French Archaeologists Unearth Bones Of Victims From A 6,000-Year-Old Massacre

First Posted: Jun 10, 2016 06:30 AM EDT

Archaeologists revealed on Tuesday that they have discovered the remains of 6,000-year-old massacre victims in Alsace in Northeastern France. They also said that what happened was most likely done by "furious ritualised warriors".

According to the Guardian, a team from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) unearthed the corpses of 10 individuals who were found in one of 300 ancient silos, used to store grain and other food.

The Neolithic group appeared to have had violent deaths, with multiple injuries to their legs, hands and skulls. The way in which the bodies were piled on top of each other suggested they had been killed together and dumped in the silo.

"They were very brutally executed and received violent blows, almost certainly from a stone axe," said Philippe Lefranc, an Inrap specialist on the period. The skeletons of five adults and one adolescent were found, as well as four arms from different victims.

According to Lefranc, the arms were probably "war trophies" like those found at a nearby burial site of Bergheim in 2012. He also said that said the mutilations showed a society of "furious ritualised warriors", while the silos were stored within a defense wall that pointed towards which signifies "a troubled time, a period of insecurity."

A report in thenews.com.pk said that scientists hope that genetic testing on the bones will give more information about the killings. However, Lefranc said that one theory of the killing is linked with a local tribe which clashed with a group of arriving from the area around modern-day Paris.

"It appears that a warrior raid by people from the Parisian basin went wrong for the assailants, and the Alsatians of the era massacred them," he said.

However, an article in The Seeker said that in the long run, it was the "Parisians" who had the last laugh. The local tribe appear to have been supplanted by the newcomers at about 4,200 BC, as demonstrated by new funeral rites, pottery and hamlets.