News release

From: Springer Nature

Targeted mass violence revealed at Early Iron Age site

The discovery of a 9th-century-BCE mass grave at Gomolava, Serbia, reveals evidence of lethal violence that was targeted towards women and children, reports a paper published in Nature Human Behaviour. The findings suggest a shift in power, violence, and gender relations in the region, and offer new insights into how collective violence in later prehistoric Europe could reshape social relationships and regional power structures.

Mass graves are an important source for examining the organization of and motivations for violence in the past. Gomolava, an Early Iron Age site in what is now northern Serbia, lies in the south Pannonian Plain at the meeting point of different cultures and traditions. During the Early Iron Age, communities in the region were undergoing change and reorganization, which makes the site a valuable source of information for examining conflict and its wider social setting.

Linda Fibiger and colleagues analysed the remains of 77 individuals from a single burial event in Gomolava. 51 (66%) were children and adolescents. Of the 72 individuals whose biological sex could be determined, 51 (71%) were female. Skeletal analysis identified unhealed injuries consistent with violence, most often to the head, alongside evidence for projectile and defensive wounds in some individuals. Genetic analysis of a subset of individuals showed that most were not closely related to one another. Isotope evidence indicates varied childhood origins and diets, which suggests that the individuals originated from a wider regional population rather than a single settlement or linked family groups.

The findings suggest a deliberate episode of large-scale, selective killing that was primarily targeted towards women and children and may have had lasting consequences for connected communities across the region. The authors note limitations to their work, including partial preservation of remains and the need to rely on a subset of individuals for genetic analyses. Further comparative research at other sites is needed to better understand how mobility, community ties, and violence intersected in later European prehistory.