Our Ancestors the Bell Beaker People, and the Pending Zombie Apocalypse.
This fear has been a common one among humans for at least 4,200 years.
Okay so it did really happen, but why ?
Just picture the possibilities. Nobody wants their rotting relatives stinking up the family dinners. Let's be honest, no matter what deodorant or body wash the zombies choose to use, it's not covering up that smell. So, in order to prevent such things from happening, people have been putting the dead in boxes, and even go so far as to place huge stones on top of the deceased in their graves. The 4,200 year old grave that was recently discovered with a heavy “zombie stone” laid across the feet of the deceased, is among some of the stranger finds from the “Bell Beaker” culture. These late Neolithic, and early Bronze Age people may have had some strange customs, but somehow this one has stood the test of time.
Who were the Bell Beaker people?
Considering they are the ancestors to roughly half of the world, they should be much more well known. Their home lands stretched from Norway, and Finland in the north, all the way down into Northern Africa, into Ethiopia and Sudan.
This archaeological find leaves us all with far more questions than it actually answers. The main question being, where did these beliefs stem from? What convinced these many groups throughout history, that certain people would return from the dead, and maybe even try to go back home. There are many undead tales, from Zombies, and Ghouls, to the ever infamous Frankenstein’s monster, and the most popular of them the Vampires. Did they all stem from these beliefs of the Bell Beaker people?
Our Ancestors.
As different as we may all appear to be today, our ancestors all feared the undead equally. These ancestral savages, who did not have air conditioning, cars, or cell phones all had a fear of the undead. They hunted for most of their food without guns, and grew or gather the other portion. You know, outside, in the woods. Their fears were normally very rational. Fear of freezing to death, or starving, a fear of being mauled by a pack of wolves. The main reason that we even build communities, is to protect the people we care about, like your family, and friends, and their families, from the dangers in those rational fears.
Our Ancestors spending so much time and energy on something, like creating and decorating large stones, just to hold people in their graves, is curious. When we look at that, along with burying them on their bellies it definitely should make us all ask why. Especially focusing on the amount of time it all took them, because that was a very precious resource. When you spend your whole year preparing for the winter, there isn't usually a lot of time to spare. Again, these were tradesmen, farmers, smiths, hunters, and gatherers, where did they get these ideas?
These are the questions we need to be asking.
Image links and sources.
Popular Mechanics - Zombie Apocalypse
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a60649902/zombie-grave-discovered/
Wikipedia - Bell Beaker People
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Beaker_culture
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