Full and partial burials came to light in the course of the ongoing excavations conducted by the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology (LDA) Saxony-Anhalt at a former gallows site in Quedlinburg, Germany. Historical evidence shows that the Galgenberg, or ‘Gallows Hill’, has been used for public executions from 1662 to 1809.

Archaeologists also unearthed bone pits with multiple bundled burials at the site, which points to mass executions carried out in a short period.

Furthermore, a body burial in a wooden coffin has been documented. Coffins are very rare finds in execution sites of the Middle Ages and the Modern Era. The skeleton was found lying on its back with its hands folded in the abdominal area. It was very well preserved. A rosary had been put in the coffin as a grave good. This comparatively dignified burial in an execution site indicates a suicide rather than an execution. People who chose suicide were denied burial in a regular cemetery.

The burial of a man lying on his back with his chest buried under large stones may be a so-called ‘revenant grave’. For fear of the dead man rising up, his body was weighted down and thus bound in the grave.

The two bone pits, which were uncovered in 2023, will be investigated further this year. In these pits the body parts of the hanged or wheeled were placed, likely after being exhibited for some time as a deterrence on the gallows hill, which would have been widely visible at one of the main roads leading into the city. The disposal of the body parts in the pits would have been part of the periodic clean-up work by the executioner and his assistants.

In addition to human remains, remains of clothing, such as buttons and buckles, and fragments of pottery were also found.