Thuringian Burial Ground

[Recusant]

Apparently there was some noise in the press about a "harem" being found at an archaeological site in Germany. Somehow I missed it, though I surmise that if I were a faithful reader of The Daily Mail or equivalent I'd be fully informed on the matter. Minus the noise it would have been "some interesting remains were found." More is now known about those interesting remains.

"Germanic lord buried with a harem of 6? Not quite, but the real story is fascinating." | Live Science

An early medieval cemetery unearthed in Germany may not contain "a harem for the hereafter," as some news outlets reported; but it's still a remarkable find, likely holding the remains of a wealthy aristocrat and about 80 other people, some buried with riches such as glass bowls, gold jewelry and sharp weapons, according to the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle, Germany.

The individuals buried at the roughly 1,500-year-old aristocratic estate were part of the short-lived Thuringian Kingdom, which lasted for about 80 years before the Franks conquered them in A.D. 531. Before its demise, the kingdom reigned during a tumultuous time known as the Migration Period, when the so-called Barbarian peoples, such as the Huns, Goths and Vandals, gained power as the remains of the Western Roman Empire crumbled.

Some of the Thuringian graves held highly affluent people, at least according to the artifacts buried with them. "In general, the women were equipped with their jewelry (fibulae/brooches, hairpins, necklaces of glass beads) and men with their weapons (sword, lance/spear, shield)," Arnold Muhl, an archaeologist and expert on the Migration and Early Medieval Period at the State Museum of Prehistory, told Live Science in an email.

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