Headless horses and riders remain to date back 1,400 years found in Germany.

The archaeologists are baffled as to the motive behind the horse's beheading.

An old cemetery in the southern German town of Knittlingen has yielded the skeleton remains of a man buried there 1,400 years ago, close to a headless horse. He likely rode and owned the horse when he was still alive.

The burial took place during the height of the Merovingian dynasty (A.D. 476-750), which had control over a vast expanse of modern-day France and Central Europe.

The individual probably worked for the kings of the dynasty during his lifetime. Archaeologist in charge of the site's research, Folke Damminger, told Live Science in an email that the individual "stood in a 'chain of command' with the Merovingian monarchs at its top," meaning he was obligated to take part in the king's conquests.

Damminger hypothesized that this man, a member of the local elite, ran a farming operation with his family and a staff of servants. Damminger said that the man wasn't a farmer in the traditional sense because he likely had help from others to complete his agricultural tasks.

Little is known about why he was laid to rest next to a decapitated horse, but Damminger told Live Science that "most probably the decapitation [of the horse] was part of the burial process." Damminger speculated that the horse might not have been sacrificed but placed next to its owner as a "grave good" for the afterlife. As of yet, the head of the horse has not been located.

His relatives, looking to capitalize on his fame and fortune, likely embellished his reputation. Damminger explained that the event "served as a claim of the successors to perpetuate the position and wealth of the deceased by'staging' him in his previous life."

In the same cemetery where this rider was buried, archaeologists uncovered the remains of five other persons who had lived about the same period. Others, like the woman buried with a gold brooch, were buried with expensive grave goods. Swords, lances, shields, and arrowheads were found in the tombs of a few of the men.

The team will keep digging in the cemetery and looking into the headless horse burial. Damminger stated that the team is currently excavating and preserving the enigmatic man's burial goods and that anthropological studies will be done on the man's bones and teeth in the future to learn about his health, the cause of his death, and his age at the time of his death.

Damminger is a part of the State Office for Monument Preservation at the Stuttgart Regional Council. Archaeologists from the company ArchaeoBW, which specializes in cultural resource management, are responsible for the bulk of the excavation effort.

Reference : https://www.livescience.com/headless-horse-and-rider-discovered

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