'Butchery': Somerset skeletons show evidence of brutal massacre and cannibalism 
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A pit of human skeletons found in Somerset shows evidence of a brutal massacre and cannibalism, according to a new study. A recent analysis of more than 3,000 bones recovered from Charterhouse Warren, excavated originally in the 1970s, has uncovered what academics described as "the darker side of human prehistory".
Around 37 men, women and children, and likely "many more", were killed at close quarters and then "systematically dismembered and defleshed". At least some were then eaten. . 'A violent death'. The remains, of which around half are "older children and adolescents", are noted among academics for the "sheer number of cutmarks on the bones".
The skeletons were dumped in a 15m deep hole, where they were found a millennia later. The work is the first major scientific study of the bones and it found that skulls were shattered by blows and arms and legs were "defleshed" and cut away to let people get at bone marrow inside.
There is also evidence of people being scalped, tongues being cut out, chest cavities cut open, arms and feet severed, decapitation, and more. Read more from Sky News:Girl, 12, charged over death of 80-year-old manRoyal Mail takeover by Czech billionaire approvedWoman, 46, killed in 'truly shocking' shooting named.
Follow our channel and never miss an update. The findings are a unique example of extreme violence in British prehistory - with relatively little evidence of such acts surviving. It is believed the violence took place "probably in a single event between" 2210BC and 2010BC.
