One of the few good things about the disaster of the weekend is that when I reloaded my back-up files (yes, I do keep back-ups; sadly not enough of them) it returned my emails, desktop etc, to a period just before Christmas last year, and I found this story, sent to me by an acquaintance called Emma.I found it incredibly poignant, but as we weren't doing the bloggo back then, I had no outlet for the story.
Just picked up on this article, the archeologist/graverobbers have discovered the remains of a child aged three buried with a carved toy hedgehog. Just looking at the pictures of the little toy make me feel so incredibly sad :(
http://forums.canadiancontent.net/history/77958-toy-hedgehog-found-childs-grave.html
Wish they would put the child and his toy back and let them be. Doubt they will though :(
But was it a toy.
ReplyDeleteIt must be remembered that hedgehog would quite likely have been on the dinner menu of the people. It is easy to catch, easy to cook and rather tasty.
I would suggest that in the same way that stone axes, flint arrow heads and other implements were frequently buried with dead hunters, it is quite possible that a representation of a food item could have been buried to give nourishment to the child on his/her journey.