New Delhi, India

The archaeologists have uncovered human remains from a 1,000-year-old cemetery which were ceremonially adorned with rings around their necks and buckets on their feet, ScienceAlert reported. 

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The mass grave, which had more than 107 skeletons, was discovered by archaeologists in what was believed to have been a pagan-era cemetery which is located near Kyiv, Ukraine.

The mysterious burial site gives a glimpse into the Dark Ages which is the period of 1,000 years in European history between the Roman Empire's fall and the Italian Renaissance's beginning. 

In the grave, the researchers have found axes, swords, spears, jewellery, bracelets, and food remains like eggshells and chicken bones alongside the long-forgotten people's bones. 

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Vsevolod Ivakin and Vyacheslav Baranov, the two researchers who headed the excavation, said that the weapons as typical for Kyivan Rus, which is a medieval political federation in northeastern Europe and modern-day Belarus. 

A stone altar, which was discovered at the site, was used for pagan or early Christian rituals.

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Findings narrate religious shift in Ukrainian history

The findings of the research were presented by Ivakin and Baranov presented their findings at the Archaeological Institute of America's annual meeting held in Chicago in early January, reported Live Science.

The researchers stated that the graveyard was filled with male and female skeletons, however, only females were adorned with elaborate neck rings, which "were apparently a kind of social marker," said Ivakin and Baranov.

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The wooden buckets present on the skeleton's feet were found in a few of the male graves - which are likely to have been part of funerary rituals – are reminiscent of 11th-century Pomeranian and Masovian inhumation cemeteries of military elites and Prussian cremation, reported the Independent.

Few of the artefacts are similar to those which were uncovered in the Baltics, reported Live Science. Volodymyr the Great, who had converted to Christianity around 987, had ruled territories which had extended to the Baltics.

The findings narrate the religious shift in Ukrainian history and Christianity's arrival in Eastern Europe.

Speaking to Business Insider, Baranov claimed that the findings go back to the late Viking Age, a period when Ukraine was involved in common North European processes.

He stated that the findings "correspond well with the pan-European historical processes in Europe, and once again show the importance of studying the pan-European history as a whole and European peoples in the general context."

(With inputs from agencies)