Cannibal Bronze Age Brits butchered and ate their enemies – a grim clue left in mass grave may explain the brutal act
BRONZE Age Britons slaughtered and ate their victims, a new study has suggested.
A mass grave, discovered at the bottom of a 15ft shaft, holds 37 skeletons who were butchered and most likely eaten, according to new analysis.
The cannibalistic tendencies of early Britons upend a long-held belief that the Bronze Age was a mostly peaceful period.
Archaeologists analysed over 3,000 human bones and bone fragments at Charterhouse Warren, Somerset, to piece together the massacre.
“We actually find more evidence for injuries to skeletons dating to the Neolithic period in Britain than the Early Bronze Age, so Charterhouse Warren stands out as something very unusual," lead author of the research, Professor Rick Schulting of the University of Oxford, said.
“It paints a considerably darker picture of the period than many would have expected.”
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There is no evidence that this was a battle.
Instead, experts believe the victims were taken by surprise.
It is the largest-scale example of human-on-human violence from before written records, archaeologists said.
Bone analysis suggests the cause of death for victims was blunt force trauma.
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Cutmarks and bone fractures suggest victims were butchered to be eaten around the same time they died.
But these violent Bronze Age Britons were not driven to cannibalism over starvation, according to archaeologists.
This is because the area is abundant with cattle bones - suggesting the ancient community had a healthy supply of beef.
Cannibalism may have actually been a way to dehumanise their victims, archaeologists wrote in their study, likening their enemies to animals.
It is a stark reminder that people in prehistory could match more recent atrocities and shines a light on a dark side of human behaviour.
Professor Rick Schulting of the University of Oxford
It is unlikely to be an isolated event.
“Charterhouse Warren is one of those rare archaeological sites that challenges the way we think about the past," Professor Schulting added.
“It is a stark reminder that people in prehistory could match more recent atrocities and shines a light on a dark side of human behaviour.
"That it is unlikely to have been a one-off event makes it even more important that its story is told.”
What was the Bronze Age?
Here's what you should know...
- The Bronze Age was the period of time between the Stone Age and the Iron Age
- It is characterised by the common use of bronze at the time and also the start of some urban civilisations
- Flint was replaced by bronze for tools and weapons
- In Europe, the Bronze Age occurred from around 3200 to 600 BC
- During this time period, ancient empires started to trade luxury goods
- Bronze tools helped develop city building
- Metalworks, farmers and other craftspeople would come together in cities to trade goods
- With stronger weapons, came larger-scale wars and battles not seen before this time period
- The wheel and the ox-drawn plow were invented which helped farming flourish
- Bronze Age Britons ate cattle, sheep, pigs and deer, as well as shellfish and birds
- In the wetlands, they hunted wildfowl and collected reeds for building the roofs of their roundhouses
- The first forms of writing were developed by some civilisations
It's not immediately clear what sparked the violence.
Archaeologists suggest that theft or insults may have led to tensions, which eventually escalated.
Although evidence of plague infection found in the teeth of two children could be one clue.
The Charterhouse Warren shaft, which was first discovered in 1972, is thought to host the oldest evidence of the plague in Britain dating back 4,000 years, according to a separate published last year.
Experts believe the infection, which would have been fairly new at the time, could have inflamed tensions between the two clans.
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“The finding of evidence of the plague in previous research by colleagues from The Francis Crick Institute was completely unexpected," Professor Schulting said.
“We’re still unsure whether, and if so how, this is related to the violence at the site."
