Bad Dürrenberg burial

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The Bad Dürrenberg burial is a Mesolithic double grave found near Bad Dürrenberg in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It dates to about 7000–6800 BC.

Discovery and excavation
- Discovered on May 4, 1934, by workers digging a water pipe in a spa garden beside the Saale river.
- Excavated in one day under Wilhelm Henning because time was short; no photographs were taken, only notes and sketches.
- In 2019, a new look showed the burial had been preserved in the trench and was carefully removed in two blocks for study.

Grave and contents
- The grave held a seated adult woman (about 30–40 years old) with an infant (6–8 months) in her lap.
- The body and the grave were filled with red ochre.
- Grave goods were plentiful: a roe deer antler headdress, about 50 pierced teeth from various animals, a polished stone axe blade, microlith blades in a crane bone container, a hammerstone, pebbles, and many animal bones and shells.
- The burial was rectangular, roughly 90 by 55 cm, and up to 1.46 m deep. The upper part was trough-shaped; the lower part was a wooden-lined shaft.

Dating and interpretation
- Radiocarbon dating puts the burial at about 9,000 years ago (7000–6800 BC), in the Mesolithic.
- The woman shows neck vertebrae abnormalities and brain-area malformations. These may have caused neurological symptoms. Because of her elaborate burial and possible ritual features, she is often called the Bad Dürrenberg shaman.
- Genetic analysis suggests she had a relatively dark complexion, straight dark hair, and blue eyes, with mitochondrial haplogroup U4.

Baby and relatives
- The infant was a boy, likely related to the woman by about 4th or 5th degree kinship. This could mean she was his great-great-grandmother or his aunt/cousin, depending on generations. Previously the baby was thought to be her child.

Antler headdresses and later memory
- About 6,400 BC, roughly 600 years after the burial, two antler headdresses were buried nearby, suggesting the woman may have been remembered and honored for centuries.

Display and significance
- The burial is notable for its large number of grave goods for its time and for the clues it provides about Mesolithic life and beliefs.
- Today it is on display at the Halle State Museum of Prehistory in Halle, Germany.