Man finds a family burial older than Egyptian pyramids while working in a garden

The 7,000 years old Neolithic grave by lake Baikal might belong to one of the world’s oldest settlements.

The unique discovery was made earlier this year in May in the outskirts of Ulan-Ude, capital city of the mountainous Republic of Buryatia.

A resident of Ulan-Ude was working in the family garden with his son when they came across three skeletons – two adults and a child between them –  buried in embryo positions metres away from their home.

‘I was digging a compost pit with my son, he was picking up stones and taking them away when suddenly a bone, a joint jumped out. I spent some time volunteering for searching squads in Kursk region (meaning that Alexey was helping to re-bury remains of the WWII soldiers, The Siberian Times), so I immediately understood that these were human remains.

‘I carefully cleared top of the burial and saw the first adult’s skull first, then the child, then the second adult’, Alexey Agoshkov told a local TVcom TV channel.

His excited son Ivan said that he ran to report the find to his mother, who couldn’t believe that something as significant as an ancient burial could have been found in their garden.

Further archeological research established that the people were buried at least severn thousand years ago.

It’s not clear yet if the adults were a man and a woman; the cause of their death was not established yet.

No wounds suggesting that they could have died in a battle were found on the skeletons, said archeologist Natalia Tsydenova, researcher at the Insтιтute of Insтιтute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies.

A white stone ring was placed on top of one of the adults’ head before they were buried; the same person had bracelets made of shell on both wrists.

A fragment of a bone needle carrier was found on another adult skeleton along with three small plates of chalcedony by the hips.

Further research will establish gender of the people found in the burial, their age, racial idenтιтy and the cause of death.

The burial does look similar to Kitoy people, the early Neolithic culture of the North Angara region, though there are some differences from the traditional Kitoy graves, Natalia Tsydenova said.

Might this burial be a part of a bigger graveyard and belong to an ancient  settlement?

Yes, and if so ‘it would be simply amazing’, said doctor of history Prokopy Konovalov who has been working at the site.