1891: The giant skeletons of Hamburg — Why were their discovery documents sealed by the Altona Mu...
1891: The Giant Skeletons of Hamburg—Why Were Their Excavation Documents Sealed by the Altona Museum?
In October 1891, three excavation reports disappeared within forty hours in Altona. First office. Second office. Third office. Same week. Same file code. No explanation in the entire archive.
Seventeen complete skeletons with unusual dimensions from a single layer of the Königstraße construction pit. Measured by the Hamburg Anatomical Institute, documented by the Senate—and completely sealed three days later.
This investigation follows the trail of documents through the Altona Museum, the Hamburg State Archives, and the correspondence of the Anatomical Institute. We reconstruct what happened during those forty hours, which file code was used three times, and why, to this day, only the finding aid entries are visible, but never the original records.
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