A Pile Of Skulls Was Found In The Center Of A Prehistoric Italian Village, And They’ve Been Linked To A Ritual Tradition That Went On For Centuries
At the center of a prehistoric village, a pile of skulls was found inside a building. The skulls have been linked to a ritual tradition that was practiced for centuries.
They were discovered during excavations between the 1980s and 1990s at the site of Masseria Candelaro in southeastern Italy.
The site was first occupied in the early 6th millennium B.C., around the beginning of the Neolithic period in the region.
“We investigated Masseria Candelaro because we are studying how prehistoric people interacted with the dead between the Neolithic to the end of the Bronze Age in Italy,” said Jess Thompson, the lead author of the study from the University of Cambridge.
Apparently, Neolithic people deposited broken skulls and jaw bones in a ritualistic fashion in a pile at the village’s center. The remains belonged to mostly males and were collected over the course of two centuries.
Previous studies suggested that they represent at least a dozen individuals, but the latest research has increased this number to at least 15 individuals.
The bone fragments were examined to determine where the individuals came from and how they were interacted with before being buried.
The results revealed that the people likely came from the local inland area. The deposition of the skull bones occurred in the middle of the 6th millennium B.C.
They represent people who died over a span of about two centuries, which means that the bones were gathered over several generations before being added to the heap.
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“The most surprising find was the long duration over which they were curated,” said Thompson. “Since most of the crania were placed simultaneously as one event, it is intriguing that radiocarbon dates from just three of the crania show they were taken from people who had died over a span of up to two centuries.”
“This suggests that the crania had been kept in circulation above ground for a long time, and some may even have been taken from burials that were already ancient.
There is no specific evidence regarding what people might have been doing with the bones that they curated, but it’s possible they could have been displayed.”
Villages in the surrounding region also had human bones scattered around the site. Cranial fragments were buried around huts in a couple of villages. Overall, the human bone must have held a special meaning and was perhaps thought of as a powerful material.
It appeared that removing crania from burials was common during the Neolithic. They were circulated, handled, and sometimes reburied.
The wear and tear of the bones showed that they were handled frequently and may have been passed around group members and their homes.
The study was published in the European Journal of Archaeology.
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