Shocking new discovery of Somerset massacre
Research has revealed there is evidence of cannibalism
Last updated 17th Dec 2024
A shocking new discovery has been made from the 4,000-year-old bones found in a pit Charterhouse Warren.
The research by the University of Oxford suggests they belong to Bronze Age Britons, with around 37 men, women and children killed at close quarters and then "systematically dismembered".
"This was something exceptional. It looks like they were systematically dismembered."
The bones were found by cavers in the 1970s and experts believe they were thrown into a 15m shaft by their attackers.
It is thought to be the largest-scale example of interpersonal violence from British pre-history and reflects the "darker" side of human history.
Study lead Rick Schulting from the University of Oxford says: "To find 37 men, women and children treated in this way and to be butchered as if they were animals."
"There's nothing else like it, certainly in the Bronze Age and really nothing like it in British pre-history."
"We know at least two of the children had plague at the time, so that may have created this climate of fear."
"Maybe this group of people for whatever reason were the ones to blame and that motivated everyone who then did this."
"It is so unusual but sometimes things go wrong as they do in the modern world which is why it's so important the story is told."
The study is posted in the Antiquity journal.