Excavation of Iron Age Spanish town reveals a massacre

[Duncan Head]

Summary at https://www.livescience.com/iron-age-village-massacre.html

Original article at https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/make-a-desert-and-call-it-peace-massacre-at-the-iberian-iron-age-village-of-la-hoya/24A2D6612C3C0EBA8AF9CEAAF9A3319A (full article available if you click on the pdf link)

Once considered rare, archaeological examples of violence in prehistoric Europe have accumulated over recent decades, with new discoveries providing evidence of large-scale, organised warfare among pre- and protohistoric populations. One example is La Hoya in north-central Iberia. Between the mid fourth and late third centuries BC, the site was subjected to a violent attack, its inhabitants killed and the settlement burned. Here the authors present osteological analyses for a massacre: decapitations, amputations and other sharp-force injuries affecting a wide cross section of the community. They interpret the massacre as an instance of conflict between rival local communities, contributing to a growing picture of the scale and nature of violence in Iron Age Europe.

[Imperial Dave]

fascinating, thanks Duncan. The full article is absorbing if macabre in its conclusions

[Tim]

Summary at https://www.livescience.com/iron-age-village-massacre.html

Original article at https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/make-a-desert-and-call-it-peace-massacre-at-the-iberian-iron-age-village-of-la-hoya/24A2D6612C3C0EBA8AF9CEAAF9A3319A (full article available if you click on the pdf link)

... They interpret the massacre as an instance of conflict between rival local communities...

Nah, as a Romanist I know it would all be down to Punic treachery...

[DougM]

Wait until they read what Caesar did in Gaul.. that will blow their minds.