Archaeologists are still perplexed by a March report regarding a bizarre sixth-century burial uncovered in Hungary.
Archaeologists uncovered a strange burial at a 1,500-year-old settlement, containing the remains of a lynx along with four dogs, according to a study published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. The 4.6 foot-deep burial pit held the lynx skeleton at the bottom, with the dogs layered on top. The dogs are believed to be some type of German shepherd.
The lynx – known in North America as the bobcat – is not considered a particularly good house pet unless they’re extremely well raised in captivity, so archaeologists are pondering why our ancient ancestors threw the cat into the burial with the pups, Live Science noted.
This bobcat picked the wrong hammock https://t.co/x75RfJFUxl
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 2, 2023
“Archaeologically, lynx skeletons are extremely rare, as lynx meat is usually not consumed,” study co-author Laszlo Bartosiewicz told Live Science in April. As a result, “it is hard to summarize our interpretation of the lynx/dogs burial as no parallels (archaeological or ethnographic) are known,” he added.
Live Science argued that the burial might be the end result of a violent battle in which all of the dogs lost their lives to the lynx. (RELATED: Archaeologists Uncover Strange Remnants Of Long-Lost ‘Pagan Cult’)
But the archaeologists did not “over-interpret” the bizarre burial. Obviously the horrifically predictable archaeologists said it could be some type of “ritual” or “lynx cult,” because seemingly all archaeologists and anthropologists immediately blame things they don’t understand on bizarre religious processes instead of just assuming Occam’s Razor in any given situation.
In this situation, Occam’s Razor probably has something to do with our ancient ancestors wanting to bury dead animals to avoid being overrun with pests, scavenger animals, and possibly disease? Or something just as simple as that.