image: Examples of cranial trauma. Top) perimortem injury to the left posterior of the frontal bone (a), cutmarks can also be seen on the frontal bone (b) and patinated bevel of the internal cranial surface is apparent around the injury (c); middle) cranium with a perforating injury to mid-frontal bone (d), a closer view shows radiating fracture lines (e) and the internal view shows patinated bevel (f ); bottom) adult cranium (g), close inspection shows cutmarks running along the mid-frontal (h) and a perimortem blunt force fracture to the conjoining right frontal bone fragment (i) Images by Schulting et al. Antiquity, December 2024.
Credit: Schulting et al. Antiquity, December 2024.
EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01 UK TIME, Monday 16 December 2024 (19:01 ET Sunday 15 December 2024)
Volume 99 No 403 February 2025
We aim to have all papers online by 10:00 UK time.
More images and an embargoed preview of the paper can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yMsUjDe7xuLWDCNgPH0XIX6dZtHkX2_c?usp=sharing
- Analysis of the remains of at least 37 individuals from Early Bronze Age England finds they were killed, butchered, and probably consumed before being thrown down a 15m-deep shaft.
- It is the largest-scale example of interpersonal violence from British prehistory.
- The treatment of the remains was likely a means to dehumanise or ‘other’ the victims.
- This massacre was probably revenge for a perceived offense, implying a cycle of violence and questioning the idea that Early Bronze Age Britain was relatively peaceful.
Archaeologists have analysed over 3000 human bones and bone fragments from the Early Bronze Age site of Charterhouse Warren, England, concluding that the people were massacred, butchered, and likely partly consumed by enemies as a means to dehumanise them.
There have been hundreds of human skeletons found in Britain dating between c.2500-1500 cal. BC, however direct evidence for violent conflict is rare.
“We actually find more evidence for injuries to skeletons dating to the Neolithic period in Britain than the Early Bronze Age, so Charterhouse Warren stands out as something very unusual”, states lead author of the research, Professor Rick Schulting from the University of Oxford. “It paints a considerably darker picture of the period than many would have expected.”
In the 1970s, the scattered bones of at least 37 individuals were discovered in a 15m-deep shaft at Charterhouse Warren, Somerset. They were a mix of men, women, and children, suggesting the assemblage was representative of a community.
Unlike most contemporary burials, the skulls display evidence of violent death from blunt force trauma. To uncover the mystery of what happened to these people, researchers from several European institutions analysed the bones. Their results are published in the journal Antiquity.
The researchers found numerous cutmarks and perimortem fractures (made around the time of death) on the bones, suggesting that they were intentionally butchered and may have been partly consumed. But why would people in Early Bronze Age Britain cannibalise the dead?
At the nearby Palaeolithic site of Gough’s Cave in Cheddar Gorge, cannibalism was likely a form of funerary ritual. Charterhouse Warren is different, however. Evidence for violent death, with no indication of a fight, implies the victims were taken by surprise. It is probable they were all massacred, and the butchery was carried out by their enemies.
Were they killed for food? This is unlikely. There were abundant cattle bones found mixed in with the human ones, suggesting the people at Charterhouse Warren had plenty to eat without needing to resort to cannibalism.
Instead, cannibalism may have been a way to ‘other’ the deceased. By eating their flesh and mixing the bones in with faunal remains, the killers were likening their enemies to animals, thereby dehumanising them.
What events led to this dramatic act of violence? Resource competition and climate change don’t seem to have exacerbated conflict in Britain at this time, and there is currently no genetic evidence to suggest the co-existence of communities with different ancestries that could have resulted in ethnic conflict.
This suggests that the conflict was caused by social factors. Perhaps theft or insults led to tensions, which escalated out of proportion. Evidence for infection with plague in the teeth of two children indicates disease may have also exacerbated tensions.
“The finding of evidence of the plague in previous research by colleagues from The Francis Crick Institute was completely unexpected”, says Professor Schulting. “We’re still unsure whether, and if so how, this is related to the violence at the site”.
Ultimately, the findings paint a picture of a prehistoric people for whom perceived slights and cycles of revenge could result in disproportionally violent actions. This situation is, unfortunately, familiar from more recent times.
“Charterhouse Warren is one of those rare archaeological sites that challenges the way we think about the past”, Professor Schulting concludes. “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. That it is unlikely to have been a one-off event makes it even more important that its story is told.”
---Ends---
Notes for editors
‘The darker angels of our nature’: assemblage of butchered Early Bronze Age human remains from Charterhouse Warren, Somerset, UK - Rick J. Schulting, Teresa Fernández-Crespo, Javier Ordoño, Fiona Brock, Ashleigh Kellow, Christophe Snoeck, Ian R. Cartwright, David Walker, Louise Loe & Tony Audsley
https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.180
Contacts
ANTIQUITY:
Max Storey,
Public Engagement and Press Coordinator
Tel: +44(0)7771 842 557
Email: media@antiquity.ac.uk
research:
Professor Rick J. Schulting
University of Oxford, UK
Email: rick.schulting@arch.ox.ac.uk
About
ABOUT ANTIQUITY
Antiquity is an international peer-reviewed journal of world archaeology, published six times a year and edited by Dr Robert Witcher. The journal was founded by O.G.S. Crawford in 1927 and is currently edited in the Department of Archaeology at Durham University (head: Professor Tom Moore). The journal is published in partnership with Cambridge University Press (CUP).
Antiquity website: http://www.antiquity.ac.uk
CUP Cambridge Core page: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntiquityJ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AntiquityJournal/
ABOUT CAMBRIDGE JOURNALS
Cambridge University Press publishes over 350 peer-reviewed academic journals across a wide spread of subject areas, in print and online. Many of these journals are leading academic publications in their fields and together form one of the most valuable and comprehensive bodies of research available today.
For further information about Cambridge Journals, visit: http://journals.cambridge.org
ABOUT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.
Its extensive peer-reviewed publishing lists comprise 45,000 titles covering academic research, professional development, over 350 research journals, school-level education, English language teaching and bible publishing.
Playing a leading role in today’s international market place, Cambridge University Press has more than 50 offices around the globe, and it distributes its products to nearly every country in the world.
For further information about Cambridge University Press, visit: http://cambridge.org
About the University of Oxford
Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the ninth year running, and number 3 in the QS World Rankings 2024. At the heart of this success are the twin-pillars of our ground-breaking research and innovation and our distinctive educational offer.
Oxford is world-famous for research and teaching excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research alongside our personalised approach to teaching sparks imaginative and inventive insights and solutions.
Through its research commercialisation arm, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the highest university patent filer in the UK and is ranked first in the UK for university spinouts, having created more than 300 new companies since 1988. Over a third of these companies have been created in the past five years. The university is a catalyst for prosperity in Oxfordshire and the United Kingdom, contributing £15.7 billion to the UK economy in 2018/19, and supports more than 28,000 full time jobs.
Journal
Antiquity
Article Title
‘The darker angels of our nature’: Early Bronze Age butchered human remains from Charterhouse Warren, Somerset, UK