A lot of blood, a lot of songs for the beautiful ladies are pouring

Archaeologists have repeatedly suggested that it was women who caused violence and bloodshed in various periods of history, but there was no archaeological confirmation of this theory. Now, with the help of a fundamentally new method of examining remains in ancient mass graves, it has become possible, firstly, to distinguish between representatives of different tribes, and secondly, to reveal that about 7 thousand years ago men from neighboring tribes, as a rule, were ready to kill each other because of women.

The object of the study conducted by specialists from the University of Dorham, the results of which are published in the journal Antiquity, were the skeletons of 34 people buried near the village of Talheim in southwestern Germany. With the help of radiocarbon analysis and geochemical analysis of teeth, scientists have determined that these people lived about 5 thousand years BC and died in a battle between tribes.

Prior to the study, it was assumed that there would be several women in this group, although they would be in the minority. But after applying the method that allowed the victims to be separated by geographical origin, it became clear that this group of local residents has an important feature. There was no doubt that these were local residents, since there were small children among them, but the peculiarity of the group was that there were no adult women who came from this area.

According to the researchers, the absence of women suggests that they were captured, not executed, and that it was women who were the target of an attack by one tribe on another. The fact that the women of the attacked tribe were captured is the simplest explanation for the finding, says the study's lead author Dr. Alex Bentley. "This community was divided in a specific way, since there was a cycle of mutual attacks for the purpose of revenge between tribes. And although the battle for resources in Europe for a long time remained the undoubted cause of rivalry, it turns out that women were also the cause of the attack. Our analysis shows that women were considered valuable and therefore saved their lives," he adds.

Skeletons from the Talheim mass grave, discovered in the 1980s, were buried in a single pit about 3 m long. German experts determined that most of the people buried here were killed by a blow to the left side of the head, and suggested that the victims were killed with stone axes. Others had injuries typical of arrow wounds: probably these people were trying to escape.

Although local women were taken out, the question remains open as to why women who came from another area and probably belonged to the attacking tribe were also found murdered in the burial. "We only know that it was the local women who were the target of the attack, and the role of the others remains a mystery to us," concludes Dr. Bentley.

Illustration: Nikola Poussin.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru04.06.2008