77 Headless Skeletons Found at 7,000-Year-Old Settlement in Slovakia

Archaeologists found 78 skeletons piled atop each other at a 7,000-year-old settlement near Vrable in Slovakia, with 77 missing their heads. The discovery occurred during a 2022 excavation of a Linear Pottery Culture site that contained 350 house layouts, about 80 of which were occupied at the settlement’s peak. All skeletons except one child’s were headless.

The child’s remains were placed among the adult bodies. Vertebrae lay near a ditch wall, and no jaw bones were recovered from the repository. Skeletal markings showed the skulls had been removed with sharp tools rather than blunt force.

Katharina Fuchs, a biological anthropologist at Kiel University, said the features clearly exhibit an intentional manipulation of the bodies. Martin Furholt, lead author and professor of archaeology at Kiel University, said researchers must assume these practices were embedded in completely different contexts of meaning than those of modern societies.

The study was published in the journal The Proceedings of The Prehistoric Society.

Maria Wunderlich, Kiel University project leader, had earlier suggested the possibility of a massacre or human sacrifice. After examining tool marks and the absence of jaw bones, the team determined the decapitations were part of a post-mortem ritual. Headless interments were common across Neolithic Europe.

Researchers said the Vrable find fits an established custom whose specific meaning remains unknown. They plan further analysis of the skeletons and associated artifacts to clarify relationships among the individuals and the purpose of the ritual.