Dozens of Britons were ‘murdered and massacred’ then cannibalized after Bronze Age massacre, research shows

New research suggests that dozens of Bronze Age Britons died in an attack unlike any other known to archaeologists who studied that time period and location.

The investigation into human remains from Charterhouse Warren in south-west England, carried out by a team of researchers from multiple institutions including the University of Oxford, was published in Antiquitya magazine of world archeology. It found that at least 37 Bronze Age men, women and children were “murdered and massacred” and then cannibalized, and then their bodies were dumped in a natural pit nearly 50 feet deep. While archaeologists have found remains of Bronze Age and later Britons who died violently, those incidents were largely isolated. Mass graves from this period have also been found, but the remains were buried with respect, unlike those studied.

Researchers first became aware of the well in the 1970s. Two excavations were carried out in the 1970s and 1980s. Human remains, as well as some artifacts, including a flint dagger, were found at various points in the well during these excavations. In total more than 3,000 individual human bones and bone fragments have been recovered. Those bones were used to estimate that at least 37 individual sets of remains were in the pit. The different lengths of bones show that the people killed were both men and women, and ranged in age from babies to adults. Ongoing research is working to determine how people related to each other.

The way the remains were disposed of made detailed examination possible, investigators said. The shaft helped preserve the bones and keep them grouped together.

The bones “show clear evidence of blunt force trauma,” according to researchers, suggesting that many of the people in the pit “suffered a violent death.” Other injuries likely also occurred, including removal of the scalp and severed jaw muscles, suggesting removal of the tongue or lower jaw, as evidenced by marks on the bones, the researchers said. Some of the victims may have been decapitated or dismembered.

It is possible that the victims were held captive or ambushed due to the severity of their injuries, investigators said. It is unclear who may have carried out the attacks.

There is also evidence that the bodies were cannibalized, researchers said, including human tooth marks on the bones and indicators that the marrow, the soft tissue inside the bones, was removed. The researchers said the cannibalism likely took place “within a context of violent conflict, in which individuals are dehumanized and treated like animals.”

“Some 37 men, women and children, and possibly many more, were killed at close range with blunt instruments and then systematically dismembered and defleshed, with their long bones fractured in a manner that can only be described as carnage,” the researchers said.

Later in the post, researchers referred to the scene as a “massacre” and suggested it might even have been a “political statement” of violence so brazen that it would have “resonated throughout the region and across time.” However, it is unclear what could have led to the violence: “Neither climate change, ethnic conflict nor competition for material resources appear to offer convincing explanations,” according to the researchers, leaving the only likely option that violence broke out as part of a pattern of revenge or violence between communities.

“At this stage, our research has raised as many questions as it has answered,” the researchers said. “Work is underway to shed more light on this decidedly dark episode of British prehistory.”