This documentary focuses on a spectacular discovery made in a quarry near the village of Eulau, not far from the central German town of Naumburg. Neolithic graves contained the skeletons of three women, two men and eight children, buried tenderly 4500 years ago, some affectionately entwined. In 2008, for the first time anywhere in the world, it was possible to perform a DNA analysis on the earliest evidence of the existence of a nuclear family. This was a sensation – but why did these people all die at the same time? Were they the victims of a violent crime? Who were they, and how did this terrible drama unfold?
Archaeologists insist that these victims will not be forgotten, since these days it is possible to do far more than simply date and record such finds. Modern scientific methods have revolutionised archaeology, enabling us to discover how and why the family from Eulau in the German state of Sachsen-Anhalt died 4500 years ago. By enlisting the help of a CID profiler, archaeologists and anthropologists employ state-of-the-art analytical methods to investigate this Stone Age crime. In the process we discover key information about an era before recorded history which has previously been shrouded in mystery – and astonishing information about the composition of the population here also comes to light. It seems that the third millennium before Christ saw two major waves of migration, from Eastern and Western Europe, which determine the composition of the population here. In the middle of what is now Germany these two migratory movements met. Could this be the background to the mysterious murders of Eulau?
The people who moved here from the West were part of the Bell Beaker culture, while those coming from the East belong to the Corded Ware culture, so called because of the ceramics they made. Members of the Bell Beaker culture had the ability to work with metal and forge weapons, heralding the later Bronze Age, which is when the world-famous Nebra Sky Disc, the oldest known concrete depiction of the cosmos, was created. This fascinating object is found today in the Museum of Prehistory in Halle, Sachsen-Anhalt.
