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In the 1970s, archaeologists unearthed human remains from a deep underground shaft in Somerset, England. The truth about what happened to those men, women, and children, however, has only recently come to light.
Archaeologists in the UK and Europe have analyzed the Bronze Age remains of 37 people in England, finding evidence of gruesome murder. Their results, described in a learning published today in the magazine The pasthighlights the largest known example of inter-communal violence in British history and challenges the view that Early Bronze Age Britain (circa 2500 to 1200 BCE) was a time of peace.
The remains in question include more than 3,000 human bones and bone fragments previously found in a 49.2-metre (15-metre-deep) shaft at an archaeological site in Somerset called Charterhouse Warren. The people were men, women, and children—which may represent a group of people, according to the researchers—who were killed, butchered, and possibly eaten before being thrown down the shaft.
Led by Rick Schulting of the University of Oxford, archaeologists found evidence of severe skull trauma, fractures made at the time of death, and incised wounds that may have been caused by decay. The last two results indicate intent to kill and cannibalize, according to the study.
When it comes to eating meat, the researchers rejected funeral rituals and starvation as motivations. The death of the people was violent, there is no evidence of war (so they must have been surprised), and the discovery of bones of cattle in the same river shows that there was no shortage of food at that time. So what could have motivated this strange prehistoric act of violence?
The researchers wrote: “Cannibalism may have been a way of ‘othering’ the deceased.” The past word was sent to Gizmodo. “By eating their flesh and mixing the bones with the remains of animals, the killers were comparing their enemies to animals, thereby depriving them of their humanity.”
This explanation, however, does not fully explain the causes of all violence. At the time, Britain was not facing the challenges of climate change or other events that would have caused resource competition, according to the study. There is also no clear genetic evidence for racial conflict.
As a result, the researchers show that the conflict can be caused by social events and eventually it is caused by crimes such as theft and / or insults. Perhaps the outbreak—discovered in two children’s infected teeth by a previous study—may also have exacerbated existing conflicts.
“Ultimately, the findings paint a picture of an ancient society where little thought and revenge can lead to unbridled violence. This, unfortunately, is only recently known,” they wrote.
Although direct evidence of violent warfare in Britain between 2500 and 1500 BCE is scant, the site of the massacre certainly argues against the idea that the period may have been peaceful.
“It shows a much darker picture of the period than many expected,” Schulting said. “Charterhouse Warren is one of those rare historical sites that challenges the way we think about the past,” he added. “The fact that it’s unlikely that it happened only once makes the story worth telling,” he added.
“So far, our research has raised as many questions as it has answered.” “Work is continuing to shed more light on the dark past of Britain,” the researchers concluded in the study.
Although there is nothing we can do about the unknown atrocities of the past, perhaps we can learn not only from the past but also from the past to prevent our revenge from being worse than it was before.
