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Prehistoric Massacres. The twin vices of women and cattle in prehistoric Europe


 This is a fascinating look at life in prehistoric Europe where cattle raids and capturing your neighbour's wife was all the range. A strange retrospective on Germany 7000 years ago.

Women sparked prehistoric attack

 

WOMEN are likely to have been the prize which sparked the massacre of a prehistoric community, North East research suggests.


Examination of a mass grave of skeletons by Durham University-led researchers indicates that neighbouring tribes were prepared to brutally kill their male rivals to secure their women.


Lead researcher Dr Alex Bentley from Durham University’s Anthropology Department said yesterday that women would probably have been seen as a valuable resource for sexual and reproductive reasons and for their skills which would help ensure the survival of a community. “You have to have women if your group is going to reproduce,” he said.

 

 

The research focused on 34 skeletons found buried in the village of Talheim, near Stuttgart in Germany.


Genetic evidence from the skeletons’ teeth suggests they were of people killed in an attack between rival tribes around 7,000 years ago.


The researchers found that, although there were adult females among two other “outsider” groups in the grave, within the local group of skeletons there were men and children only.


They concluded the absence of local females indicates that they were spared execution and captured instead and may have indeed been the primary motivation for the attack. The deliberateness of the prehistoric attack was first realised when experts determined that the majority had been killed by a blow to the left side of the head, suggesting the victims were bound and killed, probably with a stone axe. Others may have been killed from arrow-wounds.


Dr Bentley said: “It seems this community was specifically targeted, as could happen in a cycle of revenge between rival groups. Although resources and population were undoubtedly factors in central Europe around that time, women appear to be the immediate reason for the attack.”


The research showed that the grave contained three distinct groups. The first comprised two men and two women, who probably came from an upland area and could have been cattle herders. Dr Bentley said that this group could have been caught in the attack and their cattle were taken. Evidence from the teeth of another group of five individuals showed they were closely related, probably a family, and this included an adult man and woman, an elderly woman and a boy and girl. But the third and largest group of local people was made up only of men and children, with no women present.


Dr Bentley said: “It has been argued that such raids were in response to land and population pressures or for resources, but this prehistoric massacre seems to have been for women and cattle. It has also been said that many long-running fights started over pigs or women – stealing a pig or fighting for women.”


The Durham University-led team, with researchers from University College London, University of Wisconsin and a German government body, came to their conclusions after analysing the strontium, carbon and oxygen isotope signatures of the skeletons’ teeth. These give vital information about the skeletons’ geological origin and diet.


There have been many witness accounts of fighting over women in the last 100 years but most archaeological evidence points to violence erupting over resources, overcrowding and property. The archaeological findings from this study for the first time strongly suggest violence took place over mates as early as prehistoric times, according to the scientists.

Jun 3 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

This unique insight into ancient times was picked for its insights by the team here at The Perfect gift

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