Bronze-Age Britons Were Cannibalized After Massacre, Research Shows

CBS News ^ | December 17, 2024 | Kerry Breen

[nickcarraway]

New research suggests that dozens of Bronze-Age era Britons were killed in an attack unlike any previous known to archaeologists studying that time period and location.

The research on human remains from Charterhouse Warren in southwest England, conducted by a team of researchers from multiple institutions including Oxford University, was published in Antiquity, a journal of world archaeology. It found that at least 37 Bronze Age-era men, women and children were "killed and butchered" and then cannibalized, with their bodies then thrown down a nearly 50-foot deep natural shaft. While archaeologists have found the remains of Bronze Age and later Britons who died violently, those incidents were largely isolated. Mass graves from this era have also been found, but the remains were laid to rest respectfully, unlike those studied.

Researchers first became aware of the shaft in the 1970s. Two excavations were conducted in the 1970s and 1980s. The human remains, as well as some artifacts including a flint dagger, were found at multiple spots in the shaft during these digs. More than 3,000 individual human bones and bone fragments have been recovered overall. Those bones were used to estimate that at least 37 individual sets of remains were in the shaft. Different bone lengths show that the people killed were both male and female, and ranged in age from infants to grown adults. Ongoing research is working to determine how the people were related to each other.

The way the remains were disposed of made the detailed examination possible, the researchers said. The shaft helped preserve the bones and keep them grouped together.

Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd The bones "display clear evidence of blunt force trauma," according to researchers, suggesting that many of the people in the shaft "suffered a violent death." Other injuries, including removal of the scalp and severed muscles in the jaw suggesting removal of the tongue or lower jaw, also likely occurred, evidenced by marks on the bones, the researchers said. Some of the victims may have been beheaded or dismembered.

It's possible that the victims were held captive or ambushed, because of the severity of the injuries, the researchers said. It's not clear who could have carried out the attacks.

There is also evidence that the bodies were cannibalized, the researchers said, including human teethmarks on the bones and indicators that marrow, the soft tissue inside bones, was removed. The researchers said the cannibalism was likely conducted "within a context of a violent conflict, in which individuals are dehumanized and treated as animals."

"Some 37 men, women and children—and possibly many more—were killed at close quarters with blunt instruments and then systematically dismembered and defleshed, their long bones fractured in a way that can only be described as butchery," the researchers said.

Later in the publication, the researchers referred to the scene as a "massacre," and suggested it may have even been a "political statement" of violence so brazen it would have "resonated across the wider region and over time." However, it's not clear what could have led to the violence: "Neither climate change, ethnic conflict nor competition over material resources seem to offer convincing explanations," according to the researchers, leaving the only likely option that the violence broke out as part of a pattern of revenge or violence between communities.

"At this stage, our investigation has raised as many questions as it has answered," the researchers said. "Work is ongoing to shed more light on this decidedly dark episode in British prehistory."

[orlop9]

British cuisine has always had a bad rap, I guess they got off on the wrong foot.

[going hot]

need to marinate them longer

[Cronos]

not “concern about” a climate change, but “reaction to” — as in when due to climate change, the tributaries of the Indus river dried up, driving the Harappans (Dravidians) to
1. abandon the large cities of the Harappan / Indus valley civilization
2. move south and east - to the Deccan and Ganga-Jamuna valley
3. merge with the pastoralist Indo-Europeans

[Cronos]

You're always welcome at our house... any time of the day

[Cronos]

Cheddar Man is a human male skeleton found in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England. The skeletal remains date to around the mid-to-late 9th millennium BC, corresponding to the Mesolithic period, and it appears that he died a violent death. A large crater-like lesion just above the skull's right orbit suggests that the man may have also been suffering from a bone infection.

Analysis of his nuclear DNA indicates that he was a typical member of the Western European hunter-gatherer population at the time, with a most likely phenotype of blue-green eyes, dark brown or black hair, and dark or dark-to-black skin, with no genetic adaption for lactase persistence into adulthood.

