Human skeletons can be strange, even in the most normal of positions. Ancient bones have a particular knack for dropping jaws and not just their own. Societies who lived long ago sometimes buried their dead in strange ways for reasons that defy even what the experts know of their culture. But enigmatic skeletons are not the only ones found at odd angles. Victims of feuds, murder, and failed rebellions make a tragic return, while double graves reveal people with unexpected gestures and placements.

10 Hand Holding Men

The bubonic plague that swept through London was something out of a nightmare. The 1348 wave slaughtered more than half of the population. Nearly 50,000 victims received hasty burials in Smithfield.

One grave held two men holding hands; their heads turned to look to the right. Another skull was also found with the pair. The men were aged in their 40s and arranged in identical positions, with one man’s left hand holding the right of his companion. They died sometime in the early 15th century, meaning they were born after the horrors of 1348, but since they were interred in a plague field, it appears they did not survive the later waves that continued to cull London’s citizens.

While the grave had been dug with care, no remnants of coffins or burial cloth were found. If they were placed directly in the ground, it is possible that the hand holding might be accidental. Who they were, why they faced the same way or how the older man received a defensive arm fracture remains a mystery. The extra skull appears to be from an older grave disturbed by gravediggers.

9The Gender Bender

The Corded Ware culture was a Stone Age people who buried their dead according to gender. When men died, the grave was filled with weapons and tools, and the body was placed facing west. Women went into the afterlife with domestic ware while looking into the opposite direction.

In 2011, researchers found a Corded Ware man outside of Prague. When he died about 5,000 years ago, his community arranged the grave, and him, as a woman. Resting on his left side, the caveman faced east, and household jugs and pots kept him company. Considering that his people, who lived from 2,800-2,500 B.C., were very strict about funeral rites, this is unlikely to be a blunder on their part.

The archaeologists who discovered the strange skeleton believe it could signify the earliest discovery in the Czech Republic of somebody with a different sexual orientation and that it was accepted by the community. Skeptic scholars say that identification of a skeleton’s gender (by looking at pelvic differences) is about 90 percent accurate but not infallible.

8Feuds In The Desert

Over the course of 20 years, archaeologists studied 170 bodies in the Sonoran Desert. They were all laid to rest between 2100 B.C. and A.D. 50. Throughout the ages, burial customs in the Sonoran changed little. The dead were respectfully placed on their side in a curled-up position. The final resting place was then decorated with shells, crystals, bone tools, and pipes of stone.

Eight of the graves, found near the Mexican-US border, did not fit any known tradition. The skeletons were in awkward poses, almost looking disrespectfully discarded. Some died violently. There were broken bones, and one woman’s head had been set alight. A younger man was found with four apparent arrowheads inside him.

There were no ritual or preventative measures such as heavy stones or dismemberment that might have explained the corpses as victims of witch hunts or sacrifices. The way that the brutal treatment continued after death indicated the funeral was not a happy one. Researchers believe the desecration was reserved for victims of blood feuds.

7Beshtasheni

Recently, an ancient cemetery called Beshtasheni turned up two headless corpses and a head without a body. The graveyard consisted of 16 graves left behind by Late Bronze Age and early Iron Age tribes in southeastern Georgia. A young couple occupied a double tomb. The man was aged between 19-25, and the woman was around 23-25 years old. Their headless skeletons were in the fetal position. Resting on her right side, similar to her partner, the probable cause of the woman’s death came in the painful form of two bronze arrowheads. One had struck her in the leg and the other lodged close to the heart.

Their heads were never found, but another showed up in its own grave. The girl it once belonged to was around 17-25 when she died. Her skull was displayed on a plate and surrounded by offerings of ceramics, beads, and metal objects. Nearly all the tombs contained such a wealth of artifacts that it surprised even the experts. It remains unclear whether the missing body parts were intentionally removed before burial, or somehow not available due to some misfortune.

6 Cylon’s Men

When developers began digging outside of Athens, the idea was to start clearing the land for new cultural centers. Instead, some human bones rose to the surface. After all were dusted and cleared, a tragic sight met the living. Eighty men, nearly half of them shackled, were sitting in neat rows. The majority were healthy, young individuals in the prime of their lives. Two vases unearthed from the mass grave allowed researchers to date the site to 650-625 B.C. The date range placed the group in a volatile era for Athens.

One notable event occurred in 632 B.C. An Olympic champion called Cylon dreamed of taking over the city. To accomplish this, he raised an army, but when the people of Athens failed to join his rebellion, Cylon and his men were trapped inside a temple and massacred. There is no better evidence that these were Cylon’s followers, other than the time bracket being right and the shackles. The creepy, unearthly collection of skeletons is rare, though. Not many remains from the lower social classes have ever been found, and these make for a rich haul to study.

