US EditionNeolithic People Took Gruesome Trophies From Invading Tribes
Analysis of 82 skeletal remains from Neolithic sites shows mutilations likely served as trophies in war-related victory rituals, indicating social and martial customs of the time.
5 Articles
5 Articles
Evidence from Neolithic burial pits reveals gruesome war practices
The Neolithic period, considered to be the last part of the Stone Age, may have been a brutal time to be alive for many people in Europe. Archaeological studies have found evidence of massacres involving entire communities, somewhat common abductions of young females, executions and mass graves. The areas of Achenheim and Bergheim, in Northeastern France, were found to have experienced this kind of violence sometime around 4300–4150 BCE.
Between 6,150 and 6,300 years ago, in what is now the French region of Alsace, a battle took place in which members of a community severed several left arms of their enemies as a war trophy. Not only that: they also captured at least a dozen of them to, once taken to their village, torture them and brutally sacrifice them in rituals intended to celebrate the victory. This public celebration included an unusual malice where, among other things, t…
A pit with dozens of skeletons of warriors that were brutally painted and mutilated more than 6,000 years ago has been discovered in northeastern France.
Remains at two Neolithic sites reveal that locals brutalized foreign prisoners of war
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)—Neolithic people from two sites in northeastern France practiced overkill and mutilation of foreign invaders, new research suggests. The work, which provides some of the earliest evidence for grisly war-related victory celebrations, involved the analysis of brutalized skeletal remains and severed limbs found in prehistoric pits dating back... Read more »
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