German Badger Digs Up Medieval Treasure

European Badger

European Badger

A badger helped discover a Medieval grave site in Germany when it dug its den into the tombs of two Slavic lords last fall. The discovery was made public this week.

The burial site, which is located about 45 miles northeast of Berlin, includes a sword, bronze bowls, an ornate belt buckle and skeletal remains, according to Spiegel Online. Lars Wilhelm and Hendrikje Ring live on the farm and were planning to exhibit some of their sculpture work near the badger den when they noticed what had been uncovered.

“We spotted a pelvic bone that had been dug up. It was clearly human,” Ring told Spiegel Online. “It wasn’t exactly surprising to us because a whole field of ancient graves had been found on the other side of the road in the 1960s. So we pushed a camera into the badger’s sett and took photos by remote control. We found pieces of jewelry, retrieved them and contacted the authorities.”

Archaeologists found a total of eight graves dating back to the first half of the 12th century at the site.

For more information on the archaeologists findings, visit Spiegel Online.

German badgers are from the European badger subfamily. They are colored similarly to the American badgers we have in North America, but they look a little different.

If badgers are digging up your yard and you want to trap them, Hunter Bodenchuk wrote a great how-to article on trapping badgers that appeared in our August 2013 issue. To purchase a digital copy of the magazine and read the article, visit ShopDeerHunting.com.

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