Mass grave site yields evidence of Stone Age massacre

FRANKFURT, Germany, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- In a newly published study, researchers reveal the discovery of an ancient grave filled with shattered skulls and broken bones, evidence of a violent episode in a rural Stone Age farming village.

In a V-shaped ditch near Frankfurt, Germany, archaeologists found 26 skeletons -- men, women and children. The remains featured injuries caused by the blunt force trauma of ancient weaponry. Researchers say the skull and bone fractures are evidence of close-quarters fighting, while arrowheads suggest the massacre may have been initiated by a long-distance ambush.

While scientists can't say for sure what precipitated the massacre, it appears an entire village was killed -- everyone except for young women, who are missing from the grave and were likely kidnapped.

Some of the victims have broken shin bones, possible evidence of torture or mutilation after death.

"On one hand you are curious about finding out more about this, but also shocked to see what people can do to each other," lead researcher Christian Meyer, an archaeologist at the University of Mainz, told The Guardian.

The findings of Meyer and his colleagues were recently detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This is a classic case where we find the 'hardware': the skeletal remains, the artefacts, everything that is durable we can find in the graves," Meyer said. "But the 'software': what people were thinking, why they were doing things, what their mindset was at this time, of course was not preserved."

Researchers estimate that the violence happened about 7,000 years ago. The victims -- and perpetrators -- were likely part of the Linear Pottery culture, a group of early farmers in Neolithic Europe. As these farming settlements spread across the landscape, clearing forests and sowing fields, pressure on limited natural resources gave way to violent conflicts. Scientists believe climate change likely exacerbated the competition for local resources.

Meyer says the mass grave is an example of one of the uglier byproducts of mankind's transition from hunter-gatherers to sedentary farmers.

"Hunter-gatherers were highly mobile, and so couldn't amass much material, and had no permanent settlements," Meyer told the New Scientist.

But around 5500 BCE, groups began stay put and accumulate land and material goods, growing crops, building huts and shaping pottery.

"For the first time, farmers wanted their descendants to inherit both the agricultural plots and the technology to manage them," he said.

No longer able or willing to pick up and move, mankind became more likely to settle conflicts with violence.

"It was the first time in history our descendants were faced with this problem," said Meyer. "It meant they were stuck to their settlements without being able to escape what fate threw at them, whether it was droughts, climate stress, or disputes with neighbors."

The ancient massacre is an example of early violence, in which the aggressors used their farming tools as weapons. Weapons designed specifically for warfare, shields and swords, weren't common until the Bronze Age, 2,000 years later.