Unsolved Murders Of The Ancient World

Primates, it turns out, have a thing for killing each other. That was the conclusion of a study released in 2016, and it's compelling stuff. According to National Geographic, researchers looked at the deaths of 4 million animals and tried to figure out if murder within a species was something shared across the animal kingdom. In short: It isn't.

The study found that the murder rate among mammals was about .3%, with one notable exception. The primate group had a much higher murder rate, and that includes humans at all places along the evolutionary chain. Put that up against the fact that about 60% of all animal species have never been known to murder each other at all, and that's not really great PR for primates — or humans.

That's led University of Colorado Boulder professor Marc Behoff to make an interesting point: "Violence might be deep in the human lineage, but I think people should be very cautious in saying that when humans are violent, they're behaving like nonhuman animals."

In most cases, those nonhumans are just trying to get through the darn day. Humans, on the other hand, have been killing each other for as long as there have been rocks to fight over, and archaeologists have found some pretty fascinating examples of just how our ancient ancestors did — and didn't — get along. The result? Cold cases that are thousands of years old.

When the burial pit was first unearthed during a 2007 construction project, National Geographic says the first thought was that they were victims of either the Balkan conflict or World War II. As the story unfolded, it turned out they were much, much older than that.

The 41 people buried in a mass grave in what's now Croatia were dumped there around 6,200 years ago, along with some broken pieces of pottery that helped pinpoint them as being a part of the Lasinja culture. Not much is known about these ancient people, but archaeologists have been able to determine that the final moments of these 41 individuals were agonizing. Each of the skeletons — including those of six children — bore evidence of multiple injuries, including stab wounds and fractures resulting from severe blunt force trauma. None of the wounds were defensive, and some bore signs of some seriously devastating overkill.

Whatever happened there, it was fueled by unstoppable rage.

Archaeologists quickly came to the conclusion that this was some sort of targeted, mass execution, but they're not sure who the killers were, or why these 41 people were murdered. The killers took their weapons with them, and to make this even stranger, the victims were — for the most part — unrelated, although all had genetic ancestry traced back to what's now Turkey.

The remains of the young woman that would become known as the Yde Girl were discovered in 1897, says History Extra, well-preserved in the unique environment of the peat bogs of the Netherlands.

Analysis told at-a-glance that half of her long, reddish-blonde hair had been ripped out, and she'd been strangled with a piece of her own clothing. It wasn't until more modern forensic analysis techniques were applied that it was discovered she had been laying in the peat bog since sometime in the first century A.D.

She was about 16 years old when she died, and further examination revealed that in addition to being strangled, she had been stabbed, too. Then, in 2019, the Dutch Research Council announced that the case had been solved, but "solved" is perhaps too strong a word. 

Archaeologist and bog expert Roy van Beek determined that those who killed her had lived a little over a half mile away from where she had died, and that some had probably been witness to her murder. Details are still up in the air. Van Beek suggests she may have been killed in a ritual sacrifice or had been given a sentence of execution for some unforgivable crime. The fact that no other bog bodies have been recovered from the same area was cited as odd, too: If she had been a ritual sacrifice, wouldn't there have been more? The Yde Girl remains a singular case, and a monument was built in her memory (pictured).

Like the Yde Girl, the remains of the Grauballe Man were discovered by a peat cutter working in a bog. This one, however, came from Denmark and was only uncovered in 1952, and the eerie, well-preserved state of the body has allowed experts at the Moesgaard Museum to learn some incredible things.

They can tell, for example, that he lost a front tooth when he was somewhere around 5 years old. His last meal was cereals, he had ingested the hallucinogenic ergot fungus, and before that, he'd had a meat-heavy diet. What they haven't been able to determine is why he was killed.

The museum says that one injury — the fractured skull — happened after his death. Another — a broken leg — likely happened around the time he was killed. It seems as though he was hit with a blunt object that shattered his shin and would have taken him off his feet: Was this what led up to his execution? That, they say, came courtesy of an incredibly sharp blade drawn across his throat — probably by someone standing behind him and holding his head back. The cut went all the way through to his spine, and death would have been within minutes.

But why? The Grauballe Man died somewhere between 400 and 200 B.C., and all signs point to him being a perfectly ordinary, Iron Age farmer. Was he selected to be the centerpiece of a human sacrifice? Or did someone have another reason for slitting his throat?

The Gebelein Man is what's known as a "natural mummy," which is a body that wasn't mummified in the traditional sense but was preserved by the environment. According to the British Museum, the Gebelein Man — named for the area of Egypt where he was discovered — lived sometime around 3500 B.C., and was mummified thanks to centuries in a hot, dry climate.

In 2012, researchers from the museum staff did a CT scan on the mummy and found some incredible details. The man — who was between 18 and 21 years old when he died — was very obviously murdered. The CT scan showed details of the wound that killed him: a deep stab wound in the back.

The wound was so clear and the scans so good that they were also able to determine that the weapon used was probably a dagger with a copper or silver blade, which would have been fairly rare at the time, but not unheard of. They were often worn in a way that allowed for quick access, too, sheathed on an upper arm. They also know that the killer struck with a swing that came down into the man's back from above, and the scans revealed that it was a fatal strike.

Who killed him, and why? The museum posits that it was perhaps a revenge killing, or even a hunting "accident," but also adds that we'll never really know.

In 2012, the BBC reported on a grisly find from Northumberland's Vindolanda Roman fort (pictured). The barracks were in use throughout the third century, making it likely that the person killed there — who was nicknamed Georgie by the Durham University archaeologists who found the remains — was of the same era. The skeleton was found in a shallow grave, and as if that wasn't bad enough, it was estimated that the victim was about 10 years old.

The university's Trudi Buck explained their interpretation: "I think this is definitely a murder or other unnatural death because of the way the body was deposited. ... possibly, it was hit over the head with something, because we have very good preservation of the body ... but not very much of the head."

There were, however, teeth found with the body, and analysis revealed that Georgie had been born in the Mediterranean and spent their early life there before heading up to Hadrian's Wall. That left several possibilities about who they were: It's suggested they were either a child slave — which Roman soldiers were known to have — or, the son or daughter of a Roman who may have moved his entire family when he was sent to the farthest reaches of the empire.

However Georgie got there, his or her death was — without a doubt — covered up: The Vindolanda Charitable Trust says that it was illegal to bury a person inside the settlement. Whatever happened, it was important that no one knew.

In 2016, archaeologists were working in a series of sea caves on the coast of Scotland when they came across a bizarre set of remains. His head had been crushed, and he had been left in the cave with massive stones pinning down his arms and legs. According to a report from the BBC, genetic analysis suggested he had been an Iron Age man with connections to the Orkney Islands. Facial reconstructions and other studies revealed that he was around 30 years old at the time of his death, had a diet that likely made him part of the upper class, and confirmed that his death had been a brutal one.

The Rosemarkie Man — who was killed around 1,400 years ago — was struck at least five times before his death. Blows shattered his teeth, jaw, and crushed the back of his skull, while the finishing blows were a weapon thrust through his skull from one side to the other, and another thrust, straight down.

For all the violence that was there, archaeologists say his burial was very deliberate. That suggests, they say, he may have been killed as a ritual sacrifice, or was murdered because of an "interpersonal conflict."