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This reconstruction is based on a mysterious double burial under the axis of the Bartholomäus Cathedral in Frankfurt, Germany. The drawing depicts what one of the individuals might have looked like. We know that the first body was that of a girl who was very likely quite young and of high status. She was buried with golden necklaces, bracelets and gold filigree rings along with Merovingian dynasty style clothing. Scholars were able to determine that she was a Christian based on the style and location of her burial, and also the gold trimmed cross on her burial shroud. Archaeologists originally thought that the girl was buried in 850 CE, but upon discovering a second burial in the same coffin, revised that date to sometime between 730 and 750 CE.
The second burial found in this grave was completely different than the first. This second body was not even a body at all, but rather the cremated remains of a four-year-old of unidentifiable gender. Accompanying the ashes, which were contained in a bearskin sack, were bear claws and the remnants of other animal bones. This suggested to researchers that this child was buried in the Scandinavian Nomadic tradition, and thus followed pagan practices.
Scholars have focused on studying the remains of the young girl because there is much more information available. She was buried with more precious jewelry than we would expect from an 8th to 9th century child’s burial. Jewelry like necklaces and bracelets were considered gender specific grave goods only accompanying female burials. Male specific goods are objects like weaponry, and belts. Scholars have studied these trends fairly extensively, and have concluded that children are only very rarely buried with gender specific goods. However, those children who were buried with gender specific burial goods were almost exclusively girls buried with necklaces, similar to the case described here. Scholars suggest that young girls who were buried with necklaces were likely betrothed. This would make sense given that in this period, the prevalent belief was that femininity was acquired when a girl reached puberty and became a woman. However, since a female’s significance was largely based on her ability to marry and have children, girls who were betrothed before puberty would have acquired their femininity early, and thus would have been buried with grave goods.
At this point, scholars and amateur enthusiasts alike are not certain why these two children were buried together. We do not know how they would have been related, or whether they would even have met before their deaths. It is certain that these two children left an impressive legacy. They were honored for several hundred years after their deaths. When they died, there was nothing but a small chapel on the land. However, shortly after their burials, an enormous church complex was erected on the land, aligned perfectly over the top of their grave. This signified that, despite their young ages, they were clearly highly important figures within the religious community of Frankfurt.