Researchers uncovered startling evidence of cannibalism among Bronze Age Britons, shedding new light on a period once considered peaceful. A recent study led by Professor Rick Schulting of the University of Oxford revealed that at least 37 men, women, and children were brutally killed, dismembered, and possibly consumed around 4,000 years ago at the Charterhouse Warren site in Somerset.
The bones, discovered by cave explorers in the 1970s but largely overlooked for decades, were found at the bottom of a 15-meter-deep shaft. Analysis of over 3,000 mixed bones indicated that the victims had been subjected to extreme violence. Many skulls were shattered by fatal blows, and bones bore numerous cut marks and fractures typical of butchering. Tool incisions on leg bones, fractures linked to marrow removal, and human chew marks suggested that the remains may have been consumed.
"It paints a considerably darker picture of the period than many would have expected," Schulting said, according to The Guardian. "It is a stark reminder that people in prehistory could match more recent atrocities and shines a light on a dark side of human behaviour."
The evidence suggests that the massacre was not a result of resource scarcity, as there is little indication of tensions arising due to lack of food during this phase of the Bronze Age. In fact, pieces left from the victims were found alongside butchered cattle and other animal bones, implying that the attackers had ample food sources and possibly consumed human flesh as a deliberate act to dehumanize their enemies.
The massacre likely stemmed from a "spiralling cycle of revenge arising from social and political pressures" between communities. "This is an extraordinary event. The kind of almost annihilating a person, that is dismembering, seems to be something that can only be done with anger, fear, and resentment," Schulting commented, as reported by BBC News.
Further analysis revealed that two of the children's teeth showed evidence of a plague infection. While it is uncertain whether this is related to the violence, the presence of the plague pathogen Yersinia pestis adds another layer of complexity to the tragedy. "The finding of evidence of the plague in previous research by colleagues from The Francis Crick Institute was completely unexpected," Schulting noted, according to Metro. "We're still unsure whether, and if so how, this is related to the violence at the site."
The research challenges long-held beliefs about the Early Bronze Age in Britain. "For the early Bronze Age in Britain, we have very little evidence for violence," Schulting is cited by The Guardian [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/dec/16/something-horrible-somerset-pit-reveals-bronze-age-cannibalism]. "Our understanding of the period is mostly focused on trade and exchange: how people made pottery, how they farmed, how they buried their dead." The Charterhouse Warren site stands out as a stark exception.
The investigators found no weapons or clues to the attackers' identity, but isotope analyses indicated that the victims were of local origin. The systematic dismemberment and mixing of human and animal bones suggest that the attackers intended not only to exterminate but also to dehumanize the victims. By eating their flesh and mixing the bones in with animal remains, the killers were likening their enemies to animals, thereby dehumanizing them, noted Discover Magazine.
"That it is unlikely to have been a one-off event makes it even more important that its story is told," Schulting said, according to The Guardian. "Whoever did this would have been feared: this would have resonated, I think, through time and space in that particular region, probably for generations, as something horrible that happened here."
The findings have been published in the academic journal Antiquity.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.