From ancient times to the present day, mass graves have been a memorable reminder of the atrocities that humans inflict on each other. These graves contain the remains of countless people and bear witness to the horrors of war, genocide, disease and political violence. Some of these graves were deliberately hidden, while others were made public, a grim reminder of past atrocities. Although they represent tragedy, mass graves continue to be found around the world, revealing the darkest moments in human history. In this article, we'll explore some of the most notorious and fascinating mass graves in history.
1.Olympic mass graves - executed Vikings
Many ruins have been discovered during modern construction works, including mass graves. In 2009, a mass grave was discovered in Weymouth, England, as construction workers were building a relief road for the upcoming London 2012 Olympics.
Unsurprisingly, when the workers discovered this terrible phenomenon, various questions were raised. Who are these corpses? Experts were called in to investigate the body. Examination of the teeth revealed that the bones did not belong to Britons or Saxons.
They are actually the corpses of Scandinavian Vikings, said to have been killed and buried sometime between 910-930 CE. The skulls found at the site had sword marks on the lower jaws and upper spines, and their heads were cut off and neatly placed next to the corpses.
This led historians to believe that these men were executed, most likely as prisoners of war. A total of 51 headless Viking corpses were found here, all male. Tests showed that most of them died in their teens and early twenties. There was no clothing, ** or jewelry on the bodies at all, suggesting that the poor boys were buried naked**.
Headless Scandinavian Vikings buried in a mass grave. United Kingdom (Simon Fraser University CC BY 2.)0）
2.Paris Mass Grave - Plague Pit
Construction workers should really be charged a little more when they are working in historic areas. In 2015, archaeologists were brought in when construction workers found more than 200 bodies under the cellar of a monoprix store in Paris.
A total of eight graves were found at the site. Most tombs have about 20 bodies each, but one has at least 150 bodies. It is said that if the archaeological team continues to excavate, more corpses may be found.
Originally, the Monoprix store was built on the site of an old hospital (second only to an old Indian cemetery in horror) as it was called"Trinnite Hospital"。The hospital operated between the 12th and 17th centuries, so historians deduce that the bodies may have belonged to a mass epidemic, perhaps the plague that hit Paris between the 14th and 16th centuries.
The deadly Black Death struck medieval Europe. Many corpses were unearthed under the city of Paris. Illustration of the Togenburg Bible (1411) (public domain).
3.Uffizi Gallery mass graves - another plague pit
The mass graves found under the Uffizi Gallery in Florence tell a similar story to the mass graves found in Paris – only much older. In 2014, workers discovered a 1,500-year-old mass grave containing more than 60 bodies under the art gallery.
The tomb was dated to the 5th century AD due to the discovery of coins from the 5th century AD on the body. At first, it was the cause of death that was confusing. There were no bruises such as burns or scars on the body, and there were no signs of malnutrition. This has led archaeologists to suspect that it was caused by war, famine, or any form of violence.
The answer lies in the fact that most bodies were buried for about the same amount of time. They are believed to have been victims of an early pandemic, most likely an early form of the Black Death (which later decimated the population in the 14th century). While only 60 bodies were initially found, there are fears that further excavations could uncover hundreds, if not thousands, of bodies.
4.Visby Mass Grave - Denmark Large**.
Of course, it's not just nature that is cruel. Mankind has a long history of indiscriminately killing innocents. In 1361, King Waldemar IV of Denmark invaded the island of Gotland, located in the Baltic Sea. The island is known for its diversity and abundance. Even better, it had no army and could only rely on the protection of the Swedish king.
When the Danes attacked in 1361, protection was nowhere to be found. A group of local peasants resisted bravely, but were wiped out by the well-trained Danes. The battle didn't last long, and Gotland quickly surrendered, avoiding more killings.
But how many peasants died at the hands of the Danes? In 1905, an archaeologist named Oskar Wennersten discovered a tomb containing about 300 bodies on the outskirts of Visby, the largest city on the island. From 1909 to 1928, several more excavations were carried out, and 1185 bodies were exhumed from two mass graves.
5. Yorkshire's Forgotten Army, the Parliamentary Army
In 2008, several mass graves were discovered just a stone's throw from the walls of Yorkshire, England. It is believed that 113 bodies of soldiers who fought for Parliament during the English Civil War from 1642 to 1651 are believed to be buried in these graves.
It is likely that these men participated in the Siege of York in 1644. Interestingly, the soldiers did not die. Laboratory tests showed that they died of a disease, possibly typhus, which is very common and highly contagious.
Based on where the bodies were found, it is believed that they were members of parliament. The bones were found along the city walls, where the parliamentary army is said to have camped during the siege. The bones were also treated with dignity. They are arranged in a neat arrangement and lie face down. The 87 skeletons were identified as male, mostly around 35-49 years of age.
6.Roman brothel in Buckinghamshire - Mass grave for infants
Any discovery of an ancient mass grave would be distressing, but the discovery of a baby mass grave. It's really troubling.
Infanticide was not uncommon during certain periods of Roman history. Traditionally, newborns are brought to the eldest of the family (the eldest male in the family) and left to decide whether to keep the child or let him die in the sun. The Twelve Tables of Roman law even imposed an obligation on parents to kill any child who was clearly deformed at birth. Children can also be killed if the family cannot afford to raise them, or if the child's mother is a slave or prostitute.
