Remains at Achenheim and Bergheim, two Neolithic sites in France, reveal victims of war celebrations

Remains at Achenheim and Bergheim, two Neolithic sites in France, reveal that locals brutalized foreign prisoners of war, victims of martial victory celebrations

Neolithic people from two sites in northeastern France practiced overkill and mutilation of foreign invaders, new research suggests. The work, which provides some of the earliest evidence for grisly war-related victory celebrations, involved the analysis of brutalized skeletal remains and severed limbs found in prehistoric pits dating back to between 4300 and 4150 BCE. The presence of these burial pits at the Achenheim and Bergheim sites implies that these Neolithic communities were at war.

Other archaeological evidence across the Upper Rhine Valley shows that military invasions caused rapid cultural upheaval at this time. Yet, whether the people buried here were prisoners of war – and whether they were locals or foreigners – remained unknown until now. To answer this, Teresa Fernández-Crespo and colleagues analyzed 82 human skeletal remains from the Achenheim and Bergheim sites. Some of these remains bore violent injuries, including unhealed skull fractures and severed upper limbs, indicating these people were victims of war violence. Other remains had no signs of unhealed trauma or dismemberment, suggesting these people were given a normal burial. Fernández-Crespo et al. also performed isotopic analyses on the remains, and discovered significant differences in the isotopic fingerprints of victims versus non-victims. Doing so enabled the researchers to deduce that the victims came from elsewhere, while non-victims lived locally. This suggests that the victims belonged to invading groups and were killed by locals defending their territory, the authors say.

“It is probable that the identities of these victims can be attributed to socially remote, nonlocal enemies that became trophies or captives during battles or raids and that may have been considered by their captors as not properly ‘human’ and hence warranting such treatment,” Fernández-Crespo et al. write.

Press release from the American Association for the Advancement of Science – AAAS

New research reconstructs the identity of victims from one of the earliest victory celebrations in Europe.

New research published in the journal Science Advances challenges previous theories about prehistoric conflict by offering a detailed look into the lives and deaths of victims of what could be one of the earliest victory celebrations in Europe. 

The study, ‘Multi-isotope biographies and identities of victims of martial victory celebrations in Neolithic Europe’, published in Science Advances and co-authored by Dr Teresa Fernández-Crespo and Professor Rick Schulting, used cutting-edge multi-isotope analysis to reconstruct the identities of individuals found in mass graves in Alsace, northeastern France, dating to around 4300–4150 BCE.

The findings challenge conventional interpretations of prehistoric violence as indiscriminate or purely pragmatic.

Excavations at the sites of Achenheim and Bergheim uncovered a grim array of remains: complete skeletons showing signs of severe, excessive violence, and pits containing severed left upper limbs. This pattern of treatment – deliberate overkill and trophy body parts – did not match typical Neolithic massacres or executions. Instead, the researchers propose a chilling reinterpretation: that these deaths formed part of structured post-conflict rituals, intended to humiliate the enemy and reinforce social unity.

Isotopic signatures from the victims’ bones and teeth were compared with those of individuals who had received conventional burials. The results revealed that the victims had different dietary patterns and showed signs of higher mobility and physiological stress, suggesting they were outsiders.

Intriguingly, the severed limbs – likely taken from fallen combatants – had local isotopic values, while the tortured individuals with full skeletons appear to have originated from further afield.

This distinction supports the idea of a two-tiered ritual: local enemies killed in battle were dismembered and brought back as trophies; others, likely captives, were subjected to violent execution in what researchers describe as a form of Neolithic political theatre.

Professor Schulting said: ‘These findings speak to a deeply embedded social practice -one that used violence not just as warfare, but as spectacle, memory, and assertion of dominance.’

By revealing the complex social and cultural roles that violence played in the Neolithic period, the study adds a compelling new chapter to the human story – one in which the echoes of war and ritual continue to shape our understanding of early society.

The research was funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions individual grant from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, awarded to Dr. Fernández-Crespo. It was a collaborative effort between the CNRS, Aix Marseille University, and Minist Culture, LAMPEA in Aix-en-Provence, France; the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford, UK; the Department of Chemistry at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium; the Department of Archaeology and New Technologies at Arkikus, Spain; ANTEA-Archéologie, France; the University of Strasbourg, France; UMR 7044 Archimède, University of Strasbourg, France; and Inrap Grand Est, France.

Bibliographic information:

Fanny Chenal, Bertrand Perrin, Hélène Barrand-Eman, Philippe Lefranc, Teresa Fernández-Crespo, Christophe Snoeck, Gwenaëlle Goude, Javier Ordoño, Rick Schulting, “Multi-isotope biographies and identities of victims of martial victory celebrations in Neolithic Europe”, Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adv3162