Scientists have discovered that women were sacrificed in Neolithic Europe

Illustration of the position of the found skeletons

Science Advances

In Europe in the Neolithic era, ritual sacrifices of women were performed: they were tied so that they suffocated themselves.

Such a tradition existed in most of Europe, the study says. published in the scientific journal Science Advances, informs Live Science.

A group of French scientists investigated an ancient tomb in the city of Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateau in the south of France. It contains the remains of three women buried approximately 5,500 years ago.

The tomb looks like a silo – a pit for storing grain. A wooden structure is built above it, built with an offset so that the sun during the solstices illuminates the priest. Several broken stones for grinding grain were also found there.

According to the co-author of the study Eric Krubesi, everything indicates that this ritual was connected with agriculture.

One of the skeletons found belonged to an elderly woman whose death was probably natural. She was buried in the traditional position for that time – lying on her side in the center of the tomb.

According to Kubesi, such a pose and location indicate that her funeral was solemn. At the same time, two other women buried with her were sacrificed. It was established that they were young.

These women were tied by the method of “incaprettamento” – tying the neck to the legs bent behind the back. So the victims actually strangled themselves. The ropes with which the women were tied have long since melted away, and the unusual position of the bodies has been preserved.

Both victims appear to have been killed by heavy fragments of stones used to grind grain. This indicates that, despite the binding, they were still alive.

During the study, scientists found evidence of 20 alleged cases of sacrificial killings using “incaprettamento” in 14 locations. All of them are dated 5400-3500 BC.

Scientists have also found documents describing a rock painting in the cave of Addaura in Sicily, made between 14,000 and 11,000 BC (in the Mesolithic era). It depicts two human figures, probably connected in the “incaprettamento” manner.

According to Krubesi, such a sacrificial ritual originated in the Mesolithic, even before the advent of agriculture. And already in the Neolithic it was used for human sacrifices related to agriculture.

Scholars note that “incaprettamento” appears to have been widespread across much of Europe. This is evidenced by finds in the territories from the Czech Republic to Spain. The oldest of these is a tomb near Brno Bohunice in the Czech Republic, which dates to around 5400 BC. The latest is the tomb in Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateau.

Findings indicate that this practice existed for more than 2,000 years.

Why “incaprettamento” was used for human sacrifices is unknown. According to Krubezi, this may have been because it was believed that the person bound in this way strangled himself, rather than being killed by someone else.

“Incaprettamento” is still used by the Italian mafia as a binding term, but only as a warning or reprimand.

We will remind, archaeologists in Greece dug up the remains of the temple of Artemis, in which sacrifices were made.