top of a well-insulated wooden surface built directly on the ground if the settlement was far enough from the lake shore," the study mentioned, according to Daily Mail. It was also made evident that the skeletal remains of the children were deposited exactly at the time when the severity of the flooding became apparent.

The experts analyzed the damaged skulls of the children and deduced that most of them were under 10 years old when they died. They also found signs of tooth decay and respiratory diseases and revealed that they would not have been enough to kill the children. "For residents of the British Isles, many local bodies of water such as streams and wells were host to water spirits – and often these took on the role of local deity. Historians say it became a popular custom to toss a bit of silver — coins, pins, etc — into a sacred body of water as an offering to the god or goddess of that area," Patti Wigington, pagan author and educator, wrote in Water Folklore and Legends, stated Ancient Origins.