Britain’s biggest ancient massacre may have involved acts of cannibalism

A 4,000-year murder mystery begins with a massacre in what is now southwest England. This was followed by mutilation, possibly with cannibalism.

At least 37 men, women and children suffered this violent fate, eventually being trapped in a 15-metre-deep natural shaft by unknown assailants, according to Oxford University archaeologist Rick Schulting and his colleagues. It is said that he was thrown. The criminal also threw Slaughtered parts of cattle and other livestock and wild animals It entered the shaft, researchers reported on Dec. 16. ancient.

The motives for this gruesome early Bronze Age event remain unclear. No weapons or other possible clues to the identity of the attackers were found.

In Britain, the Early Bronze Age lasted from around 2200 BC to 1500 BC. [previous] “It shows that there was such a scale of violence in Britain at the time, both in terms of the number of victims and how they were treated after death,” Schulting said.

Researchers have discovered several other ancient human genocide sites on the European continent, ranging in age from about 1,500 years ago following the Bronze Age to about 7,000 years ago before the Bronze Age. Extends.SN: October 6, 2020. SN: December 3, 2009).

Schulting’s team analyzed more than 3,000 human bones and bone fragments excavated in the 1970s and 1980s at a British site called Charterhouse Warren. Radiocarbon dating shows that human and non-human remains were deposited in a single event about 4,200 to 4,000 years ago, scientists say.

Diet-related chemicals in the bones suggest that most of the victims grew up near Charterhouse Warren.

Almost half of the 20 skulls recovered had fatal injuries from being hit with weapons such as wooden clubs. There were no signs of combat among the victims, suggesting that they may have been taken as prisoners of war before the attack, or killed during the raid.

Schulting speculates that an escalating cycle of revenge killings between neighboring communities may have created enough hostility to cause the ancient British genocide. Revenge killings account for high homicide rates in some modern hunter-gatherer societies (SN: July 18, 2013).

Signs of possible cannibalism at Charterhouse Warren include tool incisions in the leg bones where flesh was removed, fractures of the ends of long bones associated with removal of bone marrow, and bones and ribs in the feet and hands. It consists of human bite marks.

Research suggests that British attackers may have eaten parts of their victims before depositing their bodies with slaughtered cattle, perhaps to dehumanize their enemies. They are guessing.