{"id":362725,"date":"2025-08-21T18:42:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T18:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/362725\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T18:42:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T18:42:17","slug":"gruesome-pit-of-tortured-warriors-is-uncovered-in-france-after-being-laid-undiscovered-for-6000-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/362725\/","title":{"rendered":"Gruesome pit of tortured warriors is uncovered in France after being laid undiscovered for 6,000 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/profile-2321\/index.html\" class=\"author\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ROBERT FOLKER, NEWS REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  13:47 EDT, 21 August 2025   |  Updated:  14:14 EDT, 21 August 2025   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">A gruesome pit of Stone Age human skeletons has been uncovered after being hidden for more than 6,000 years.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Dozens of warriors came to their brutal end after being captured in northeastern <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/france\/index.html\" id=\"mol-cfee80e0-7eb5-11f0-bc60-f7f80b8030dc\" class=\"class\" rel=\"noopener\">France<\/a>,\u00a0where warfare was widespread across the region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">However, rather than kill their enemies, &#8216;victory&#8217; celebrations were held where researchers say invaders were tortured and mutilated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Dating back to between 4300 and 4150 B.C, a\u00a0total of 82 human skeletons were unearthed in the pits, with some having their left arms severed or hands completely dismembered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Writing in the <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" class=\"class\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.adv3162\">Science Advances <\/a>journal, experts said:\u00a0&#8216;The severed upper limbs would represent war trophies removed at the battle site following the violent encounter and then taken back to the settlement for perhaps further transformation and display.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Dr Teresa Fernandez-Crespo, who worked on the findings, told <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" class=\"class\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/archaeology\/6-300-years-ago-dozens-of-people-were-murdered-in-grisly-victory-celebrations-in-france\">Live Science<\/a> that the warriors had their lower limbs fractured to stop them from fleeing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">She said: &#8216;We believe they were brutalised in the context of rituals of triumph or celebrations of victory that followed one or several battles.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Researchers also found they had suffered &#8216;blunt force traumas&#8217; as well as signs of piercing holes through their bones, which could point to the invaders being put up on display as a warning for others.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-6c5a575fa2399f73\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/101438115-15022269-image-a-33_1755798143783.jpg\" height=\"677\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Dozens of warriors came to their brutal end after being captured in northeastern France , where warfare was widespread across the region\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\" aria-label=\"To enrich screen reader interactions, please activate Accessibility in Grammarly extension settings\">\u00a0Dozens of warriors came to their brutal end after being captured in northeastern France , where warfare was widespread across the region<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-b23553848d600f44\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/101438117-15022269-image-a-35_1755798152578.jpg\" height=\"668\" width=\"634\" alt=\"However, rather than kill their enemies, 'victory' celebrations were held where researchers say invaders were tortured and mutilated\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\" aria-label=\"To enrich screen reader interactions, please activate Accessibility in Grammarly extension settings\">However, rather than kill their enemies, &#8216;victory&#8217; celebrations were held where researchers say invaders were tortured and mutilated<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-d1a6525ffd600650\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/101438119-15022269-image-a-34_1755798146478.jpg\" height=\"421\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Dating back to between 4300 and 4150 B.C, a total of 82 human skeletons were unearthed in the pits, with some having their left arms severed or hands completely dismembered.\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Dating back to between 4300 and 4150 B.C, a total of 82 human skeletons were unearthed in the pits, with some having their left arms severed or hands completely dismembered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Food evidence found on their teeth suggests the tortured warriors may have come from Paris.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">However, chemical signatures from their remains indicate the group may have also moved around different regions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">While some remains showed no signs of being mutilated, which could be the skeletons of warriors who did not survive when attempting to defend the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Another theory put forward by scientists is that skeletons could be the result of &#8216;collective punishments or sacrifices of social outcasts&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        Gruesome pit of tortured warriors is uncovered in France after being laid undiscovered for 6,000 years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By ROBERT FOLKER, NEWS REPORTER Published: 13:47 EDT, 21 August 2025 | Updated: 14:14 EDT, 21 August 2025&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[92,2000,299,36,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-362725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-sciencetech"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115068229786062275","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}