A team of researchers from several institutions, including the University of Oxford, investigated human remains from Charterhouse Warren in southwest England. Published in Ancient.a journal of world archaeology. He found that at least 37 Bronze Age men, women and children had been “murdered and butchered” and then dumped with their bodies down a natural shaft about 50 feet deep. Although archaeologists have found remains of Britons who died violently in the Bronze Age and later, those incidents were largely isolated. Mass graves from this period have also been found, but the remains were interred with respect as opposed to study.
Researchers first became aware of the shaft in the 1970s. Two excavations were carried out in the 1970s and 1980s. During these excavations, human remains were found at several points in the shaft, as well as some artifacts, including flint daggers. In total, more than 3,000 human bones and bone fragments have been recovered. These bones were used to infer that at least 37 individual sets of remains were in the shaft. The varying lengths of the bones indicate that the victims were both male and female, and ranged in age from infants to adults. Ongoing research is working to determine how people were related to each other.
The researchers said that the way the remains were disposed of made possible a detailed examination. The shaft helped preserve the bones and keep them grouped together.
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The bones “show clear evidence of blunt force trauma,” suggesting that many of the people in the shaft “met a violent death,” according to the researchers. Other injuries, including removal of the skull and severed jaw muscles that suggest the 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.
Researchers say it is possible that the injured were captured or assaulted due to the severity of their injuries. It is not clear who carried out the attacks.
There is also evidence that the bodies were masculinized, the researchers said, with human tooth marks on the bones and the removal of marrow removing the soft tissue inside the bones. The researchers said the genocide was likely carried out “in the context of a violent conflict, in which individuals are dehumanized and treated like animals.”
“Approximately 37 men, women and children—and possibly many more—were killed at close range with blunt instruments and then systematically dismembered, breaking their long bones,” the researchers said. What can only be described as butchery.”
In a later publication, the researchers referred to the scene as a “massacre” and suggested that it could also be a “political statement” of violence so brazen that it “spread across the region and over time.” Resounding”. However, it is not clear what might be causing the violence: “Neither climate change, ethnic conflict nor competition over material resources seem to offer convincing explanations,” according to the researchers, leaving the only possible option. Violence broke out as part of the Karr violence. 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 continues to shed more light on this dark episode in British history.”