Nuclear DNA was extracted from the petrous part of the temporal bone by a team from the Natural History Museum in 2018. While the relevant genetic markers on the Cheddar Man genome have low sequencing coverage, limiting the accuracy of the predictions, they suggest (based on their associations in modern populations whose phenotypes are known) that he most likely had intermediate (blue-green) eye colour, dark brown or black hair, and dark or dark-to-black skin, with no derived allele for lactase persistence. These features are typical of the Western European population of the time, now known as Western Hunter-Gatherers, another example being Loschbour man discovered in Luxembourg. This population forms about 10%, on average, of the ancestry of Britons without a recent family history of immigration.

, The current scientific consensus holds that populations living in Europe became lighter-skinned over time because pale skin absorbs more sunlight, which is required to produce enough vitamin D. There are a handful of genetic variations linked to lighter skin; it was determined in the study that Cheddar Man had "ancestral" versions of all these genes, strongly suggesting he would have had "dark to black" skin tone, but combined with blue eyes

[suasponte137]

That sounds like a tough neighborhood

[fso301]

When you don’t have corner grocery stores, restaurants or refrigerators you do what you have to to survive. Survival cannibalism was not uncommon in Europe.

[Red Badger]

Climate Change...................

[Red Badger]

Long pork....The other white meat!............

[Red Badger]

ISWYDT!..............

[lee martell]

Happily foolish, and terribly ghoulish!

[gleeaikin]

I had read previously about the Cheddar Man and his dark skin. I recall that this was supposed to be in the Cornwall area where everyone would be living not far from the ocean. It made sense that this population could maintain a dark skin because fish with Vitamin D would be a ready source of food. I am not sure how to explain such skin color in central Europe. At least it does explain the preference for fair haired an fair skinned women as they would develop better pelvic structure for easier childbearing. It also explains the persistence of the Neanderthal traits of ginger hair and blue eyes amount the Scotish and Irish populations.

Regarding short term climate crisis, I plan to look at my large volcano book to see what serious volcano crisis might have set up conditions for the Crow Creek massacre. On the other hand that is not the only reason for short term climate change. I read the whole link and it is really sobering to imagine such difficult times, although current human behavior does not seem to have improved much. We in the US don’t always realize how lucky we are.

[Cronos]

In central europe it would be due to a diet heavy in animal protein.

That’s why the Inuit are darker skinned

[Cronos]

“fair haired an fair skinned women as they would develop better pelvic structure for easier childbearing. “

??? could you elaborate please?

[SunkenCiv]

> ...found in Gough’s Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England... in 1903... [much more recent] Analysis of his nuclear DNA indicates that he was a typical member of the Western European hunter-gatherer population at the time, with a most likely phenotype of blue-green eyes, dark brown or black hair, and dark or dark-to-black skin, with no genetic adaption for lactase persistence into adulthood. [wikipedia]

The area near Cheddar Gorge is where the original cheddar cheese came from, btw.

[SunkenCiv]

BTW, Cheddar Man died violently, someone bashed his head in. Prehistoric cultures would have benefited from 7/11s.

[SunkenCiv]

The Crow Creek massacre had nothing to do with climate, given what humans are obviously capable of, the real mystery is, why doesn’t it happen more often?

[zeestephen]

The Bronze Age lasted 2,000 years.

It would be helpful if the author and the scientists narrowed that date down to a century or two.

[gleeaikin]

Vitamin D deficiency can cause rickets, a bone maldevelopment disorder, which before Vitamin D was added to several of our major foods, was especially common among negroes and the poor, especially women who did not as often work in the sunshine. This can also cause poorly formed pelvic structure which can interfere with childbearing and birth. Fair and reddish skinned humans absorb the vitamin D formed by sun on their skins more easily than do darker skinned people.

Only recently have doctors begun to realize that Vitamin D in much higher doses than needed for bone growth, is also very important for immune system function. I have just read several papers on the frequency of uterine fibroid tumors among negro women, which is much higher than for white women. It is also good protection from severe cases of Covid and other illnesses. It is probably the reason for higher death rates from Covid among negroes, American Indians and other darker skinned people. Why don’t our health agencies tell this???