Archaeologist Alfred H. CoxCocks) discovered a creepy mass grave for children while excavating a large Roman villa in Buckinghamshire, England, in 1912. Curiously, Cox was largely uninterested in the body he found and did not investigate, leaving the body at the place where he found it.
Until 2008, another archaeologist, Dr. Jill ElsJill Eyers) found Cox's old report and ** in the museum's archives before any kind of investigation began. Further examination revealed that about 140 babies were buried between 150-200 AD. All bodies were found dead around 40 weeks gestation, shortly after birth. This suggests that it was infanticide, not some kind of pandemic.
A skeleton of a baby found in a Roman infanticide mass grave in Humberton. Analysis of the remains of 35 babies suggests that they were most likely killed at birth. (English Heritage).
Ayres and her colleagues initially believed that the babies were buried by prostitutes working in brothels. This was not uncommon in ancient Rome, where pregnancy was part of the work, but prostitutes could not lose their income.
However, this theory has since been questioned. Among the infant carcasses found at the site, the proportion of boys and girls was almost equal. Roman brothels usually killed male babies, but kept female babies in reserve"Recruit at a later date"。This suggests that the site may not have been a brothel at all. Sadly, without further evidence, we may never know why these poor children died.
7.Mass graves with broken knees - a tragic misunderstanding
On December 29, 1890, one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. history took place, the Knee Wound. The incident occurred at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
The 7th Regiment of the US Army was met by a group that was jumping"Ghost Dance"of the Lakota-Sioux Indians, who believed that the ritual could summon the spirits of their ancestors and protect them from harm.
Sadly, this dance has the opposite effect. The army, believing that the dance threatened their control, surrounded the group. A scuffle soon erupted, and in the ensuing chaos, American soldiers turned on unarmed Native Americans**.
More than 200 men, women and children*** many of them are on the run. Three days later, the army hired local civilians to bury the bodies of the Lakota. A mass grave was dug on the top of a nearby hill and the bodies were dumped in the pit.
Ghost dance performed by the Ogra Lakota people at Camp Pine Ridge - Frederick Remington based on live sketches. (Public domain).
8.Las Ramas - Child Sacrifice
The Chimu Empire Mass Gr**e, also known as Las Llamas, is a unique archaeological site found in present-day Peru dating back to the 15th century AD. The Chimu Empire was a powerful civilization that existed in coastal Peru between about 900 and 1470 CE and was later conquered by the Inca Empire.
The mass grave was found in an area called Huanchaco near the modern city of Trujillo. It is said to be the largest mass grave for children ever discovered, with the remains of more than 140 children buried inside. The bodies of the children were found buried in a sand dune, along with the remains of several camels, which were also sacrificed.
The children ranged in age from 5 to 14 years old, and many of them were elaborately prepared for the sacrifice by wearing braids and beautiful clothes. The Chimu people believed that sacrificing children and animals appeased the gods and brought good luck to their civilization.
The children's ribs were forcibly opened, and archaeologists believe that their hearts were most likely removed. Evidence of human sacrifice is scarce in this region, and it is thought that this mass sacrifice was caused by an early climatic event, possibly the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, which caused periodic coastal flooding.
9.Belize Quillo - Maya Da**
The mass grave at Quillo, Belize is an archaeological site located in the north of the country, near the Mexican border. It dates back to around 600 BC and is one of the earliest known incidents of mass violence in the Mayan world.
The site was discovered in the 70s of the 20th century by archaeologist Norman Hammond, who excavated more than 100 remains. The bones bear traces of violent trauma, such as skull fractures and ejection wounds, indicating that they were killed in the conflict.
The victims are believed to be local Mayans who were drawn into violent clashes between rival groups. Conflict can be caused by competition for resources such as land and water, or by a desire for power and control.
The discovery of mass graves sheds light on the early history of the Mayan civilization, as well as the violence and conflict that characterized its society.
10.Mass graves of the 20th century
It is a pity that to write the history of mass graves, it is impossible not to mention the 20th century. Any of the following examples dwarfs the size of the mass graves mentioned earlier in this list.
For example, between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia killed about 1.7 million people, burying their bodies in what is known as the Khmer Rouge Rouge regime"Killing Battlefields"of mass graves.
In 1938, the Japanese army killed about 300,000 Chinese civilians in Nanjing, China, and buried their bodies in a mass grave again, which is the Nanjing Da** mass grave.
Killing BattlefieldsPhnom Penh, Cambodia (@felixtriller cc).
There are also the Stalin's mass graves, in Soviet times, the Stalin regime killed millions of people and buried their bodies in mass graves all over Russia. And that's not even counting the Nazis during the Great ** on an industrial scale"Perfect"After massively digging mass graves, they killed about 6 million Jews and others"Undesirable people"。
Conclusion. The sad truth is that there are so many examples of mass graves in the 20th century that I won't list them all here. From the horrors of the killing fields of the Great ** and Cambodia, to the recent atrocities in Rwanda and Bosnia, the number of mass graves dug around the world in the 20th century is unprecedented. The total number of victims buried in these graves is difficult to estimate, but it is likely to be in the millions.
While the discovery and investigation of these graves has helped to bring some comfort to the families of the victims, it is also a stark reminder of the horrors of war, genocide and political violence. We like to believe that we are more enlightened, wiser, and more developed than our ancient ancestors. But if the history of mass graves can tell us anything, it's that we still have a long way to go.
*：aidatiara/adobe aidatiara/adobe stock
Robbie Mitchell.