Archaeologists have discovered the ancient skeletal remains of a so-called bog body in Denmark near the remnants of a flint ax and animal bones, clues that suggest this person was ritually sacrificed more than 5,000 years ago.
Little is known so far about the supposed victim, including the person's sex and age at the time of death. But the researchers think the body was deliberately placed in the bog during the Neolithic, or New Stone Age.
"That's the early phase of the Danish Neolithic," said excavation leader Emil Struve(opens in new tab), an archaeologist and curator at the ROMU museums in Roskilde. "We know that traditions of human sacrifices date back that far — we have other examples of it."
