The archaeological site of Herxheim, located in the municipality of Herxheim in southwest

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, was a ritual center and a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact ...

formed by people of the

Linear Pottery culture The Linear Pottery culture (LBK) is a major archaeological horizon of the European Neolithic period, flourishing . Derived from the German ''Linearbandkeramik'', it is also known as the Linear Band Ware, Linear Ware, Linear Ceramics or Inci ...

(LBK) culture in

Neolithic Europe The European Neolithic is the period when Neolithic (New Stone Age) technology was present in Europe, roughly between 7000 BCE (the approximate time of the first farming societies in Greece) and c.2000–1700 BCE (the beginning of the Bronze Age ...

. The site is often compared to that of the

Talheim Death Pit The Talheim Death Pit (German: ''Massaker von Talheim''), discovered in 1983, was a mass grave found in a Linear Pottery Culture settlement, also known as a Linearbandkeramik (LBK) culture. It dates back to about 5000 BC. The pit takes its name f ...

and Schletz-Asparn, but is quite different in nature. The site dates from between 5300 and 4950 BC.

Discovery

Herxheim was discovered in 1996 on the site of a construction project when locals reported finds of bones, including human skulls. The excavation was considered a salvage or rescue dig, as parts of the site were destroyed by the construction.

Culture

The people at Herxheim were part of the LBK culture. Styles of LBK

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

, some of a high quality, were discovered at the site from local populations as well as from distant lands from the north and east, even as far as away. Local

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

as well as flints from distant sources were also found.

Settlement

The structures at Herxheim suggested that of a large

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

spanning up to surrounded by a sequence of ovoid pits dug over a duration of several centuries. These pits eventually cut into one another, forming a triple, semi-circular enclosure ditch split into three sections. The way the pits were dug over such a length of time, in addition to their use, suggests a pre-determined layout. The structures within the enclosure eroded over time, and "yielded only a small number of settlement pits and a few graves". These pits were either trapezoidal or triangular in nature.

Mass grave

The enclosure ditches around the settlement comprise at least 80 ovoid pits containing the remains of humans and animals, and material goods such as pottery (some rare and high-quality), bone and stone tools, and "rare decorative artifacts". The remains of dogs, often found intact, were also recovered. The human remains were primarily shattered and dispersed within the pits, rarely intact or in anatomical position. Using a quantification process known as "

minimum number of individuals In disciplines including forensic anthropology, bioarchaeology, osteoarchaeology and zooarchaeology Minimum number of individuals, or MNI, refers to the fewest possible number of people or animals in a skeletal assemblage. It is used to determine ...

" (MNI), researchers concluded that the site contained at least 500 individual humans ranging from newborns to the elderly. However, "since the area excavated corresponds to barely half the enclosure, we can assume that in fact more than 1000 individuals were involved". The deposition of the human remains occurred only within the final 50 years of occupation at the site.

Mortuary practices

The people at Herxheim practiced a type of burial known as

secondary burial The secondary burial (German: ''Nachbestattung'' or ''Sekundärbestattung''), or “double funeral”Duday, Henri, et al. The Archaeology of the Dead: Lectures in Archaeothanatology. United Kingdom, Oxbow Books, 2009. (not to be confused with do ...

, which consists of the removal of the corpse or partial corpse and subsequent placement elsewhere. This is evident due to the lack of complete, articulated skeletons in the majority of the burials. Another possibility is that of

sky burial Sky burial (, "bird-scattered") is a funeral practice in which a human corpse is placed on a mountaintop to decompose while exposed to the elements or to be eaten by scavenging animals, especially carrion birds. It is a specific type of the ...

, in which the corpse is exposed to the elements and many bones are carried off by scavengers. A 2006 study revealed the intentional breakage and cutting of various human elements, particularly skulls. Bones were broken with

stone tools A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric (particularly Stone Ag ...

in a peri-mortem state, as is evident by the fragmentation patterns on the bones, which differ between fresh and dry (old) conditions. The conclusion reached from this study was that the site of Herxheim was a ritual mortuary center - a necropolis - where the remains of the dead were not just buried, but for reasons unknown, destroyed. A 2009 study confirmed many findings from the 2006 study, but added new information. In just one pit deposit, this study found 1906 bones and bone fragments from at least 10 individuals ranging from newborns to adults. At least 359 individual skeletal elements were identified. This in-depth study revealed many more cut, impact, and bite marks made upon the skulls and post-cranial skeletal elements. It was apparent that parts of the humans' bodies were singled out for their marrow content, suggesting cannibalization (see Hypotheses). Note that due to the fractures present on the bones being peri-mortem, the blows to the bones could have been made immediately prior (including as cause of) or soon after death. However, because of their precision placement, a peri-mortem "Cause of Death" is not likely, and rather the impacts were placed after the bone was defleshed.

