Dish trolley: That belongs in – and that doesn’t
"After all, its bones are the only remains of a person from the immediate vicinity of the sky disc"says Michel. "As far as we can see now, we have discovered the oldest actually verifiable murder of a prince in world history."
The bones still show traces of violence
"We examined the bones for the first time in 2012/13"says anthropologist Nicole Nicklisch. "At that time we already suspected that some boils had injuries from sharp violence."
Frank Ramsthaler, deputy head of the Institute for Forensic Medicine at Saarland University in Homburg, says: "Three injuries can be clearly identified on the bones. There might be others, but those three alone were fatal. The murder weapon could be a dagger, the blade of which must have been 15 centimeters long."
Whoever did the stitch – he did it with determination
The forensic doctor reconstructs the possible course of the crime: a stab executed with great determination went into the stomach. The tip of the dagger hit the eleventh thoracic vertebra and left a clearly recognizable notch 6 millimeters long and 3 millimeters deep.
An anthropologist shows the injured thoracic vertebra: a six millimeter wide and three millimeter deep notch can be seen – probably created by a dagger. (Source: Hendrik Schmidt / dpa)
It took tremendous force to even poke through the stomach and inflict such a notch on the vertebra. The victim either stood against the wall or lay on the floor.