Archaeologists in northern Germany have uncovered a striking clue to early ritual life: a skull of an aurochs, an ancient species of wild cattle, that had been placed on a wooden stake near a 10,500-year-old cremation burial.
The find, made at Duvensee Moor in Schleswig-Holstein, points to complex burial practices at the start of the current warm period and offers rare evidence of how early hunter-gatherers may have treated their dead.
The discovery came from the site known as Lüchow LA 11, one of the most important early Mesolithic sites in northern Europe. Researchers from the Leibniz Center for Archaeology are studying the site with the Schleswig-Holstein State Archaeological Office and the Museum of Archaeology at Gottorf Castle.
The burial itself was uncovered in 2022 and 2023. It is the oldest known cremation burial in northern Germany, dating to about 10,500 years ago. Only two other cremation graves from the same early phase of the Holocene are known in Europe, one in the Netherlands and one in Denmark, but both are less well preserved.
Oldest cremation burial in northern Germany
Harald Lübke of the Leibniz Center for Archaeology said the site is unusual because parts of the ancient ground surface survived under later peat deposits. That preservation, he explained, allows researchers to study the burial setting in unusual detail.
The evidence shows the burned human remains were buried together with material from the funeral pyre and that the grave likely stayed visible for some time.
In the summer of 2025, archaeologists expanded their work and found a complete aurochs skull in a shallow-water area in front of the burial. Unlike similar finds from other sites that have been interpreted as butchering waste, this one showed no signs of being cut apart.
Because the skull was fragile, it was removed in a block of sediment and taken to the museum for study. During examination, researchers found part of a pine post inside it. CT scans later confirmed that the skull of the wild cattle had been mounted through the rear opening onto a stake, which later broke and remained inside.
Skull of wild cattle mounted on a stake
An earlier excavation had already uncovered a separate poplar post near the burial. Because the wood types are different, researchers said the two posts cannot be the same.
Researchers now think the cremation burial may once have been surrounded by several animal skulls mounted on posts. Lübke said such an arrangement may have been meant to protect the dead and may reflect beliefs that linked human groups, animals and the natural world.
Since 2023, the site has also been used for field training for students from the universities of Kiel, Rostock and the Free University of Berlin. Further excavation will examine whether more animal skulls remain buried at the site.
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