Overview
- An international team reports in Nature Human Behaviour that a communal pit at Gomolava in northern Serbia holds the remains of at least 77 people dating to the mid-9th century BCE.
- Bioarchaeological analyses document lethal cranial trauma and projectile injuries, with most victims identified as women and children while adult men are largely missing.
- Strontium isotope and genetic data show the dead were not close kin and originated from multiple communities spread across a wide area.
- The bodies were deliberately arranged with ceramics, bronze ornaments and animal remains, which the authors interpret as a commemorative display of power.
- The study situates the event within Early Iron Age upheaval in the Pannonian plain, and the fate of adult men from the affected groups remains unresolved.