Pit of Amputated Arms in France from 6,000 years ago Suggest War and Trophy-Taking

The pit of arm bones (Antiquity photo)

 
About 6,000 years ago in France some hostiles in an apparent act of warfare and trophy-taking killed a group of adults and children, amputated their arms and buried the limbs in a circular pit underneath some other bodies. It was a common practice to bury people in circular pits at the time in a large area of Europe, but this gruesome case stands out from the rest as the only one with violence done to those buried.

French researchers from various institutions wrote the article “A farewell to arms: a deposit of human limbs and bodies at Bergheim, France, c. 4000 BC” in the journal Antiquity (abstract). The researchers are Fanny Chenal, Bertrand Perrin, Hélène Barrand-Emam and Bruno Boulestin.

The people who attacked the victims fractured their arms and chopped them off, then apparently buried those limbs in a layer in the pit underneath some other skeletons, all of which had their arms except one. The upper layer also contained a fragment of an infant’s cranium.

Dr. Chenal told Ancient Origins via e-mail that she does not know why the severed arms were buried underneath the other people’s remains, but her team assumed they were all of the same social group but were treated differently.[...] Ancient Origins / Link 2


Actualización: Trofeos de guerra de hace 6.000 años
Hace 6.000 años, en lo que parece ser un acto de guerra y captura de trofeos, fueron asesinados en Francia varios niños y adultos. A continuación amputaron sus brazos y los enterraron en una fosa circular bajo otros cuerpos. El enterramiento de individuos en fosas circulares era una práctica común en aquella época en amplias regiones de Europa, pero este macabro caso destaca entre los demás por ser el único en el que se ejerció violencia contra los que más tarde serían enterrados...