New research suggests that dozens of Bronze Age Britons died in an attack previously unknown to archaeologists studying the time and place.
The findings of a study of human remains from Warren Charterhouse in southwest England, carried out by a team of researchers from multiple institutions including the University of Oxford, have been published in the global archeology journal Antiquity. It found that at least 37 Bronze Age men, women, and children were “killed and butchered,” then cannibalized, and their bodies dumped into a natural shaft some 50 feet deep. . Archaeologists have uncovered remains of Bronze Age and later Britons who died violent deaths, but these incidents have been largely isolated. Mass graves from this period have also been discovered, but unlike those investigated, the bodies were buried respectfully.
Researchers first noticed this shaft in the 1970s. Two excavations took place in the 1970s and 1980s. During these excavations, human remains and several artifacts, including flint daggers, were discovered at multiple locations in the mine shaft. In all, more than 3,000 human bones and bone fragments were recovered. Using these bones, it was estimated that there were at least 37 separate sets of remains within the mineshaft. Differences in the length of the bones revealed that the people killed were both male and female, and ranged in age from infants to adults. Research is currently underway to find out what kind of relationship these people had with each other.
Researchers said the way the remains were disposed of allowed for a more detailed investigation. The shaft helped preserve bones and group them.
Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd.
Researchers said the bones “show clear evidence of blunt force trauma,” suggesting that many of those in the mine “died violent deaths.” The researchers said other injuries likely occurred, as evidenced by bone marks, such as scalp removal and severed jaw muscles, suggesting removal of the tongue and lower jaw. Some of the victims may have been decapitated or mutilated.
Based on the severity of their injuries, researchers said the victims may have been held captive or ambushed. It is not clear who carried out the attack.
Researchers say there is also evidence that the remains were cannibalized, including human tooth impressions on the bones and evidence that bone marrow, the soft tissue inside the bones, had been removed. The researchers said the acts of cannibalism likely took place “in the context of violent conflict, where individuals are dehumanized and treated as animals.”
The researchers found that “approximately 37 men, women, children, and perhaps many more were killed at point-blank range with blunt force, systematically dismembered, stripped of their flesh, and subjected to what can only be described as butchery. “My long bones were fractured,” he said.
Later in the paper, the researchers call the scene a “genocide” and even suggest that it may have been a “political statement” of violence so brazen that it was “increasingly widespread in the wider region and over time. “It caused quite a stir,” he said. However, it is not clear what sparked the violence. “Climate change, ethnic conflict, or competition over material resources do not seem to offer convincing explanations,” the researchers said, adding that the only possibility that the violence erupted as part of the Leaving options open. Patterns of revenge and violence between communities.
“At this stage, our study has raised as many questions as it has answered,” the researchers said. “Work is underway to shed further light on this decidedly dark episode in British prehistory.”