Skull cult practices

Of particular note from both studies was the peculiar treatment of the humans' skulls. Many skulls were treated in a similar manner: skulls were struck on "the sagittal line, splitting faces, mandibles, and skull caps into symmetrical halves". A few skulls were clearly skinned prior to being struck, again, all in the same manner: "horizontal cuts above the

orbits In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...

, vertical cuts along the

sagittal suture The sagittal suture, also known as the interparietal suture and the ''sutura interparietalis'', is a dense, fibrous connective tissue joint between the two parietal bones of the skull. The term is derived from the Latin word ''sagitta'', meanin ...

, and oblique cuts in the parietals". The vault of the skull was preserved and shaped into what is referred to as a calotte (

calvarium The calvaria is the top part of the skull. It is the upper part of the neurocranium and covers the cranial cavity containing the brain. It forms the main component of the skull roof. The calvaria is made up of the superior portions of the fron ...

). During this process the

brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a ve ...

, which is a source of dietary

fat In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specifically to triglycerides (triple est ...

, may have been extracted. Additionally, a later study revealed that the tongues of humans were removed.

Hypotheses

Necropolis

Due to the transportation of distant pottery and flint, it was the conclusion of the 2006 study that Herxheim served as a necropolis for the LBK people of the area. "The projection of the number of individuals present (...) to a probable total of 1,300 to 1,500 rules out the possibility of a local graveyard — and points a regional centre at Herxheim to which human remains were transported for the purpose of reburial. (...) To organise the transport not only of stone tools and pottery but also of human bones and partial or maybe even complete corpses implies an efficient organisational and communication system."

Ritual cannibalism

Whether for religious purpose or war, it is apparent from the 2009 study that the humans at the site of Herxheim were butchered and eaten. Not only were cut marks found on locations of the

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

that are made during the

dismemberment Dismemberment is the act of cutting, ripping, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise disconnecting the limbs from a living or dead being. It has been practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, especially in connection with ...

and filleting process, bones were also crushed for the purposes of marrow extraction, and chewed. Besides the fresh-bone fractures present on many bones, " rocessingfor marrow is also documented by the presence of scrape marks in the marrow cavity on two fragments." Skeletal representation analysis revealed that many of the "

spongy bone A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, an ...

" elements - such as the spinal column,

patella The patella, also known as the kneecap, is a flat, rounded triangular bone which articulates with the femur (thigh bone) and covers and protects the anterior articular surface of the knee joint. The patella is found in many tetrapods, such as ...

, ilium, and

sternum The sternum or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major blood vessels from injury. Sh ...

- were underrepresented compared to what would be expected in a mass grave. "All these observations are similar to those observed in animal butchery." Additionally, preferential chewing of the

metapodial Metapodials are long bones of the hand (metacarpals) and feet (metatarsal The metatarsal bones, or metatarsus, are a group of five long bones in the foot, located between the tarsal bones of the hind- and mid-foot and the phalanges of the toes ...

s and hand phalanges "speak strongly in favour of human choice rather than more or less random action by carnivores". "The number of people concerned at Herxheim obviously suggests that cannibalism for the simple purpose of survival is highly improbable, all the more so as the characteristics of the deposits show a standard, repetitive, and strongly ritualised practice". Although a concrete conclusion has yet to be made, the archaeology does ''not'' rule out the possibility of deliberate travel to the complex with pottery, flint, and dead bodies (or partial bodies), with the intent to have the dead cannibalized and/or ritually destroyed. It also does not rule out the idea of

human sacrifice Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...

. Other archeologists reject the cannibalism hypothesis however, maintaining the evidence better fits a scenario in which the dead were reburied following dismemberment and removal of flesh from bones. "Evidence of ceremonial reburial practices has been reported for many ancient societies."