Eerie Talheim death pit reveals ‘first war crime’ where fleeing villagers were slaughtered by axe-wielding invaders 7,000 years ago
AN ANCIENT mass grave filled with the battered bodies of 26 adults and children may be evidence of the world's first war crime.
Broken legs and dented skulls suffered by the victims 7,000 years ago suggest they were tortured before they were slain – or mutilated after death – and then tossed into the pit in Germany.
Researchers say the gruesome find is evidence of an early Neolithic massacre on a small farming village.
Blunt force injuries to the skeletons suggest the attack was carried out using Stone Age axes and other weapons.
The fragments of animal bone arrow heads lodged into the skeletons reveal they were likely ambushed.
Scientists think the bloodbath was carried out by a rival farming village in a feud over resources.
The site, known as the Talheim Death Pit, was uncovered by archaeologists at the University of Mainz in 2006. They have been excavating it ever since.
Although mass graves have been found before from the stone age, it is the first time the bodies have shown signs of excessive violence.
Experts didn't find any skeletons of young women in the grave, which suggests the attackers may have taken the girls captive after brutalising their families.
They said the Neolithic mass grave – the third such find in Central Europe in recent years – shows the continent was a brutal place to live in 4000 BC.
"It's not an isolated example of violence from this particular time period; it's part of a general pattern that we're beginning to see," Dr Mark Golitko, an archaeologist at the Field Museum in Chicago, who was not involved in the study, told in 2015.
Neolithic people – the key facts
Here's what you need to know...
- The Neolithic period is the final division of the Stone Age
- It began around 12,000 years ago, lasting right up until 1200 BC in some parts of the world
- It's marked by the first developments of farming in the Near East, and then later in other areas of the world
- Neolithic people made large cultural changes, including using wild and domestic crops
- There is also evidence of domesticated animals in Neolithic culture
- Most Neolithic people lived in small tribes, taking shelter in rudimentary permanent houses
- They would typically wear animal skins, although wool cloth and linen may have been available later in the period
- In Northern Europe, the Neolithic period ended around 1700 BC
"It looks like the population of an entire village was wiped out."
The grave found in measures around 25 feet by three feet.
Around 13 of the victims were children, 10 of them no older than six years old at the time of death.
The youngest was likely just 6 months old.
It's possible the village was massacred with such brutality in order to send a message to other nearby tribes, scientists said.
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In other news, blood-thirsty tribesmen executed 28 people by knifing them in the head in a feud over darts game in 17th Century Alaska.
European colonisers massacred so many natives in the Americas that it cooled the planet, according to recent research.
And, this disturbing mass grave reveals entire families were massacred by skull-smashing invaders 5,000 years ago.
How do you think the victims died? Let us know in the comments!
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