5 The Murdered Pict

Excavations in Scotland delivered an unexpected skeleton in a cave. The man was on his back and cross-legged. Beach stones weighed down his limbs. Found in the Black Isle, Ross-shire, the presence of human remains was surprising. They also found fireplaces and rubble from iron-working dating back to the time when he died.

Finding a burial inside what was probably a smithing workshop is a mystery to archaeologists. When forensic anthropologists took over, they made a grisly discovery. The 1,400-year-old man was murdered sometime between A.D. 430-630, also known as Scotland’s Pictish era. The attack he suffered was methodical and vicious. An object with a circular cross section was smashed into the right side of his face, shattering the teeth. A second swing, bearing traces of the same weapon, broke his jaw from the left. As he toppled down, a brutal blow was delivered to the back of his head. Once on the ground, a final thrust pierced his skull from one side to the other. It is unknown why he was killed, but he was buried with care, inside a dark alcove. A recent reconstruction of his face showed that he was young and handsome.

4Dark Side Of The Etruscans

The Etruscan civilization remains one of the most fascinating cultures. Peaking around 900 B.C., they were advanced and artistic. From them, the French learned about wine making and the Romans how to built roads. Their grave goods and art revealed an eclectic, good-natured people who respected their women. One skeleton brings a little-known aspect about the Etruscans to the fore—that they also had a cruel side.

In Tuscany, archaeologists found an Etruscan burial with a 20-30-year-old man inside. He was still in the chains he had died in 2,500 years ago, leaving one arm awkwardly twisted. Iron around his neck and ankles weighed almost five pounds. The shackles were a complex system designed to prevent normal walking. The metal collar was once attached to a wooden object (now gone) that ran behind the neck. Also long since degraded, were leather or material cords that connected the punishing device from his neck to the feet. This first-ever Etruscan grave with a shackled person was unexpectedly found in a necropolis containing normal burials.

3The Yamal Four

When scientists opened medieval graves in the Yamal peninsula, they found something odd. The archaeological site Yur-Yakha III is an 11th-century cemetery where four graves defied the norm. Unique for the time, the skeletons were crouching in a fetal-like fold. There are no similar graves on the peninsula. Other sites produced bodies in extended positions, which was normal for Yamal’s medieval period.

Between the man and three women existed an abnormal amount of serious physical ailments. Just some of the conditions included shoulder dislocation, dental abnormalities, sinusitis, and lower spinal trauma caused by giving birth. The women were young, in their late teens or early twenties and the man around 50. His state was particularly diseased—and scorched. He had hyperostosis, a condition where bone tissue cannot stop growing, and as a child, he experienced more illness and starvation. After death, his body had been briefly set on fire. Enough to burn soft tissue but not the bones. There is no record of such a ritual or sacrifice from the region, which deepens the puzzle even more.

2Sacrificial Twist

Along Peru’s north coast, ancient prisoners-of-war could look forward to one fate. During gory ceremonies, such men were sacrificed. Recently, researchers encountered a different version when they found six skeletons near the city of Chiclayo. Found at a temple in Pucalá, they had clearly been sacrificed.

Surprisingly, the remains belonged to healthy young women. They were killed around A.D. 850, and their bodies arranged in odd positions. Four were piled into one grave. The other two were on sloping platforms, feet in the air. Also breaking with tradition is that it appears to have been a private event held within the temple. Sacrifice was often public, but the women apparently died behind high walls obscuring the ritual. They were buried beneath the floor of the mud-brick complex, but unlike other north-south Moche burials, they were aligned in an east-west line. The only thing they had in common with their male counterparts was that the bodies lacked several ribs. This fits with a known purification ritual of sacrificed individuals being left outside so vultures could consume their organs.

1The Mesolithic Half-Burial

During the Mesolithic, hunter-gatherers never remained in one location for long. When nine skeletons were found just 50 miles north of Berlin, archaeologists excitedly realized they were looking at one of the earliest permanent cemeteries in Europe. It was used between 6400-500 B.C., and the oddest resident was a man who had been buried upright. Not only does he stand in a vertical grave but he was only partially covered up.

After the young man died, about 7,000 years ago, he was placed in a standing position with his back against the wall of the five-foot pit. To steady the body, the hole was filled with sand to above knee level. The most bizarre behavior was that his community left him there, half exposed, until the upper body disintegrated from decay, and predators had a good nibble on his arms. Only then was the tomb completed. The strange sight was filled up and sealed by lighting a fire on top. Since the skeleton was respectfully surrounded with grave goods, researchers believe the unique funeral was not a form of punishment.

