A team of researchers directed by Rick Schulting, professor at the School of Archeology at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, analyzed the remains of at least 37 people who were massacred in southern England 4,000 years ago and that they were probably victims of cannibalism. “The discovery is as macabre as it is astonishing, given that the Bronze Age in England is until now considered a quiet period,” explain the authors of the study published in the journal Antiquity.
The reasons for the massacre are unknown, but in the absence of any other explanation, the team speculates that it was an attack directed against a specific community. Perhaps a form of revenge for some previous event, of which at the moment there is no trace.
something very unusual
In it report, The team details the analysis of 3,000 human bone fragments unearthed in the 1970s at the Charterhouse Warren site in southern England, dating to the early Bronze Age. It was discovered that at least 37 people, including women, men and children, had been massacred, dismembered and probably partly eaten by a group of enemies. Proof of this are the numerous cut marks and fractures on the bones, produced around the time the individuals were murdered, or shortly after.
“We found more evidence of injuries in skeletons from the British Neolithic period than in those from the early Bronze Age, so Charterhouse Warren is very unusual,” explains Schulting. He adds that the discovery offers a much darker picture of the era than many would have expected.
In the Prado Vargas cave, in Cornejos, Spain, 15 marine fossils from the Upper Cretaceous period were found. It is theorized that these items were transported by a community for ornamental, symbolic, or exchange purposes.
The hypotheses
Researchers rule out reasons related to food shortages, since remains of livestock were also found inside the grave in which the human remains were buried. The hypothesis about cannibalism points to the “dehumanization of the dead”; Their enemies wanted to put them on the same level as animals. Therefore, it is possible that it was an act of revenge against a specific community.
A BBC report indicates that the towns of the time were probably not made up of more than a hundred people; That is, killing 37 of them meant destroying a large part of the community. However, at the moment the exact reason for this outbreak of violence is unknown: the victims were taken by surprise, since there is no evidence of a confrontation between two parties.
“Charterhouse Warren is one of those rare archaeological sites that challenges our conception of the past. It is a stark reminder that people in prehistory could live up to more recent atrocities and sheds light on a dark side of human behavior,” he concludes. Schulting.
Article originally published in WIRED Italy. Adapted by Alondra Flores.
#dark #side #Bronze #Age #Researchers #find #signs #cannibalism
