Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
Research Article

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

Christian Meyer, Christian Lohr, Detlef Gronenborn, and Kurt W. Alt
  1. aInstitute of Anthropology, University of Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany;
  2. bRömisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, 55116 Mainz, Germany;
  3. cSchool of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Braamfontein 2000, Johannesburg, South Africa;
  4. dCenter of Natural and Cultural History of Teeth, Danube Private University, 3500 Krems-Stein, Austria;
  5. eIntegrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science, University of Basel, 4055 Basel, Switzerland;
  6. fState Department for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt, State Museum of Prehistory, 06114 Halle (Saale), Germany

See allHide authors and affiliations

PNAS September 8, 2015 112 (36) 11217-11222; first published August 17, 2015; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1504365112
Christian Meyer
aInstitute of Anthropology, University of Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: Chr.Meyer@email.de
Christian Lohr
bRömisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, 55116 Mainz, Germany;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Detlef Gronenborn
bRömisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, 55116 Mainz, Germany;
cSchool of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Braamfontein 2000, Johannesburg, South Africa;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Kurt W. Alt
dCenter of Natural and Cultural History of Teeth, Danube Private University, 3500 Krems-Stein, Austria;
eIntegrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science, University of Basel, 4055 Basel, Switzerland;
fState Department for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt, State Museum of Prehistory, 06114 Halle (Saale), Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  1. Edited by Melinda A. Zeder, National Museum of Natural History, Santa Fe, NM, and approved July 20, 2015 (received for review March 3, 2015)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Significance

The Early Neolithic massacre-related mass grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten presented here provides new data and insights for the ongoing discussions of prehistoric warfare in Central Europe. Although several characteristics gleaned from the analysis of the human skeletal remains support and strengthen previous hypotheses based on the few known massacre sites of this time, a pattern of intentional mutilation of violence victims identified here is of special significance. Adding another key site to the evidence for Early Neolithic warfare generally allows more robust and reliable reconstructions of the possible reasons for the extent and frequency of outbreaks of lethal mass violence and the general impact these events had on shaping the further development of the Central European Neolithic.

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.

  • LBK
  • warfare
  • trauma
  • burial
  • osteoarchaeology

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: Chr.Meyer{at}email.de.
  • Author contributions: C.M., D.G., and K.W.A. designed research; C.M. and C.L. performed research; C.M. and C.L. analyzed data; and C.M., C.L., D.G., and K.W.A. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1504365112/-/DCSupplemental.

View Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The massacre mass grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten reveals new insights into collective violence in Early Neolithic Central Europe
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
The massacre mass grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten
Christian Meyer, Christian Lohr, Detlef Gronenborn, Kurt W. Alt
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Sep 2015, 112 (36) 11217-11222; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1504365112

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
The massacre mass grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten
Christian Meyer, Christian Lohr, Detlef Gronenborn, Kurt W. Alt
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Sep 2015, 112 (36) 11217-11222; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1504365112
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Article Classifications

  • Biological Sciences
  • Anthropology
  • Social Sciences
  • Anthropology
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 112 (36)
Table of Contents

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Disposal of the Dead in Early Neolithic Central Europe
    • The Mass Grave and Its Analysis
    • Osteological Results
    • Osteoarchaeological Synthesis
    • Early Neolithic Mass Graves as Evidence for Lethal Collective Violence
    • Acknowledgments
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

You May Also be Interested in

Water from a faucet fills a glass.
News Feature: How “forever chemicals” might impair the immune system
Researchers are exploring whether these ubiquitous fluorinated molecules might worsen infections or hamper vaccine effectiveness.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Dmitry Naumov.
Reflection of clouds in the still waters of Mono Lake in California.
Inner Workings: Making headway with the mysteries of life’s origins
Recent experiments and simulations are starting to answer some fundamental questions about how life came to be.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Radoslaw Lecyk.
Cave in coastal Kenya with tree growing in the middle.
Journal Club: Small, sharp blades mark shift from Middle to Later Stone Age in coastal Kenya
Archaeologists have long tried to define the transition between the two time periods.
Image credit: Ceri Shipton.
Illustration of groups of people chatting
Exploring the length of human conversations
Adam Mastroianni and Daniel Gilbert explore why conversations almost never end when people want them to.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
Panda bear hanging in a tree
How horse manure helps giant pandas tolerate cold
A study finds that giant pandas roll in horse manure to increase their cold tolerance.
Image credit: Fuwen Wei.

Similar Articles

Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Special Feature Articles – Most Recent
  • List of Issues

PNAS Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science
  • Teaching Resources

Information

  • Authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Reviewers
  • Subscribers
  • Librarians
  • Press
  • Cozzarelli Prize
  • Site Map
  • PNAS Updates
  • FAQs
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Rights & Permissions
  • About
  • Contact

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490