Headless skeletons from a Neolithic settlement ditch in Slovakia continue to puzzle archaeologists. Why people cut off the heads of the more than 70 dead people discovered in the Vráble site a good 7,000 years ago and then buried them seemingly at random in the ditch of their large settlement is still unclear. However, according to initial investigations, it does not appear to have been a massacre or beheadings of living people. But what was it then?
The large settlement of Vráble in Slovakia was one of the largest Neolithic settlement sites in Central Europe. In the period from 5250 to 4950 BC it comprised more than 310 buildings in three neighborhoods each measuring around 15 hectares. Up to 80 houses were inhabited at the same time – for the people of the linear ceramic culture, this was an unusually high population density. The southwestern part of Vráble’s three neighborhoods is surrounded by a 1.3 kilometer long double ditch, as excavations by a team led by Martin Furholt from the Christian Albrechts University of Kiel (CAU) have shown.
77 headless skeletons – at least
Even more unusual, however, is that in recent years, the team of archaeologists has uncovered several headless skeletons in the ditch in this part of the settlement of Vráble – there are now 77 of them. The human remains lay disorderly on top of each other and in a variety of positions in the ditch – sometimes on their stomachs, sometimes on their backs, sometimes crouched and sometimes with their limbs stretched out. What almost all of the dead have in common, however, is that they are missing their heads. Their skulls cannot be found in this mass grave. Only one small child was buried in the ditch along with his skull.
But why are these skeletons headless? “In view of the otherwise very different condition of the skeletons, the cervical vertebrae of the headless dead are surprisingly often preserved in the correct sequence,” write the archaeologists. This suggests that the dead were buried in the ditch relatively shortly after their death – and that their heads were previously separated from the rest of the body and removed. “The findings clearly show intentional manipulation of the bodies,” explains senior author Katharina Fuchs from the University of Kiel. Such practices are often seen as an indication of a crisis, such as violence or conflict.
Not a massacre
But in the case of the Neolithic settlement of Vráble, the headless skeletons do not appear to have been the victims of an armed conflict or mass killing, as archaeologists explain. “We cannot rule out such a scenario. However, the very different, but still patterned, placement of the headless bodies speaks against it,” write Furholt and his colleagues. “Initial analyzes indicate above all that this was not a violent ‘beheading’, but rather a skillful removal of the skull.”
Initial investigations also suggest that the dead were not all dumped in the settlement ditch at once. “Instead, the decapitation and burial of individual bodies may have occurred over longer periods of time – months or even years,” the team said. However, this raises the question of why the Neolithic inhabitants of the large settlement buried these dead without their heads. “We have to accept that these actions had completely different contexts of meaning than in modern societies,” explains Furholt, “that’s what makes their interpretation so challenging.”
Parallels to other Neolithic sites
As the team explains, it was common practice in many early cultures to remove the skulls of the dead and store them separately. “This often occurred in the context of ancestor veneration or other sociopolitical, ritual or magical practices,” the archaeologists write. Headless skeletons have also been found in Neolithic graves in Germany and Central Europe. “The most astonishing parallel to Vráble is the Herxheim site in West Germany,” report Furholt and his colleagues. In this Neolithic settlement, too, towards the end of the Linear Pottery culture, the dead were buried in a double ditch and apparently deliberately mutilated beforehand.
The archaeologists see these and other parallels as an indication that practices such as the removal of skulls and other body parts from the dead could have been an expression of a cultural or social change at the time. However, it is still unclear whether this was a reaction to increasing socio-political conflicts or changing religious ideas. “The laying down of bodies and body parts may have been part of complex, meaningful and recurring actions,” says co-author Nils Müller-Scheeßel from the University of Kiel.
Investigations are still ongoing
Neither the excavations in Vráble nor the examination of the skeletons have been completed yet. The team does not rule out the possibility of finding more headless bodies in the parts of the trench that have not yet been uncovered. The bones that have already been recovered are currently being examined in more detail, with a focus on the cut marks on the cervical vertebrae. Additional isotope and DNA analyzes of the finds could provide information about the origin, diet and relationships of the dead. “But the first results already show that Vráble is an exceptional site. It provides us with the keys to discussing fundamental questions: How were death and the body understood in the Neolithic period – and what role did associated practices play in the social structure of early farming societies?”, summarizes Furholt.
Source: Cluster of Excellence ROOTS, Christian Albrechts University of Kiel; Specialist article: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, doi: 10.1017/ppr.2026.10082