Under the leadership of anthropologist Sylvia Kirchengast and archaeologist Dominik Hagmann from the University of Vienna, the scientists also managed to date the grave to the 2nd to 3rd century AD. The results are published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

In 2004, an extraordinary grave was discovered during construction work in the area of the so-called eastern burial ground of the ancient Roman city of Ovilava—today's Wels in Upper Austria.

The grave contained the remains of two people embracing and at least one horse. Due to these unusual features, the find was initially thought to be an early medieval double burial.

A comprehensive new investigation, in which the most modern bioarchaeological and archaeogenetic methods were used, revealed surprising findings: the grave is 500 years older than previously thought, it dates from the 2nd to 3rd centuries CE and can therefore be assigned to Roman antiquity in Austria.

"In Roman times, burials in which people were buried next to horses were very rare. But what is even more extraordinary is that this is the first burial from Roman antiquity in Austria in which, through genetic analysis, a biological mother and her biological daughter, who were also buried at the same time, could be clearly identified. This makes our results particularly exciting," explains Dominik Hagmann, lead author of the study.