An analysis of Early Bronze Age skeletal remains in the UK has revealed a grim and barbaric end for a significant number of unfortunate individuals. The remains, discovered at the Charterhouse Warren site in southwest England, provide shocking evidence of blunt force trauma, dismemberment and cannibalism before the bodies were discarded into a 15-meter-deep shaft.
The skeletal remains, belonging to at least 37 individuals (including men, women and children), date back to 2500–1500 BCE and demonstrate an unprecedented level and scale of violence in British prehistory.
"We actually find more evidence for injuries to skeletons dating to the Neolithic period (10000 BCE – 2200 BCE) in Britain than the Early Bronze Age, so Charterhouse Warren stands out as something very unusual," said Prof. Rick Schulting of the University of Oxford, the lead author of the study published in the Antiquity journal.
Unlike most contemporary burials, the victims’ cracked, fractured and punctured skulls are evidence of violent deaths caused by blunt force trauma. To uncover what happened to these individuals, their bones were analyzed by an archaeological research team from several European institutions.
The researchers found numerous cut marks and postmortem fractures on the bones, indicating these individuals were not only deliberately massacred but were also partially consumed by their killers. This raised the question of why evidence of cannibalism exists in Early Bronze Age Britain.
Cannibalism may have been part of funerary rituals in Cheddar Gorge, the UK's largest canyon with numerous Paleolithic-era caves. However, the findings tell a different story, as the evidence points to violent deaths without signs of struggle, suggesting the victims were taken by surprise.
The study's authors believe the individuals whose remains were found were indeed slaughtered, with the massacre carried out by their enemies. They don't believe, however, that the cannibalistic acts were made for sustenance, as the site also contained an abundance of cattle bones, suggesting no food scarcity.
Instead, researchers theorized that consuming the victims and mixing their bones with animal remains was part of a dehumanization process, equating the victims' remains with those of animals.
Resource scarcity and climate change don’t seem to have intensified conflicts in the UK at the time. Additionally, no genetic evidence points to coexisting communities of different origins that might have sparked ethnic tensions. This suggests the conflict was driven by social factors, such as insults or theft, which likely escalated disproportionately and led to the tragic incident.
The discovery of signs of infection from a plague in the teeth of two children led researchers to speculate that disease may have also contributed to rising tensions. " We are still unsure whether, and if so how, this is related to the violence at the site," Prof. Schulting clarified.
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The findings paint a picture of an ancient culture where insults and a desire for revenge could provoke disproportionate violence. According to the study's authors, this dynamic is unfortunately reminiscent of scenarios from later periods.
"Charterhouse Warren is one of those rare archaeological sites that challenges the way we think about the past," Prof. Schulting concluded. "It is a stark reminder that people in prehistory could match more recent atrocities and shines a light on a dark side of human behavior. That it is unlikely to have been a one-off event makes it even more important that its story is told.”
First published: 10:20, 12.17.24