My guess is it was revenge by a conquering army on the citizens of a walled city that eventually fell to a protracted seige. Often this was done deliberately to send a message to other cities not to resist. You read a lot about that sort of thing in Julius Caeser’s “The Conquest of Gaul”.
The victims of the Early Iron Age massacre at Gomolava (c. 2,800 years ago) were not a single ethnic or kin group, but rather a genetically diverse “regional meta-population”.
According to a 2026 study published in [Nature Human Behaviour](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02399-9), their identity can be broken down as follows:
* Genetic Ancestry: The victims’ DNA shows a mixture of three primary prehistoric lineages:
* Serbia Iron Gates Mesolithic (Hunter-gatherers).
* Anatolia Neolithic (Early Farmers).
* Samara Yamnaya Early Bronze Age (Steppe pastoralists).
* Population Alignment: Their genetic profiles most closely align with populations from Bronze Age Hungary.
* Geographic Origin: Strontium isotope analysis of their teeth indicates they grew up in widely different locations across the Carpathian Basin. Most were relatively local to the region, but some originated from tens of kilometers away, with at least one individual coming from much further afield.
* Lack of Kinship: Remarkably, with the exception of one mother and her two daughters, the 77 victims were biologically unrelated. This suggests they did not belong to a single family, clan, or even a single village.
* Cultural Context: They were part of a semi-sedentary farming culture that used Kalakača-style ceramics.
Researchers believe they may have been targeted by a different group, possibly semi-nomadic herders, during a period of intense territorial conflict over land use.
[2] [https://www.ancient-origins.net](https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/gomolava-mass-grave-00102540)
[3] [https://www.discovermagazine.com](https://www.discovermagazine.com/a-chilling-massacre-in-prehistoric-serbia-took-the-lives-of-women-and-children-48732)
[4] [https://www.nature.com](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02399-9.pdf)
[5] [https://www.nature.com](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02399-9.pdf)
[6] [https://www.nature.com](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02399-9.pdf)
[7] [https://www.science.org](https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-mass-grave-serbia-seen-grisly-show-power)
[8] [https://www.ed.ac.uk](https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/mass-killing-uncovered-at-ancient-burial-site)
[9] [https://medium.com](https://medium.com/teatime-history/chosen-to-die-the-prehistoric-massacre-that-targeted-women-and-children-c94c1c2c06e2#:~:text=The%20origin%20of%20the%20victims%20became%20even,non%2Dlocals%20grew%20up%20even%20further%20than%20that.)
[10] [https://holistic.news](https://holistic.news/en/gomolava-mass-grave-77-victims-why-them/)
[11] [https://erc.europa.eu](https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/iron-age-massacre-targeted-women-and-children-new-research-reveals)
[12] [https://www.sciencenews.org](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/iron-age-mass-grave-women-children)
[13] [https://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com](https://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2026/02/27/lessons-from-an-early-iron-age-mass-grave-an-archaeodeath-perspective/)