New research suggests that dozens of Bronze Age Britons were killed in an unprecedented attack known to archaeologists studying that period and location.
The research into human remains from Charterhouse Warren in south-west England, carried out by a team of researchers from several institutions, including the University of Oxford, was published in antiquitya journal of world archaeology. It revealed that at least 37 Bronze Age men, women and children were “killed and massacred” and then cannibalized, with their bodies then thrown into a natural well almost 15 meters deep. Although archaeologists have found remains of Bronze Age and later Britons who died violently, these incidents were largely isolated. Mass graves from this era have also been discovered, but the remains were buried reverently, unlike those studied.
Researchers first discovered this well in the 1970s. Two excavations were conducted in the 1970s and 1980s. Human remains, as well as some artifacts, including a flint dagger, were discovered in several locations within the well during these excavations. In total, more than 3,000 human bones and bone fragments were recovered. These bones were used to estimate that at least 37 individual sets of remains were located in the shaft. Different lengths of bones show that those killed were both men and women, and ranged in age from infants to fully grown adults. Ongoing research aims to determine relationships between people.
The way the remains were disposed of made a detailed examination possible, the researchers said. The rod allowed the bones to be preserved and kept together.
Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd
The bones “show clear evidence of blunt force trauma,” according to the researchers, suggesting that many people in the well “suffered violent deaths.” Other injuries, including removal of the scalp and severed jaw muscles suggesting removal of the tongue or lower jaw, likely also occurred, as evidenced by marks on the bones, the investigators said. researchers. Some of the victims may have been decapitated or dismembered.
It is possible that the victims were held captive or ambushed, due to the severity of the injuries, researchers said. It is not clear who could have carried out these attacks.
There is also evidence that the bodies were cannibalized, the researchers said, including traces of human teeth on the bones and indicators that the marrow, the soft tissue inside the bones, was removed. The researchers said the cannibalism likely occurred “in a context of violent conflict, in which individuals are dehumanized and treated like animals.”
“Some 37 men, women and children – and perhaps many more – were killed at close quarters with blunt instruments, then systematically dismembered and fleshed, their long bones fractured in a manner that can only be described as butchery.” , the researchers said.
Later in the publication, researchers called the scene a “massacre” and suggested it may even have been a “political statement” of violence so brazen that it would have “resonated throughout the region and over time. However, we do not know exactly what could have led to this violence: “Neither climate change, nor ethnic conflicts, nor competition for material resources seem to offer convincing explanations”, according to the researchers, leaving as only probable hypothesis that the violence broke out in the context of violence. a pattern of revenge or violence between communities.
“At this point, our investigation has raised as many questions as it has answered,” the researchers said. “Work is underway to shed light on this decidedly dark episode in British prehistory. »