They started by studying skeletons excavated at Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux, a Neolithic tomb in Frances Rhone Valley.
Their research ispublishedtoday in Science Advances.
Many bog bodieswell-preserved human remains discovered in ancient bogs, often in northern Europedisplay signs of ritual sacrifice.
A female skeleton with bound hands and removed feet, found by a British water utility company in 2019.Photo:Thames Water
They documented instances of homicidal ligature strangulation across Europe.
The sites range in age from 5400 BCE to 3534 BCE.
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Clockwise from top-left: a view of three skeletons on the site, a reconstruction of the remains, a view of the bottom individual with a stone on top of the remains, a grindstone fragment covering the head of the rightmost individual.Graphic:Ludes et al., Sci. Adv. 10, eadl3374 (2024)
