Dozens of Britons were “slaughtered and butchered” and then cannibalized after Bronze Age massacre, research shows

New research reveals that dozens of Bronze Age Britons were killed in an attack unlike any known to archaeologists studying the time and place.

The research on human remains from Charterhouse Warren in south-west England, led by a team of researchers from multiple institutions including the University of Oxford. published in Antiquityjournal of world archaeology. It found that at least 37 Bronze Age men, women and children had been “killed and butchered” and then cannibalised, with their bodies then thrown down a natural shaft nearly 50ft of depth While archaeologists have found remains of Bronze Age and later Britons who died violently, these incidents were largely isolated. Mass graves from this period have also been found, but the remains have been laid to rest with dignity, unlike those studied.

Researchers first became aware of the tree in the 1970s. Two excavations were carried out in the 1970s and 1980s. Human remains, as well as some artefacts including a flint dagger, were found at several places in the shaft during that excavation. More than 3,000 individual human bones and bone fragments were recovered in total. These bones were used to estimate that there were at least 37 separate sets of remains in the shaft. Different lengths of bones show that the people killed were male and female, and they ranged in age from infants to adults. Research is ongoing to find out how the people were related to each other.

The way the remains were disposed of made a detailed study possible, the researchers said. The foot helped preserve the bones and hold them together.

The bones “show clear evidence of blunt force trauma,” according to researchers, suggesting that many of the people in the shaft suffered a “violent death.” Other injuries appear to have occurred, including the removal of the scalp and broken muscles in the jaw suggesting the removal of the tongue or lower jaw, evidenced by marks on the bones, the researchers said. Some of the victims may have been decapitated or dismembered.

It is possible that the victims were held captive or kidnapped, due to the severity of their injuries, the researchers said. It is not clear who may have carried out the attacks.

There is also evidence that the bodies were cannibalized, the researchers said, including human tooth marks on the bones and signs that marrow, the soft tissue inside bones, had been removed. The researchers said the cannibalism appeared to have been carried out “in the context of 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 and mutilated, their long bones broken in such a way that can only be described as butchery,” the researchers said.

Later in the publication, the researchers referred to the scene as “murder,” and suggested that it may have been a “political statement” of such intense violence that it would have been “re- reporting across the region in general and over time”. However, it is not clear what could have led to the violence: “Climate change, ethnic conflict or competition over material resources do not seem to offer a convincing explanation,” according to the researchers, leaving the only possible option is that the violence started as part of a pattern of revenge or violence between communities.

“At this point, our study has raised as many questions as it has answered,” the researchers said. “Work is ongoing to shed more light on this dark program.” in British prehistory.