Early Neolithic executions indicated by clustered cranial trauma in the mass grave of Halberstadt

Christian Meyer,Veit Dresely,Harald Meller,Angelina Münster,Kurt W Alt,Nicole Nicklisch,Corina Knipper,Olaf Kürbis

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04773-w

Abstract

The later phase of the Central European Early Neolithic witnessed a rise in collective lethal violence to a level undocumented up to this date. This is evidenced by repeated massacres of settled communities of the Linearbandkeramik (ca. 5600–4900 cal bc), the first full farming culture in this area. Skeletal remains of several dozen victims of this prehistoric warfare are known from different sites in Germany and Austria. Here we show that the mass grave of Halberstadt, Germany, a new mass fatality site from the same period, reveals further and so far unknown facets of Early Neolithic collective lethal violence. A highly selected, almost exclusively adult male and non-local population sample was killed by targeted blows to the back of the head, indicating a practice of systematic execution under largely controlled conditions followed by careless disposal of the bodies. This discovery significantly increases current knowledge about warfare-related violent behaviour in Early Neolithic Central Europe.

Highlights

The later phase of the Central European Early Neolithic witnessed a rise in collective lethal violence to a level undocumented up to this date
The highly intense manipulation of corpses and possible ritualistic cannibalism practised at Herxheim represent behaviours that are still difficult to unravel, but knowledge about them has affected the interpretation of other sites that have long been considered as evidence for LBK warfare and, massacres[18, 19]
The mass grave was located in the southeastern part of the currently known LBK settlement area at the site

Summary

Introduction

The later phase of the Central European Early Neolithic witnessed a rise in collective lethal violence to a level undocumented up to this date. These occur scattered within settlement pits, in natural caves, or in enclosure pits and ditches and might be the remains of disturbed older burials or have had ritualistic significance This last point is exemplified by the large enclosure site of Herxheim, Germany, where human bodies were subjected to complex postmortem manipulation and disarticulation before being deposited in mixed assemblages with selected animal bones and various artefacts[17]. The highly intense manipulation of corpses and possible ritualistic cannibalism practised at Herxheim represent behaviours that are still difficult to unravel, but knowledge about them has affected the interpretation of other sites that have long been considered as evidence for LBK warfare and, massacres[18, 19] These sites are the mass grave of Talheim, Germany and the enclosure at Asparn/Schletz, Austria[20,21,22,23]. This is evident from the settlement burials where they generally dominate[15, 29]

Methods

Results

Conclusion