A Chilling Massacre in Prehistoric Serbia Took the Lives of Women and Children 

At a mass grave in Serbia, an assemblage of human remains sheds light on a ruthless Iron Age massacre that spared absolutely no one. The most horrific aspect of this killing is that most of the victims were women and children, whose murder stemmed from what was likely a territorial dispute gone awry.

A new study published in Nature Human Behavior has exposed the gruesome details of this tragedy that took place 2,800 years ago, culminating in the death of 77 individuals buried together at the Gomolava grave in northern Serbia. There’s an unusual twist to this massacre, however: The victims were given a thorough burial with symbolic objects, a sharp contrast to the merciless attack that resulted in their deaths.

“The brutal killings and subsequent commemoration of the event can both be read as a powerful bid to balance power relations and assert dominance over land and resources,” said co-lead Linda Fibiger, University of Edinburgh’s School of History, Classics and Archaeology, in a press release.

A Violent Prehistoric Massacre

Violence has been a lasting part of the human experience since prehistory. Fossil evidence has hinted at murder cases and scenes of warfare from thousands of years ago. Take the archaeological site of Nataruk in Kenya, for example, where the remains of 27 people point to a violent conflict that occurred around 10,000 years ago (although the nature of this incident is still debated to this day).

The violent act unearthed at the Gomolava grave now stands as one of the largest prehistoric mass killings ever seen in Europe. The victims were bludgeoned and stabbed to death, with women and children being the main targets.

According to a statement on the new study, 40 of the victims were children between the ages of one and twelve, 11 were adolescents, and the remaining 24 were adults (87 percent of whom were female).

Oddly enough, the victims at Gomolava weren’t families as archaeologists might have expected to see at such a burial site.

“Gomolava genuinely took us by surprise when our genetic analysis showed the majority of people studied were not only unrelated, not even their great–great-grandparents were,” said co-lead author Barry Molloy, a professor of archaeology at University College Dublin. “This was highly unusual for a prehistoric mass grave and not what we expect to find if they had all lived together in a village.”

Read More: Iron Age DNA Reveals a Herpesvirus That Still Infects Humans Today

Taking Control of the Land

The researchers involved with the new study conducted genetic testing of 25 individuals at the Gomolava, showing that they weren’t closely related. They also gathered isotopic data from bones and teeth to reveal the victims’ varying diets, suggesting that women and children were taken from different settlements.

The victims were likely killed to send a message to others in the area who were either trying to settle in developed territory or use the land for farming. The massacre came at a time when many groups were starting to establish settlements at sites (like mounds and mega-forts) that had previously been abandoned following widespread sociopolitical collapse in the Bronze Age.

“Our team has been tracing the Bronze Age collapse and its aftermath in Europe. What we found at Gomolava tells us that as things recovered in this area moving into the Iron Age, reasserting control over landscapes could include widespread and extremely violent episodes between competing groups,” said Molloy.

Burying the Dead with Respect

The Gomolava grave isn't like a typical burial site, where the deceased are unceremoniously thrown into a pit. Instead, it shows a surprising amount of dedication; the victims weren't stripped of any items, and they were even buried alongside valuable possessions like bronze jewelry and ceramic drinking vessels.

The grave seems to be rich in food-related symbolism, as evidenced by a few other items. A butchered calf, for example, was placed inside the grave, and broken grain-grinding stones and burnt seeds were scattered on top of the grave.

The burial may have had some sort of ceremonial meaning, and could even be considered respectful. But the researchers believe that the mass killing, at its core, may have been a coordinated effort to assert dominance over the local landscape, reflecting how Iron Age communities used violence to influence their reputation.

Article Sources

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:

• This article references information from a study published in Nature Human Behavior: A large mass grave from the Early Iron Age indicates selective violence towards women and children in the Carpathian Basin