The massacre mass grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten reveals new insights into collective violence in Early Neolithic Central Europe

Abstract

Conflict and warfare are central but also disputed themes in discussions about the European Neolithic. Although a few recent population studies provide broad overviews, only a very limited number of currently known key sites provide precise insights into moments of extreme and mass violence and their impact on Neolithic societies. The massacre sites of Talheim, Germany, and Asparn/Schletz, Austria, have long been the focal points around which hypotheses concerning a final lethal crisis of the first Central European farmers of the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik Culture (LBK) have concentrated. With the recently examined LBK mass grave site of Schöneck-Kilianstädten, Germany, we present new conclusive and indisputable evidence for another massacre, adding new data to the discussion of LBK violence patterns. At least 26 individuals were violently killed by blunt force and arrow injuries before being deposited in a commingled mass grave. Although the absence and possible abduction of younger females has been suggested for other sites previously, a new violence-related pattern was identified here: the intentional and systematic breaking of lower limbs. The abundance of the identified perimortem fractures clearly indicates torture and/or mutilation of the victims. The new evidence presented here for unequivocal lethal violence on a large scale is put into perspective for the Early Neolithic of Central Europe and, in conjunction with previous results, indicates that massacres of entire communities were not isolated occurrences but rather were frequent features of the last phases of the LBK.

Keywords: LBK; burial; osteoarchaeology; trauma; warfare.

Fig. 1.

Composite image of the LBK mass grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten, Germany (area 4, feature 139). Individual images were adjusted for visualization of the complete feature.

Fig. S1.

Sites specifically mentioned in the text marked within the approximate distribution of the LBK in Europe. Massacre sites: A, Schöneck-Kilianstädten; B, Talheim; C, Asparn/Schletz. Other sites: D, Herxheim; E, Vaihingen/Enz; F, Schwetzingen; G, Wiederstedt. Sites A, B, and D–G are located in Germany; site C is in Austria.

Fig. 2.

Examples of cranial trauma identified in the mass grave. (A) CT reconstruction of cranial fragment no. 331, displaying a healed depressed fracture on the left parietal (open arrows) with evidence of nonunion of fracture edges (A and B) and surgical treatment (solid arrows). (B) Endocranial view of left adult parietal no. 79 showing a comminuted blunt-force injury with internal beveling. (C) Ectocranial view of skull fragment no. 233 (a child ca. 3–5 y old) showing a shaped, nonpenetrating blunt-force injury of the left parietal. (D) Ectocranial view of skull fragment no. 177 (a child ca. 8 y old) showing a shaped, nonpenetrating blunt-force injury across the frontal bone. (Scale bars, 3 cm each.)

Fig. 3.

Examples of perimortem long-bone fractures identified in the mass grave, often showing the classic butterfly pattern (A–C). (A) Right tibia no. 289. (B) Left tibia no. 20–21. (C) Right tibia no. 374. (D) Right humerus no. 328 with parallel chop marks. (Scale bars, 2 cm each.)