More than 5,500 years ago, two women were tied up and probably buried alive in a ritual sacrifice, using a form of torture associated today with the Italian Mafia, according to an analysis of skeletons discovered at an archaeological site in southwest France. <\/p>\n
Researchers investigated the unusual position of three female skeletons found <\/strong>in 1985 at the site in the town <\/strong>of Saint-Paul-Trois-Ch\u00e2teaux, and concluded that two of the women probably died from a form of torture known as \u201cincaprettamento,\u201d which involves tying a person\u2019s throat and ankles so that they eventually strangle themselves due to the position of their legs. <\/p>\n The researchers also reviewed skeletons found at other archaeological sites across Europe and identified 20 other probable instances of <\/strong>similar sacrificial killings. The practice may have been relatively widespread in Neolithic, or late Stone Age, Europe, according to the study, published in the journal Science Advances last week. <\/p>\n The women\u2019s burial place was aligned with the sunrise at summer solstice and sunset at winter solstice, leading the study\u2019s authors to hypothesize that this site acted as somewhere people gathered to mark the turning of the seasons, which may have involved human sacrifices. <\/strong> <\/p>\n \u201cThere is always this idea that somebody is dying and that the crops will grow,\u201d Crub\u00e9zy added, referencing that belief appearing in other cultures such as the Inca practice of human sacrifice in South America. <\/p>\n Crub\u00e9zy was part of the original team that excavated the site in 1985 but it wasn\u2019t until the break caused by the Covid-19 pandemic that he and his colleagues set about researching other instances of such sacrifices. <\/p>\n By reviewing the existing literature, researchers pinpointed 20 other probable examples of people being sacrificed in the same way over 2,000 years in the Neolithic period. The study said the actual number was probably higher but there was insufficient information about skeletons at other archaeological sites to draw firm conclusions. <\/p>\n \u201cIn different parts of Europe, it was the same type of sacrifice,\u201d Crubezy said. \u201cAnd this sacrifice is very particular because it\u2019s a cruel one \u2026 and you have no blood and no people who killed another, the people killed themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n Though it is impossible to prove definitively that the women in the grave at Saint-Paul-Trois-Ch\u00e2teaux died in situ, their position \u201cstacked atop each other and entwined with fragments of grindstones\u201d implies that they were placed there forcefully and deliberately, \u201cstrongly suggesting that their demise likely occurred\u201d in the grave, the study said. <\/p>\n At the other sites across Europe, men and children as well as women were also found sacrificed in this way, the study said. <\/strong> <\/p>\n In the future, Crub\u00e9zy says, the researchers intend to analyze the familial relationship between the three women at Saint-Paul-Trois-Ch\u00e2teaux and investigate unusual death rites observed in other graves around the site. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More than 5,500 years ago, two women were tied up and probably buried alive in a ritual sacrifice, using a form of torture associated today with the Italian Mafia, according to an analysis of skeletons discovered at an archaeological site in southwest France. Researchers investigated the unusual position of three female skeletons found in 1985 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1983,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}