‘World’s oldest cold case’ SOLVED as experts reveal tragic family’s cause of death 6 millennia ago in ‘Stone Age CSI’
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DETECTIVES have solved the “world’s oldest cold case” as battered human bones give clues to seven brutal deaths almost 6,000 years ago. Archaeologists discovered a scene of mass death in 2004 with nearly 100 pieces of human bone at the site of a prehistoric house.
![[The sit of the Stone Age house in ancient Kosenivka, Ukraine, that sparked a 5,700-year forensic investigation]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ncient-tragedy-world-s-oldest-958120613.jpg?strip=all&w=430)
The dwelling from 5,700 years ago had been in the ancient settlement of Kosenivka, about 115 miles south of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The bones from most of the Stone Age skeletons were charred and burned, and two of the skulls had been brutally caved in.
![[Some of the bone fragments found at the site]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ncient-tragedy-world-s-oldest-958120612.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The skeletons belonged to at least seven people: two children, one teenager and four adults. Interestingly, the only four skeletons inside the house were scorched, whilst the three found outside were not. Initially, it had been presumed that the deaths were accidental - perhaps as a result of a house fire.
![[A close up of a skull]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/500-years-apart-finally-revealed-947295577.jpg?strip=all&w=768)
However, the realisation that two of the adults suffered violent head trauma just before their deaths sparked a 5,700-year forensic investigation. The mystery thickened when radiocarbon dating determined that six of the people, possibly a family, died between 3690 and 3620 BC, whilst the seventh - an unburnt adult - died around 130 years later.
Only the skull of this mystery seventh person was present. Researchers studied closely the fracture patterns and discolouration displayed by the bones to deduce all they could about the last moments of the Stone Age people. The team concluded that the people inside had been burned to death, unable to escape the flames, whilst the others managed to stagger outside but later succumbed to smoke inhalation.
