Cliffside Coffins and a Pink False Door: Explore 5 Bizarre Ancient Burials

Not every ancient human ended up buried beneath turf or scattered to the winds - some were laid to rest in extravagant architectural marvels, while others had their coffins fixed to high cliffs! Let's take a look at...

• The Sun-Catching Newgrange Tomb
• The Pink-Doored Princely Tomb of Saqqara
• The Mysterious Hanging Coffins of China
• The Lycian Rock Tombs
• The Sinister Gough's Cave of Cheddar Gorge

The Sun-Catching Newgrange Tomb

Boyne Valley in Ireland is the home of a passage tomb, built by Stone Age farmers and designed to be illuminated by the winter solstice sun.

The mound itself is around 85m across and 13m high, with a 19m long passage leading into a central chamber. A second opening above the passage (known as a "roof-box") allows more light to filter inside... and during the winter solstice, the rising sun shines directly through the box and sends a dagger of light into the heart of the mound.

Newgrange tomb is an ancient structure - at 5,200 years old, it predates the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge. The sun rises in a slightly different position than it did when the tomb was built, but the roof-box still works - in fact, you can enter a lottery to be allowed inside the mound during the winter solstice dawn.

Heading through the passage puts you in a central chamber surrounded by three alcoves, each of which contain large stone basins. These would have served as receptacles for both human remains and grave offerings.

Now from what's been described so far you might just be picturing a grassy barrow, but the builders of Newgrange had something a little more imposing in mind. The structure was surrounded with almost a hundred kerbstones (many of which were decorated with megalithic art) that helped keep the mound structurally sound. In addition, portions of the outer surface were covered in white quartz... that would have presented a brilliant glare to observers!

The Pink-Doored Princely Tomb of Saqqara

In the necropolis of Saqqara (home to the ancient Step Pyramid of Djoser) stands a 4,400 year old tomb with a colorful secret - a four meter tall pink granite false door!

False doors were actually fairly common in tombs, and they served an important function according to the mythology of ancient Egypt. Though they were no use for the living, it was said that the spirit of the departed could use them like a gate, granting them passage between the world of the living and the world of the dead.

What makes this door unusual is the sheer cost of the materials used in its construction. Pink granite would have been a rare luxury in ancient Egypt, as it would have needed to be quarried and transported over six-hundred kilometers from Aswan.

The reason for this expenditure is helpfully carved into the granite. It's inscribed with the titles held by the occupant of the tomb, including crown prince, judge, minister, governor of two regions and chanting priest... and archeologists believe it to be the tomb of Prince Userefre of the Fifth Dynasty!

The Mysterious Hanging Coffins of China

How would you like to spend eternity with a view? There was a mysterious ancient mortuary practice in Southern China and Southeast Asia which involved coffins being installed in high rock cliffs. The coffins were tucked into cracks and crevices... or supported with wooden stakes!

The remnants of these strange burials gave rise to all kinds of myths. One such superstition was that the builders had mastered a form of flight... while a more restrained suggestion from several centuries ago was that the higher the coffin the more auspicious the burial... though it also posited that coffins falling swiftly to Earth were fortunate as well.

So who's responsible for these burials? The coffins are said to be the work of the Bo people, an ancient group once known as the "Sons of the Cliffs" or "Subjugators of the Sky." Only a small community of Bo exist today, though analysis of the remains suggests that their genes spread throughout China and in Thailand (where a "log coffin" cave burial tradition with some similarities existed.)

The Lycian Rock Tombs

The Lycians were an ancient civilization that once inhabited Teke Peninsula in modern day Turkey. Though they were eventually absorbed by the Greek and Roman cultures, some of their tombs remain - and they really are magnificent.

The most dramatic examples are known as temple and house tombs. Carved directly into rocky cliffs, they were designed to resemble their namesakes and offer protection for the dead. They also provided a way for the deceased to retain their wealth and status in the afterlife.

One curious feature of the tombs is that higher locations were reserved for individuals of higher status. There's a fairly logical reason for this - the Lycians believed that the souls of the dead were carried to the afterlife by winged creatures, so starting out closer to heaven would make for a shorter, easier journey. Who'd have thought commuting distance to the afterlife would be a concern when designing a tomb?

The Sinister Gough's Cave of Cheddar Gorge

Let's finish with a truly ancient one. Gough's Cave in Britain served as both a ritual site and a tomb to humans over ten thousand years ago.

The cave rewarded archeologists with some unusual carved bones when it was explored. Dating back 14,700 years, the remains showed clear and intentional signs of human artistry - for example, a forearm etched with zig-zag patterns before being snapped and skulls that had been fashioned into bowls. Slightly more disturbing was the fact that many of the bones bore the telltale signs of butchery or the marks of human teeth.

It's not actually known why cannibalism was going on at Gough's Cave. The occupants didn't seem to be suffering any shortage of game (there were plenty of contemporaneous animal bones at the site.) One possible explanation is that the cannibalism was religious in nature, a ritual intended to honor the dead. If that was the case, carving the bones before breaking them may have been part of the ceremony.

Another mystery is the presence of the "Cheddar Man." Dating back 10,000 years, the remains of this ancient human were found deep in Gough's Cave - it's not known if his isolated resting place was an intentional entombment, or the result of a lonely death and subsequent burial by sediment!

Thanks for reading - for more tales of the tomb, try...

• Disturb These 5 Real-Life Vampire Graves at Your Peril...
• Are These 5 Strange Tombs Macabre or Marvelous?
• Shackled Skeletons & Mummified “Alien” Remains: Unearth These 7 Bizarre Burials

Sources and Further Info:

• Newgrange - World Heritage Site
• Mystery Surrounds Giant “False” Pink Door in Ancient Tomb of Egyptian Prince
• Exploration of hanging coffin customs and the Bo people in China through comparative genomics
• The Spectacular Lycian Rock-Hewn Tombs: A Testament to Unique Architecture
• The cannibals of Gough's Cave