7,000-year-old beaver bone pit reveals how Europe’s first farmers used animal fur

PC :State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt Archaeologists in Germany have uncovered a Stone Age pit near Alsleben, Saxony-Anhalt, containing the bones of at least twelve beavers, offering an unusually vivid window into how Europe's earliest farmers exploited animal fur. The roughly 7,000-year-old feature was first unearthed in 2024 during surveys ahead of construction of the SuedOstLink power line, and has now been dated to between 4935 and 4787 BC, placing it within the Linear Pottery culture.The bones, described by researchers as "exceptionally well preserved and mostly unfragmented," show no anatomical connection to one another, suggesting the beavers were skinned and their carcasses left to decompose before the remains were finally gathered and buried together. Excavated by the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology (LDA) of Saxony-Anhalt, the find points to a deliberate, organised hunting episode, and hints at the surprisingly elaborate fur clothing worn by some of the continent's first farming communities.7,000-year-old beaver bones found along a major power line routeThe find emerged during preparatory archaeological surveys for the ...