The mass grave of 7,000 years revealed a bloody massacre

German scientists found a 7,000-year-old mass grave containing at least 26 adult and child skeletons with a broken skull and broken femur, evidence of a massacre at the beginning of the Apostle. new stone.

Decode the 7,000-year-old mass grave mystery

A group of archaeologists found a rectangular tomb in Germany in 2006 during a road construction project in Schöneck-Kilianstädten , 20 km northeast of Frankfurt. The results were published yesterday on the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Wound in the forehead of an 8-year-old remains in the grave.(Photo: Christian Meyer.)

Archaeologists suspect the ancient tomb was 7.5 meters long, one meter wide, containing the bodies of victims of a massacre. Typically, the Stone Age tombs only bury a dead body, and 50% have ceramic wares, stone tools or shelled decorations.

However, those who died in the mass grave showed signs of serious injuries , and the grave contained no remains. The remains of corpses without traces indicate rituals before being buried, indicating they belong to the victims of massacre.

A cracked adult tibia bone found in an ancient tomb.(Photo: Christian Meyer.)

According to Christian Meyer, head of the research team and biologist archaeologist at Mainz University in Germany, most skull bones show signs of attack. Some individuals with femoral bones (tibia and fibrosis) fractured, indicating they had undergone torture before they died, or were later removed. The team also found two arrowheads with bones in the grave, most likely to attack the victims.

The age and sex of corpses are also noticeable. Analysis of broken bones showed that 13 individuals were children and there were 10 children under 6 years of age at the time of death. The youngest is only 6 months old.

In the tomb there are no victims between the ages of 9-15, 13 the remaining bones are adults, but only two of them are women. Meyer said the attackers may have kidnapped young women and forced them to join the tribe. The most agile teen-members in the group, have fled.

This tomb is the most recent discovery revealing the period of violence at the beginning of the Neolithic period. The researchers also found two other mass graves: a 34 body buried in Talhem, Germany, and the other contains at least 67 skeletons in Asparn / Schletz, Austria. All three graves are located in central Europe, dating between 5,600 and 4,900 BC.

The graves are all related to Linearbandkeramik (LBK) culture , a group of people named after their decorative patterns on pottery. The LBK originated from the Middle East, bringing sheep, goats and other pets when migrating, setting up farms and small villages in central Europe.

"Three massacres took place almost simultaneously, at different locations in the territory of Linearbandkeramik. It can be seen that this period was quite violent," Live Science quoted Meyer.