In 2016, two cemeteries that were being excavated in France gave up human remains from between 4300 and 4150 BCE. That puts them in the Neolithic era, toward the end of the Stone Age. Some of the mass graves showed evidence of overkill- crushed bones, smashed skulls, and completely missing limbs. Other graves showed no signs of such brutality. These two sites are the oldest European cemeteries that show such destruction during mass killings or desecration shortly afterward, which must be a sign of war.
New technology allows archaeologists to learn more from these bones. Studying the isotopes in the remains can give us a clue as to where these people were from and where they had traveled. The bones that were smashed were of people that did not live in the local area, determined by coparing the isotopes of those who were buried one at a time. A new study offers a couple of scenarios of what might have happened to them more than 6,000 years ago. Read about the recent discoveries at Mental Floss. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Fanny Chenal, INRAP)