Headless skeletons offer new insights into farming societies

Dozens of human skeletons, lying apparently randomly on and next to each other, of which the skulls are missing, presents a terrifying sight at first glance. Since 2022, this is what researchers have been excavating in a 7,000-year-old settlement near the current town of Vráble in Slovakia. Are the headless skeletons the remains of a Neolithic massacre and represent gruesome evidence of a crisis in the ancient society?

Initial bone analyses and a compilation of the excavation results until now point in a different direction. “In contrast, we have evidence that the interments – which appear unusual to us – were part of social practices, which structured local and supra-regional relationships and are only limited signs of conflict and crisis”, says Prof. Dr. Martin Furholt of Kiel University (CAU). He is the lead author of the corresponding study, which has now been published in the international journal Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society.

One of the most important archaeological sites of the Linear Pottery culture

The large Neolithic settlement at Vráble belongs to the most important excavation sites of the so-called Linear Pottery culture (LBK) in Central Europe. Researchers from Kiel University and the Slovakian Academy of Sciences in Nitra have been investigating it since 2012.

The excavation site is comprised of more than 300 house outlines in three neighbourhoods, where intermittently up to 80 buildings existed which were simultaneously inhabited. The settlement existed for a period of several centuries, approximately between 5250 and 4950 BCE.

One of the neighbourhoods was surrounded by a ditch which probably served as a border. During earlier excavations, researchers already found human remains. Since the fieldwork in 2022, these finds have accumulated spectacularly. At the entrance to the settlement, the remains of at least 78 individuals have been uncovered – in various postures and without discernible order.

Spectacular finds of headless skeletons

77 of the individuals lacked a head. The excavators found only one skeleton of a child with a preserved skull. Initial evidence suggests that little time passed between the death of these individuals and their interment.

“The features clearly exhibit an intentional manipulation of the bodies”, explains Dr. Katharina Fuchs, a biological anthropologist at the Institute of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University and co-author of the study. “First analyses suggest, above all, that violent ‘decapitations’ were not conducted here, but rather skilful removals of the skulls.”

How this practice should be interpreted, however, is still open. One hypothesis is discussed that the heads may have been stored separately – a phenomenon that is not yet directly attested for Vráble, but known from other contexts.

Comparable interventions associated with human bodies are proven for many prehistoric societies, also within the LBK. However, the details of the practices differ greatly. Furthermore, the deposition of the dead or of body parts in settlement ditches is not an isolated phenomenon. It is, however, notable, that mass graves, depositions in settlement ditches as well as manipulations of bodies appear at many archaeological sites at the end of the LBK.

This phenomenon has frequently been interpreted as evidence of a time of crisis, for example, in connection with violence or conflicts. The participants of the current study, however, suggest a differentiated perspective. “The deposition of bodies and body parts may have been part of more complex, meaningful and recurring practices sein,” states co-author Dr. Nils-Müller-Scheeßel. As he further explains: “First the end of such practices could possibly point to extensive changes.” According to Martin Furholt, “We must assume that these practices were embedded in completely different contexts of meaning than those of modern societies. This is what makes an interpretation of them so challenging.”

The site provides keys for the discussion of fundamental questions

The publication is thus a springboard for further analyses in the current research project ‘Neolithic Bodies’, which has been funded by the German Research Foundation since 2025. Presently, the participating research groups continue to sort the recovered bones in order to determine the age at the time of death, the biological sexes and to analyse the cutting marks on the cervical vertebra in more detail. Further studies on the possible impacts of violence and forensic investigations on decomposition processes are being conducted as well. Isotope and DNA analyses will also provide added information on the origins, diet and kinship ties of the Neolithic individuals. The construction of the ditch system also raises further open questions.

“But the first results already show that Vráble is an exceptional excavation site. It provides us with the keys for the discussion of fundamental questions, for example, how were death and the body understood in the Neolithic and what role did the associated practices play in the social fabric of early farming societies?”, summarises Martin Furholt with questions that still need to be answered.