Recent research based on the analysis of an ancient Neolithic tomb, discovered more than 20 years ago in the south of France, has identified numerous murders of women, who were sacrificed in brutal strangulation rituals over a period of 2,000 years.
Three of the female remains found in the tomb in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, near Avignon, belong to women who were forced to adopt positions that caused them to suffocate, and at least one may have been buried alive, Arqueonews reports.
His position—on his back and face down—suggests a ritualized form of strangulation, according to researchers. This method of murder, called ‘incaprettamento’, consisted of tying the victims’ necks to their bent legs so that they strangled themselves. A similar technique of violence was used in modern history by the Italian mafia, but as torture or punishment, indicates the study published in Science Advances.
Relationship with agriculture
The study highlights the presence of agricultural symbolism in the tomb. A silo-like wooden structure was built over the buried women, which, scientists discovered, was located in line with the sun during the solstice. Grain grinding stones were found next to the corpses, destroyed for ritual purposes as well.
“You have the alignment, you have the silo, you have the broken stones, so it seems like it was a ritual related to agriculture,” Eric Crubézy, lead author of the study and a biological anthropologist at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, told LiveScience.
A Neolithic tradition
Searching for similar practices, scientists discovered burials where the same murder method had been applied at 14 sites ranging from Eastern Europe to Catalonia in northeastern Spain.
The oldest example of murder by ‘incaprettamento’ dates from 5400 to 4800 BC. C. The discovery indicates that this method of sacrifice has been used for more than 2,000 years.
According to scientists, ‘incaprettamento’ may have originated as a sacrificial custom even before the advent of agriculture, but it later began to be used in agricultural rituals during the Neolithic period.
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