Swiss researchers may have solved the mystery over theidentity of a 17th-century man who was buried face-down with aknife and purse filled with coins.

X-ray computer tomography of the coins has revealed the manwas likely a merchant, but the reason for his prone burialcontinues to puzzle the archaeologists.

Unearthed in 2013 in the Bernese Lakeland region ofSwitzerland during the construction on a new underground garage,the skeleton was found along 342 bodies laid to rest between the8th and 17th centuries. The individual was among the last 15bodies to be buried at the ancient cemetery.

The face-down skeleton stood out from all the othergraves.

Under the individual's chest, the archaeologists foundwhat remained of a leather purse. Over time, the leather haddecomposed and the coins it contained had corroded together toform a solid block of metal.

Unable to separate the coins, the researchers turned to apowerful X-ray computer tomograph, a new instrument calledµDETECT. Used in conjunction with a high resolution detector, theµDETECT revealed the presence of 24 coins.

"The astonishing fact about these coins is that theybelong to three different coin circulation areas, theFribourg-Bern-Solothurn, Basel-Freiburg in Breisgau andLuzern-Schwyz regions," Weiss said.

The finding suggests the individual was moving in these threeareas, which had their own coins in local circulation at thattime.

"It is possible he was a traveling merchant," Weisssaid.

With one exception, a heavily worn silver coin from France,all the coins in the purse are of rather low value.

"They are really just small change," Weiss said."The most interesting to me isn't really one particularcoin, but the ensemble all together. We rarely get such a bigensemble of small value coins from this time."

The latest among the coins in the purse dates from 1629,indicating the man must have been buried after then. The reasonbehind the face-down burial remains a mystery.

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Mystery Over Face-Down Skeleton Partly Solved(www.seeker.com/mystery-over-face-down-skeleton-partly-solved-2019033768.html)