Schletz massacre

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Victim of the massacre: skull of a 40- to 50-year-old woman with a broken hole

In the Schletz massacre 7000 years ago, towards the end of the epoch of linear ceramic culture , more than 200 Neolithic people were killed by blunt force before they were carelessly deposited in a mass grave on the site of today's village of Schletz (municipality of Asparn an der Zaya in Lower Austria ) were.

Finds

The linear ceramic band settlement area of ​​Schletz, around 50 kilometers north of Vienna , was discovered on the basis of aerial archaeological findings and archaeologically researched between 1983 and 2005 . The settlement was surrounded by an oval, in parts double ditch , which can be interpreted as a fortification. The oval had a width of up to four meters, a depth of two meters and a longitudinal diameter of 330 meters. The interior of the settlement was accessible via several earth bridges, in which the ground plans of at least 12 long houses were verified.

In the course of the excavations, which covered around 20 percent of the site, the skeletons of around 200 individuals were discovered in the outer trench, most of whom died as a result of severe injuries to their skulls by blunt force ( shoe last wedges ), in one case also by arrow shot came. The trenches remained open for a while, so the location of some corpses was changed by animal consumption. The dead - men, women and children - were mostly placed in the prone position, many of the skeletons examined were missing arms or legs, and severed skulls were also found individually. It was noticeable that hardly any young women were among the dead. Presumably all residents were killed or taken prisoner in an attack on the settlement; after that the settlement area was no longer inhabited.

According to the findings, all of the dead were deposited around 5000 BCE . The Schletz massacre consequently happened at the same time as the Kilianstädten massacre ( Hesse ) and the Talheim massacre ( Baden-Württemberg ).

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Schefzik: Notes on massacres in the early Neolithic ceramic band. In: Harald Meller and Michael Schefzik (eds.): War - an archaeological search for traces . Accompanying volume for the special exhibition in the State Museum for Prehistory Halle (Saale). November 6, 2015 to May 22, 2016. Theiss, Stuttgart 2015, pp. 174–175, ISBN 978-3-8062-3172-4 .
  2. ↑ Helmut J. Windl: Earthworks of linear ceramics in Asparn an der Zaya / Schletz, Lower Austria. In: Prehistoria Alpina. Volume 37. 2001, pp. 137–144, ISSN 0393-0157, full text (PDF)
  3. ↑ Maria Teschler-Nicola et al .: Anthropological securing of evidence: the traumatic and post-mortem changes in the linear ceramic skeletal remains of Asparn / Schletz. In: Helmut Windl (Hrsg.): Mysteries of violence and death 7000 years ago: securing evidence. Exhibition in the Museum of Prehistory Asparn ad Zaya. Catalog of the Niederösterreichisches Landesmuseum, NF, No. 393, Asparn ad Zaya, 1996, full text (PDF) .
  4. ^ Eva Maria Wild et al .: Neolithic Massacres: Local Skirmishes or General Warfare in Europe? In: Radiocarbon. Volume 46, No. 1, 2004, pp. 377-385, doi: 10.1017 / S0033822200039680 , full text