The Karsdorf remains are the bodies of more than 30 Neolithic humans who were buried in the vicinity of Karsdorf, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany.
Two males, known as KAR6 (or I0795) and KAR16a (I0797), have been of great interest to scholars as the subject of successful Y-DNA analysis. Both have been found to belong to subclades of Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b, which is rare in modern populations. These ancient specimens' mtDNA haplogroups have been found to be H1* (H1au1b) and H46b. Their autosomal ancestral components also consist of around 70% Western European Hunter-Gatherer (WHG) and 30% Basal Eurasian. Both men lived 7500–6800 BP and belonged to the Linienbandkeramische Kultur ("Linear band pottery culture"; LBK).
Site
Located in the valley of Unstrut, Burgenlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, the Karsdorf sits is characterized by alluvial loess. The place itself was settled intensively since the earliest phase of the Linear Pottery culture (LBK) in the region. The settlement area is at least 50 acres in size and nearly 30 houses have been excavated. So-called ‘settlement burials’ were regularly found in pits in the center of the settlement area, of which individual KAR6/I0795 (feature 170, 5207-5070 calBCE, MAMS 22823) was sampled for this study.
The LBK settlement of Karsdorf (Burgenlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt) is located approximately 100 km south of Derenburg and Halberstadt, on the river Unstrut, and was occupied between 5240 and 5000 BC (Behnke, 2007). The reasons why this early Neolithic settlement was abandoned are unclear. The Neolithic buildings (n=24) of three settlement stages are dated to the early and middle LBK (after Meier-Arendt 1966). Except for four graves, all of the 30 burials are associated in groups next to houses in the centre of the settlement, similar to the site of Halberstadt. The individuals are buried in house-flanking pit graves at the western side of the houses and mostly arranged in north-east or north-west orientation. Grave goods are sparse; few graves contained more than one pot or a shell or horn pendant. Associated with every house group we can identify a person with outstanding grave inventory, who may represent a founding generation.|Oelze et al.
Burials
A special feature of the LBK site at Karsdorf is graves associated with particular houses, which can therefore be regarded as settlement burials.
Most of the individuals were buried in a flexed position, oriented to the north-east or north-west. Six individuals were inhumed in supine and four in prone position, of which only three showed a fully stretched body.
The LBK in Karsdorf is represented by 24 longhouses oriented north-west–south-east. The assemblage is composed of 20 adults (55% males and 35% females), one juvenile (15–18 years), four as infants of 7–14 years and six infants of 0–6 years. The maximum age at death of males ranged between 40 and 59 years and of females 40–49 years respectively. The oldest individual is a woman with 65–75 years. In association with the house S and H, women, men, and children were buried together, in some cases even in the same pit. The furnishing of the graves at Karsdorf can be regarded as rather sparse. Only 9 out of 34 burials contained grave goods, such as an axe in a man's grave and a shell buried with a woman, imply sex-specific grave furnishings.
The large variability and the sparse indications for maternal kinship suggest a dynamic and mobile group of which several members were buried elsewhere and/or which integrated individuals who originated from other communities. These integrated individuals could be mostly females due to the high indications for paternal kinship among the analysed individuals.
Isotope analysis
According to Sr isotope ratios, there are two distinct groups of individuals in Karsdorf but none of both are specially 'exotic'. So, there is no indication of individuals who grew up in geologically distinct uplands or further north in central Germany.