Excarnation practices identified at cyclopean sites. Excarnation (secondary burial) involves exposing dead bodies to remove flesh before bone storage Three methods: reburial (maggots ate flesh), knife defleshing, and sky burial (vultures/animals) Tombs of Giants in Sardinia contained dismembered human bones with cut marks
Excarnation (secondary burial) was practiced at megalithic sites across ancient Europe. Sardinia's Giants' Tombs were communal burial structures. Balearic navetas held multiple remains, and Croatian tumuli sometimes contained modified human bones. The practice involved exposing bodies to remove flesh before secondary burial, with methods including reburial, knife defleshing, and sky burial.
Key Facts
- Excarnation (secondary burial) involves exposing dead bodies to remove flesh before bone storage
- Three methods: reburial (maggots ate flesh), knife defleshing, and sky burial (vultures/animals)
- Tombs of Giants in Sardinia contained dismembered human bones with cut marks
- In mainland Italy, Bronze Age custom was shoving bones into caves
- Navetas in Balearic Islands were tombs packed with dismantled bones
- In Croatia (Monkodonja), people took skulls home and piled remaining bones in tumuli
- Toes often left at original excarnation sites, not carried to secondary burial locations
Source: The Disgusting Reason the Cyclopean Builders Vanished by One-eyed giant building walls