Shepherd finds bones sticking out of hill in Romania. It was an ancient grave
In the town of Urlați, Romania, one hill stands above all others.
It’s called Vârful Scoruș, and the protruding feature reaches more than 1,600 feet tall, topped by a forested plateau.
Local shepherd Cosmin Florin Dumitrache was on the north side of the plateau when he saw a natural landslide had opened up the earth and exposed the dirt below the surface.
But sticking out from the brown landscape was something much lighter — a human skull.
He alerted authorities, who came to investigate the find, according to an April 10 Facebook post from the Prahova County Museum of History and Archaeology.
Researchers visited the site in February and found a burial that had been impacted by what they called minor landslides, according to the post.
The bones of the right leg and some ribs had been separated from the rest of the body, and the skull was a brighter white in color, meaning it had been exposed to sunlight for an extended period of time, the museum said.
Researchers took steps to protect the bones, then planned a future excavation of the site.
Archaeologists returned in March to where they found the grave had partially collapsed into a natural ravine in loose soil, according to the post.
The bones were identified as belonging to an adult male, and they appeared to be buried in the customary way of someone from the early Bronze Age, archaeologists said.
They dated the age of the grave to about 5,000 years old, the museum said.
The bones were well-preserved, archaeologists said, and the man had been laid on his back with his lower limbs bent and his arms alongside his body.
Near his left arm, archaeologists found a stone object about 8 inches long that may be an ax, according to the post. Two ceramic pieces were also found and could possibly date to a period earlier than the man’s body.
Dumitrache is no stranger to ancient discovery.
In 2024, the shepherd was at the base of Merez Hill in the town of Șoimești, about an 8-mile drive to the northeast, when he spotted bones for the first time, according to the post.
Investigations at the time revealed they belonged to a burial from the medieval period, or about 500 years ago, the museum said.
Vârful Scoruș hill in Urlați is in southeastern Romania, about a 50-mile drive north from Bucharest.
ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, was used to translate the Facebook post from the Prahova County Museum of History and Archeology.
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 11:09 AM with the headline "Shepherd finds bones sticking out of hill in Romania. It was an ancient grave."
