Mass grave with a thousand skeletons found in Germany

Archaeologists say they have discovered what may be the largest mass grave ever excavated in Europe, at a site in southern Germany.

Around a thousand skeletons of plague victims have so far been found in mass graves in the city center of Nuremberg, which experts believe could contain a total of more than 1,500 people, according to a press release published Tuesday (5). .

The remains were discovered during an archaeological survey prior to the construction of new residential buildings in the city.

Melanie Langbein from the Nuremberg heritage conservation department told CNN that eight plague pits were identified, each containing several hundred bodies.

“These people were not buried in a normal cemetery, although we have designated plague cemeteries in Nuremberg,” Langbein said.

“This means a large number of dead people who needed to be buried in a short space of time, regardless of Christian burial practices,” she said.

Because of this, an epidemic like the plague is “more than likely” the explanation for the mass graves, according to Langbein.

Nuremberg suffered plague outbreaks every 10 years starting in the 14th century, she said, making dating the remains a challenge.

Archaeologists used radiocarbon validation to date a mass grave to the late 1400s and early 1600s, and found potsherds and coins dated to the end of that range at the site.

They also discovered a note from 1634 detailing an outbreak of plague that killed more than 15,000 people between 1632 and 1633, which says nearly 2,000 people were buried near St. Sebastian Spital, the site of the current excavation, Langbein said.

This evidence led the team to conclude that the oldest group of remains likely dates from the 1632-1633 epidemic.

Julian Decker, whose company In Terra Veritas is carrying out the excavation, told CNN who was surprised by the discovery.

“There was no indication that there were any graves in this field,” he said, adding that when the remains were first discovered he thought they might have come from World War II bombings.

Decker now believes the site could contain more than 1,500 bodies.

“Personally, I expect the number to be 2,000 or even more, making it the largest mass grave in Europe,” he said.

Langbein told CNN that the epidemic of 1632-1633 was worse than previous ones due to the impact of the Thirty Years' War, a series of conflicts fought by several European nations from 1618 to 1648.

“Nuremberg was surrounded by different troops and the population lived in quite dire circumstances,” she said.

The tombs contain a representative sample of society at the time, researchers say, allowing them to examine the characteristics of the population.

“We can, with statistical means, explore the size and demographics of the city with the same tools that a modern census team would do with a recent population,” Decker said, including the percentage of children and adults, women and men, and overall health.

“Technically we could find out what percentage of people are left-handed,” he added.

The next step is work to complete the excavation, as well as cleaning and analyzing the bone material, Langbein told CNN .

There will also be collaborations with institutions interested in certain aspects of the findings, including analyzing the plague genome and investigating parasite eggs in the soil, he added.

“We are also planning an exhibition, but that will take some time, so fall 2025 would be the earliest we could be ready,” Langbein said.