Peer-reviewed article
A large mass grave from the Early Iron Age indicates selective violence towards women and children in the Carpathian Basin.
Fibiger L, Iraeta-Orbegozo M, Koledin J, Laffoon JE, Makarewicz CA et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This is a bioarchaeological study of a 9th-century BCE mass grave in the Carpathian Basin. The researchers analyzed skeletal remains and DNA from 77 individuals to understand patterns of prehistoric violence. The study found that the victims were predominantly women and children who were unrelated to each other, suggesting deliberate selective killing during a regional conflict.
Key points
- 77 individuals from a mass grave at Gomolava dated to the 9th century BCE were analyzed
- Victims showed a selective demographic bias toward women and children
- Genetic analysis of 25 individuals showed few or distant family relationships among the dead
- The evidence suggests deliberate annihilation of select sections of a regional population
- The study provides insights into gender relations and the agency of women in later European prehistory
Limitations
This is an archaeological study of historical events and does not address contemporary child well-being or outcomes. It cannot inform policy or interventions for children today.
Abstract
Narratives about the motivations and conditions for mass violence as a persistent feature of conflict throughout human history have evolved in complexity and materiality. Victims of these events are key for understanding the evolution and transformative power of violent behaviour as it developed from simple intergroup conflict to more strategic mass violence. Here we present the results of a bioarchaeological study of 77 and biomolecular analysis of 25 individuals from a ninth-century BCE mass grave from Gomolava in the Carpathian Basin, Southeast Europe. The site is located at the interface of complex sociospatial relations, divergent cultural traditions and values, and competing ideologies of landscape use. We show that excessive lethal violence enacted mostly on women and children suggests a selective demographic bias. The people buried together shared few, even distant, genetic relationships, and so their killing presents striking evidence for an episode of cross-regional conflict and an underlying aggressive shift in power, violence and gender relations in the region. Gomolava provides evidence consistent with deliberate annihilation of select sections of a regional population as a motivation for mass violence behaviour in later prehistoric Europe. It also shines new light on the socioeconomic agency and importance of women and young individuals in later European prehistory.