In the United Kingdom, remains of cannibalism victims have been discovered for the first time in 4500 years. A team of archaeologists led by the University of Oxford examined over 3000 human bones and fragments unearthed during excavations in Charterhouse Warren, a village in Somerset. These remains date back to the Bronze Age, around 2500 BC.
Analysis of the bones indicates that dozens of individuals were killed and consumed. This discovery challenges the notion that early Bronze Age Britain was relatively peaceful. Among the found bone fragments, there are also bones of large livestock, suggesting that the local population had ample food resources.
Researchers hypothesize that cannibalism may have been employed as a means of dehumanizing the victims, and the mixing of human bones with animal bones likely symbolized the likening of enemies to animals. The findings of the study have been published in the journal Antiquity.