It is not strange that when archaeologists begin to excavate a site, they take some other surprise. What is exceptional (fortunately) is that these surprises are like the one that Dr. Martin Furholt and his team they have taken in Vráble, western Slovakia. In 2012, researchers began exploring an inhabited Neolithic settlement there. between 5250 and 4950 BC which has turned out to hide a macabre ‘treasure’: a grave with dozens and dozens of corpses whose heads were torn off.
The big question is… Why?
In a place in Nitra… Vráble is a small town in Slovakia. Just over 8,000 inhabitants, a supported economy in the industrial sector and about 70 minutes by car from the capital, Bratislava. Nothing particularly noteworthy.
For a few years, however, this discreet village in the Nitra region has been a headache for archaeologists who are in charge of investigating the first agricultural communities in central Europe. The reason: not far from Vráble they have found a Neolithic site with dozens of buildings and a ditch in which they don’t stop appearing decapitated skeletons.
One word: Linearbandkeramik. When they began to investigate the Vráble site, around 2012archaeologists from the University of Kiel and the Slovak Academy in Nitra rubbed their hands. And it is logical. It is believed that the area was populated between 5250 and 4950 BC, an extensive period during which They built more than 300 homes spread throughout three neighborhoods and in which 80 buildings were inhabited simultaneously.
Due to its characteristics and age, experts believe that it is one of the most important archaeological sites in the region. Linearbandkeramik (also known as ‘linear ceramic culture’ or LBK), label that identifies the agricultural settlements that inhabited central Europe between 5400 and 4900 BC
Hence they were not surprised when in 2017 they unearthed four skeletons headless hidden in a wheat field. The problem is that in 2022 they discovered that those corpses were the first on a long (very long) list.
What happened that year? That Dr. Martin Furholt, from the University of Kiel, and the rest of his colleagues verified that in the perimeter strip surrounding the Vrábel site there were not just a handful of skeletons.
In the summer of 2022 they recovered the remains of 34 peoplestacked on top of each other. And as they advanced in their excavations, they found more and more corpses: dozens and dozens of ancient bodies buried “in various positions and in no discernible order,” clarify. The most surprising thing, however, was another detail: practically all of them were missing their heads.
78 bodies, one head. To be more precise, Dr. Furholt and his colleagues discovered the remains of 78 bodies. And all but one had been decapitated. The only exception was the corpse of a child.
As the researchers analyzed the bones they also came to two conclusions: first, that the skeletons belong to people who were buried shortly after they died; second, that the vertebrae show cut marks, clues that archaeologists are investigating in search of answers.
What the hell happened here? That is the question that archaeologists are now asking. Especially since there is no trace of the skulls. What the hell happened in the Vráble settlement? Do those 77 decapitated corpses tell us about an unknown Neolithic massacre? The most curious thing is that, in principle, the hypotheses used at the University of Kiel point in another direction.
“The findings show intentional manipulation of the bodies,” explains Katharina Fuchsanthropologist, who confirms that “the analyzes suggest that violent ‘decapitations’ were not carried out, but skillful extractions.”
With perspective. “We have evidence that burials were part of social practices that shaped local and regional relations and are only limited indications of conflict and crisis,” Furholt adds.. The expert also recalls that the Vráble beheadings occurred thousands of years ago, in “contexts of meaning totally different from those of modern societies”, which is why he warns of the risk of analyzing it from a current perspective.
“The deposits of bodies or fragments could have been part of more complex, significant and recurring practices,” agrees Nils-Müller-Scheeßel, another of the researchers participating in the excavation.
Beyond Slovakia. The truth, as remember Scienceis that the Vráble site is not the only one from the LBK period with bone remains that intrigue archaeologists. In the 80s they discovered a tomb from 5000 BC in southern Germany that housed the skeletons of 34 peopleespecially children.
In that case, what stood out was not the absence of skulls, but what they showed: fractures that reveal that many of them died from blows. In Kilianstädten, Germany, a pit with 26 victims has also been discovered, many of them with shattered skulls and broken legs.
The first… In everything? The question that hovers over these deposits and the Vráble burial site is the same: What happened to the first farmers of Central Europe? Why did linear ceramic culture settlements that had prospered for long periods disappear?
These are relevant questions because, as remember Christian Meyer to Science“the LBK were the first farmers, the first great pan-European culture and the first time also that we find these repeated findings of violence.”
And now what? For now, Dr. Furholt and his colleagues have collected their first conclusions in a paper which have just been published in ‘Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society’. Now his goal is to continue revealing the mystery.
For example, one of the theories the team has on the table is that the missing skulls were removed to be stored separately, a phenomenon documented in other cases but which has not yet been confirmed in Vráble.
“Similar interventions involving corpses have been documented in numerous prehistoric societies, also in the LBK period. However, the details of these practices differ. Furthermore, the depositing of corpses or parts in ditches is not an isolated phenomenon,” remember the University of Kiel.
“An exceptional site”. At the moment, researchers are classifying the bones recovered in Vráble in search of clues about the age of the deceased, their sex, family relationships, diet, cuts in the vertebrae or whether there are signs of violence. “The first results already show that Vráble is an exceptional site,” celebrates Furholtwho hopes to obtain information that will clarify “how they understood death or the body” during the Neolithic.
Images | Kiel University-Till Kühl, Katharina Fuchs and Katharina Fuchs, Agnes Heitmann, Nils Müller-Scheeßel, Till Kühl
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