On discovering that one of the largest prehistoric mass graves of Europe predominantly held violently killed women and children, we used a battery of methods to investigate how this gender-selective and age-selective pattern reflected the strategic disruption of power networks and lineages in the Early Iron Age.
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References
Meyer, C. in The Cambridge World History of Violence, vol. 1 (eds Fagan. G. G. et al.) 299–319 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2020). A review that presents archaeological evidence and interpretations of early mass killings in Neolithic Europe.
Vandkilde, H. in The Cambridge World History of Genocide, vol. 1 (eds Kiernan, B. et al.) 59–85 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2023). A review that explores whether and how the concept of genocide can be applied to prehistoric and ancient contexts.
Molloy, B. et al. Resilience, innovation, and collapse of settlement networks in later Bronze Age Europe: new survey data from the southern Carpathian Basin. PLoS ONE 18, e0288750 (2023). A research paper that reports new archaeological survey data that reveal patterns of settlement growth, interaction and decline in the southern Carpathian Basin during the late Bronze Age.
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This is a summary of: Fibiger, L. et al. A large mass grave from the Early Iron Age indicates selective violence toward women and children in the Carpathian Basin. Nat. Hum. Behav. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02399-9 (2026).
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An ancient mass grave reveals targeted killing of women and children in the Early Iron Age. Nat Hum Behav (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02400-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02400-5
