Overview

• Published in Science Advances on August 20, the study analyzed 82 individuals from Achenheim and Bergheim dated to roughly 4300–4150 BCE.
• Skeletal evidence includes severed left upper limbs, unhealed skull fractures, blunt-force injuries, and instances of excessive violence.
• Isotopic signatures indicate that violently treated individuals were non-local, while those in conventional burials were local to the area.
• Severed arms show local chemistry but tortured full skeletons appear non-local, consistent with trophies from fallen local enemies and captives executed as public spectacle.
• The findings fit a period of regional upheaval linked to movements from the Paris Basin into the Upper Rhine Valley, though the authors caution that some deposits could reflect alternatives such as strangulation, collective punishment, sacrifice, or outcast burials.