500-year-old graves sat forgotten at monastery ruins in Germany — until now. See them

Under the ruins of a long-gone monastery in Germany sat a collection of 500-year-old graves. The burials, once carefully arranged and rearranged, had been forgotten — until now.

The “surprisingly well-preserved” monastery in Posa was founded in 1114 but destroyed by 1700, the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt said in a June 28 news release. Archaeologists started excavating the site in 2017 and return annually.

During this year’s excavation, researchers focused on the monastery’s mid-12th century cloister, a section used as living quarters by the monks.

Underneath the ruins were “burials of at least 15 people” dating between 500 and 800 years ago, archaeologists said. The skeletons were densely packed and layered atop each other in a roughly 10 foot by 25 foot space.

Officials shared photos of the 500-year-old graves in a June 27 news release.

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During early medieval and medieval times, cloisters were “a popular burial place,” archaeologists said. “If new burial space was needed, existing skeletal remains were removed, kept elsewhere, or later placed in the new grave pit.”

Excavations at the ruined monastery also uncovered a wooden water pipe system dating back at least 800 years and the foundations of a 1,000-year-old building. Several more burials were found under the 1,000-year-old structure.

Archaeologists plan to continue excavations of the graves and, when they’re done, fill in the site.

Posa is a village in eastern Germany, near the border with Czechia and a roughly 150-mile drive southwest of Berlin.

Google Translate was used to translate the June 27 news release from the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt.

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