The discovery a 7,000-year-old mass grave with skeletal remains from some of the continent's first farmers in Germany is indicative of a prehistoric massacre and evidence that those alive at that time were somewhat violent, scientists believe.
Archaeologists carefully examined bone samples of about 26 men, women and children buried in the Stone Age grave site at Schoeneck-Kilianstaedten, in Germany, reported Fox News. They found blunt force marks to the head and arrow wounds, and noted that 50 percent of the shins were crushed, which they believe was either to stop victims from running or serve as a message to survivors.
"It was either torture or mutilation. We can't say for sure whether the victims were still alive," said Christian Meyer, one of the authors of the study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Meyer's findings underscores what archaeologists have long suspected: The first farmers were far from the peaceful, soil-tilling individuals we expected them to be, and were actually quite war-like.
However, Lawrence Keely, an archaeologist from the University of Illinois, is not convinced it was torture, reported AAAS. Instead he believes the assailants smashed the victims shins to prevent their ghosts from pursing them after death.
"Torture focuses on the parts of the body with the most nerve cells - feet, [genitals], hands, and head."
Aside from the trauma to the shins, the newest site resembles two other Neolithic-era mass graves found in Germany and Austria. In all three cases, whole villages - which numbered from 30 to 40 people - were seemingly wiped out. Most of the inhabitants were killed, except for young women who were likely kidnapped.
"Once may be an accident, twice may be coincidence but thrice is a pattern," Keeley said, adding that this newest finding is "another nail in the coffin" of those who believe that war was rare among Neolithic farming communities.
Researchers hope to gain insight into modern-day violence by using these past massacres and their aftermath as a reference.
