7,000-year-old headless human skeletons found in ditch: “A terrifying sight at first glance”

Researchers have found a mass of ancient human bones, almost all of their heads severed, in a cave in central Europe – a discovery they admit “makes a terrifying impression at first.” But the 7,000-year-old headless remains actually provide new insights into the farming communities that lived in the region at the time, according to an announcement from Germany’s Kiel University.

The university and the Slovenian Academy of Sciences jointly supported a multi-year research effort that brought archaeologists to the site in Vráble, a small town in Slovakia, where the bones were discovered. Those involved in the project have now released a study about their findings, which was published in the journal Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society.

Although the 78 bones found piled high in Vráble may suggest some kind of massacre took place, the researchers say their analysis so far shows they were deliberately placed that way, possibly as part of a Neolithic culture.

Martin Furholt, a professor at the University of Kiel and lead author of the study, said in a statement that the funeral “looks unusual.” Based on the evidence collected by his team so far, they may show the “social habits” of the ancient inhabitants, who lived in the area around Vráble from about 5250 to 4950 BCE, according to the university.

Researchers began investigating the site in 2012, hoping to learn more about its ties to an important period in European history when both pottery and agriculture flourished. The excavation site now includes what they believe were once 300 house sites in three separate areas during the Neolithic period, one of which was surrounded by a ditch where the fossils were found.

The bones were found in seemingly random places, both on top of and next to each other, and all but one were found to be headless. The researchers say that only one frame of the child’s skeleton has been discovered and its skull is complete.

They also believe that people whose remains were once there were buried shortly after their death. It is not clear what happened to the heads, although researchers think they may have been kept somewhere separate from the burial site.

“The features clearly indicate deliberate physical abuse,” Katharina Fuchs, co-author of the study and from Kiel University, said in a statement.

But Fucjhs said the evidence does not suggest violent beheadings took place. Instead, skulls appeared to be skillfully removed from bodies after death. That makes this finding different from other cases where the fossils of prehistoric communities were found to be treated in the same way.

In comparable examples, they said that such burial methods are interpreted as signs of conflict or problems, which they believe played a role here.

“The placement of bodies and body parts may be part of complex, meaningful and repetitive processes,” said Nils-Müller-Scheesel, one of the co-authors of this study, while Furholt added: “We must assume that these practices were embedded in completely different contexts of meaning than those of modern societies. This is what makes their interpretation challenging.”