Archaeologists in France have discovered ancient pits containing the skeletal remains of more than two dozen stallions, which may have been part of a sacrificial ritual.
So far, archaeologists have excavated two of the pits, which contain the remains of a total of 28 horses. The stallions were"carefully placed" on their right sides, with their heads facing south, and were"organized in two rows and on two levels," according to the statement. Based on this positioning, the researchers determined that all of the horses were buried at the same time in an"extraordinary" burial.
Related: 1,000 years ago, Baltic pagans imported horses from Scandinavia to behead them and bury them alive —Indigenous people of the American West used 'sacred' horses a half-century earlier than previously thought