Every day when you wake up and start walking around you’re carrying a skeleton with you. That’s just as bad as being stalked by a vampire. That creepy, bony guy is right under your skin 24/7. You might not be giving a second thought to your skeleton in your day-to-day life unless maybe you have some bone injuries now and then, but there’s a lot to know about your skeleton, or skeletons in general, that could make you want to jump right out of your skin.

10. Your Skeleton is Replaced Every 10 Years or So

Your body seems like a very permanent thing because it’s you. It’s not like your body goes anywhere without you. But, in a technical sense, you’re actually recycling your body all the time. Your cells die and are replaced constantly to the point that who you are today is not who you were a year ago, at least in terms of the cells and atoms that make you up. Your skeleton is no different.

Even though a skeleton seems like a pretty solid, stationary, and permanent aspect of yourself, it’s not. The cells in your bones get replaced just like everything else. Over a decade you will have replaced pretty much every bit of your skeleton with new cells.

The bones of your skeleton reach their peak mass when you are in your twenties. From then on, a process called remodeling takes place which sees your cells swapped again and again, turning you into a skeletal Ship of Theseus.

9. Tons of Movies Have Used Real Skeletons as Props

In your real life, there is a good chance you will never see an actual skeleton in person. Most of us rarely ever even see a dead body, and if we do it’s probably a loved one and we’re viewing them at a funeral shortly after they died. 

There’s very little reason or opportunity for the average person to see the skeletal remains of a human.  But that’s just in person. You have probably seen a real skeleton before, even if you didn’t realize it.

There’s very little reason or opportunity for the average person to see the skeletal remains of a human.  But that’s just in person. there’s a good chance you have seen a real skeleton before, even if you didn’t realize it.

Skeletons in movies are about a dime a dozen. All kinds of films have made use of skeletons, not just horror movies. And while you might think a special effects person could simply whip up a fake skeleton to get the job done on a movie set, it’s often easier just to buy a skeleton that already exists. For quite a long time, those skeletons were actually real skeletons.

Films like the original Poltergeist, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show all feature real human skeletons as props. Maybe not everyone knew it at the time, but they were. Even the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland was made using real human skeletons. 

The skeletons in the movie Poltergeist were used in a pool scene. Everyone on set assumed that they were props at first until they found out it’s cheaper just to buy a human skeleton from a medical supply company than to make one out of plastic.

In the movie The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, the villain finds a skeleton in a coffin at one point which was also genuine human remains. It was the skeleton of an actress whose wish was to continue acting even in death. 

8. There’s a Lake in the Himalayan Mountains That’s Full of Skeletons

A lake with a dead body in it is foreboding. A lake that’s full of skeletons is the basis for a horror movie. Nonetheless, there’s an infamous lake in the Himalayan mountains where hundreds of skeletal remains were discovered. 

In 1942 it was discovered that somewhere between 300 and 800 corpses were in and around this frozen lake, high in the mountains. The lake is about 5,000 m above sea level and is days from the nearest town. 

For years it was believed that the skeletal remains were of pilgrims who probably got caught in the storm. There were no weapons and no sign they had been attacked, anyway. However, genetic testing in 2019 showed that the skeletal remains belong to three different groups of people who died in three different time periods and had diverse origins far from the Himalayas. Rather than solving a mystery, the information made it even more confusing.

7. There Are No Skeletons of the Titanic Victims 

The story of the Titanic is something that has fascinated people since the day the ship sank. Obviously, James Cameron helped build the mystique with his movie, and subsequent efforts to find the wreckage of the ship also helped capture people’s imaginations. And then, of course, there was the ill-fated submarine trip in 2023 that never made it to its destination.

One thing we do know about the wreck of the Titanic is that there are no bodies to recover. Nothing remains of the victims of the Titanic including their skeletons which have long since dissolved away. 

Below a depth of 3,000 feet in the ocean, you’ll pass something called the calcium carbonate compensation depth. At this level and below, bones can’t hold together long and they will dissolve. Even if some bodies were trapped in rooms with oxygenated water, after more than a century it’s unlikely any identifiable remains could ever be found. 

6. Museums House the Skeletal Remains of Over Half a Million Native Americans

If you go to almost any natural history museum in America, you’re probably going to find the skeletal remains of a few people. Sometimes these are mummies, sometimes they are the remains of ancient humans that were discovered in caves or bogs or who knows where. 

On a case-by-case basis, these can seem very curious, interesting, or even educational. But if you step back and look at the big picture, it becomes something much darker.

