Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of a 4,000-year-old massacre in Somerset, revealing the brutal slaughter and probable cannibalism of people in what is now believed to the bloodiest known act of violence in British prehistory.
The remains, first discovered by cavers in the 1970s at a site in the Mendip Hills in Somerset, were recently analysed in a study that uncovered shocking details of the attack.
Victims were bludgeoned to death, their bodies dismembered and butchered and some appear to have been eaten—likely as part of a ritual to “dehumanise” them and send a message by “insulting the remains”, according to Professor Rick Schulting of Oxford University.
Around 3,000 fragments of bones found at a cave system called Charterhouse Warren, near Cheddar Gorge, show that at least 37 men, women and children were killed at some point between 2200BC and 2000BC, with their bodies thrown into a deep natural shaft.
Given that villages in early Bronze Age Britain had between 50 and 100 residents, experts believe this might have amounted to the eradication of nearly a whole community.
“Many of the victims’ skulls were shattered by the blows that killed them, and leg and arm bones had been cut away after death to extract the bone marrow,” said Prof Schulting, lead author of the study. Evidence of chewing marks on hand and foot bones points to human cannibalism. Nothing on this scale of violence has previously been documented in British prehistory, Prof Schulting said.
He continued: “For the early Bronze Age in Britain, we have very little evidence for violence. Our understanding of the period is mostly focused on trade and exchange: how people made pottery, how they farmed, how they buried their dead. There have been no real discussions of warfare or large-scale violence in that period, purely through lack of evidence.”
The massacre likely stemmed from a breakdown of relationships or an act of revenge that spiralled out of control, Prof Schulting said, saying that “literally chopping” someone into pieces, “seems like something you would only do if fueled by anger, fear, and resentment.”
The victims, including many children, appear to have been taken by surprise, as there is no evidence of resistance or fighting back. Scrape and cut marks on the bones suggest the attackers used stone tools to dismember the bodies and the remains were then thrown into the shaft.
Before this discovery, only about 10 examples of violent deaths had been identified from the period. Weapons and fortifications, hallmarks of defensive conflict, are also rare in the archaeological record from this time.
Prof Schulting continued: “This is not a homicidal maniac. This is a community of people that came together to do this to another community.”
But he cautions against viewing the past as “particularly savage and bloody” compared to modern experiences of violence. Saying: “I hope it gives us insights into human nature that extend beyond just the Bronze Age,”
The research is published in Antiquity.