If we’re dealing with ancient skeletons from North America, chances are you’re talking about Native Americans. And if every museum has a few of these skeletons on display or in storage, then those numbers quickly add up. If you’re wondering what they add up to, someone has done a bit of math to give you a rough idea. It’s believed that the remains of over half a million Native Americans are currently in museums. 

Try to imagine anyone in the modern world taking the bodies of your ancestors, maybe your grandparents or great-grandparents, and putting them on display.  Now imagine they did that for the entire city of Sacramento which has a population of about 528,000.

5. Europeans Used to Cover Skeletons in Gold and Jewels and Display Them

The Catholic Church differs from many other Christian churches in particular because of its focus on saints. Whereas many Christians would only pray to god, Catholics had prayers for specific Saints to supposedly help watch over them or guide them as it related to specific issues. Saint Amand is the saint of bartenders, for instance. Saint Christopher is one of the saints of travelers. But some Catholics in some places also devised catacomb saints.

A catacomb saint is basically a skeleton that has been covered in gold and jewels. They would be stationed in small churches and revered as local protectors. For years and years, these golden crested skeletons might watch over a congregation, grinning jewel-encrusted smiles from the wall.

Many of the skeletons, which still exist in parts of Northern Europe, were Roman martyrs, and can still be viewed to this day. 

4. The Sedlec Ossuary is Decorated With Over 40,000 Skeletons

If golden skeletons are not your cup of tea, you can always take in the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic. The church dates back to the 13th century and today it’s most well known for being decorated with the skeletons of anywhere between 40,000 and 70,000 humans. 

The bones aren’t just stuck to walls; they have been arranged to create art. Ribs will be lined up alongside fingers and lead the eye to decorative crests made of pelvic bones and skulls. You can find chandeliers, candelabras, chalices, and several other grim, dusty decorations made from the rattling remains of thousands. 

According to legends, the abbot Of the monastery that used to be there went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and came back with a handful of soil from where Jesus had died. Everyone and their uncle literally wanted to be buried in that holy soil but after 30,000 graves were filled around the monastery, there was no room left. The rest of the bodies were turned into decorations over the years.

3. India Used to Dominate a Skeleton Black Market

You heard earlier that real skeletons were used in movies over the years, which means there’s a market for people selling them. For the most part, skeletons have been sold for medical study and research. 

You’ve probably seen those anatomy skeletons that are used in medical schools so that students can see the entire skeletal structure. Many of those today are fake, but once upon a time, they used real ones. This begs the question, where do you get skeletons from?

For many years there was a black market in skeleton sales based in India. Most of the teaching skeletons around the world originated here. The skeletons aren’t donated by people who are aware of what’s happening, instead, they were robbed from graves, generally around the Calcutta region. 

The skeleton trade was an old one in India, dating back to colonial times. British doctors used to pay grave robbers to bring them fresh bodies, and for 200 years the trade continued with people raiding graves and selling what they found. In some parts of Calcutta whole graveyards are empty.

2. A 9,000-Year-Old Skeleton was DNA-matched to a Guy Who Lived Nearby

Genealogy has become a science that fascinates many people, now that you can run DNA tests and pay a few dollars to see your genetic history. For most people, it just links you to others across the country, and maybe even around the world so you get a better idea of your family tree. Sometimes it goes a little deeper. 

Cheddar Man was the name given to the 9,000-year-old skeletal remains found in an English cave in 1903, near the town of Cheddar. They are the most complete remains of a homo sapiens ever discovered. DNA tests on the ancient skeleton in 1997 found that it was related to a man who lived and worked a half mile away.

Adrian Targett, a British teacher, was informed that he was the closest living relative of Cheddar Man, who died a violent death 300 generations earlier. There’s not a lot one can do with information like that, but it was interesting to note that his people clearly liked that part of the world and hadn’t strayed far. 

1. Scans Showed a Skeleton Inside a Buddha Statue 

Most of us consider Buddhists peaceful and calm people. They believe in meditation and spiritualism and being good people overall. But there’s also a belief that mortal life is suffering and sometimes their beliefs come out in what others might consider creepy ways. Which is to say that at least one Buddha statue has an entire mummified monk inside of it.

In 2015, a Dutch buyer took possession of a 1,000-year-old Buddha statue. During the restoration process, a CT scan was done and the skeletal remains were discovered within. Papers within the statue, which had replaced the organs, also revealed the identity of the mummy as a monk. 

It’s believed the monk, named Liuquan, practiced something called self-mummification which included drinking a poisonous tea that would make the body too toxic for maggots to eat. He essentially both starved and preserved his living body until he died, ready to have his organs removed and his body put on display.  After years as a simple mummy, the body would have been entombed in the statue.