A 4,000-year-old massacre in southwestern England was linked to possible acts of cannibalism, new research has revealed. The remains of at least 37 individuals — men, women and children — were found in a 50-foot-deep shaft at Charterhouse Warren Farm, showing snapped femurs, bashed skulls, and slicing cuts. Researchers suggest the victims were slaughtered and possibly eaten in a ceremonial feast, with some bones bearing marks of human teeth.

The findings, published in the journal Antiquity, suggest the victims were slaughtered in a single, large-scale event between 2210 and 2010 BC. Discovered in 1970 at Charterhouse Warren Farm, near Bristol, the site had initially been dismissed as a typical Bronze Age burial. However, the new study reveals the remains belonged to victims who were likely captives or caught in a surprise attack. No evidence of weapons or defensive injuries was found.

Nearly half of the recovered skulls bear fatal injuries consistent with blows from wooden clubs. Tool marks on leg bones suggest flesh was stripped, and fractures on long bones point to marrow extraction — practices associated with cannibalism. The perpetrators also dumped butchered animal remains into the shaft alongside human bones, possibly as part of a ritual.

“It’s taken us all aback. It was completely unexpected, totally atypical for the period and for almost all of British prehistory,” said lead author Rick Schulting, archaeology professor at Oxford University.

The scale of the violence and its motivations remain unclear. Researchers believe that a cycle of escalating revenge killings between nearby communities may have triggered the massacre. Rick Schulting suggests that the killings may have been a warning or a form of dehumanisation of the victims. “There has been no [previous] indication of violence on this scale in Britain at that time, both regarding the number of victims and the way in which they were treated after death,” he said.

Unlike the relatively peaceful archaeological record of the British Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, where violent conflict was rare, Charterhouse Warren presents a unique case of mass violence and systematic postmortem processing. The disarticulated remains stand out against the typical burial practices of the period, where articulated skeletons or cremations dominated. Charterhouse Warren joins a handful of European prehistoric sites that document extreme violence and body processing.

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea:

Papua New Guinea’s leader has dismissed Joe Biden’s unlikely suggestion that his uncle was eaten by cannibals as “loose” talk that does not reflect the US president’s feelings for the country. 

“Sometimes you have loose moments,” James Marape said in an interview after Biden’s contentious remarks, adding that the relationship was stronger than “one blurry moment”.

Biden said last week that his uncle Ambrose Finnegan was shot down over the Pacific nation during World War II, suggesting his body was never found because “there were a lot of cannibals” in the area.

US defence records show Finnegan’s courier flight was “forced to ditch in the ocean” off the island’s coast “for unknown reasons”.

“I’ve met him on four occasions, until today, and on every occasion he’s always had warm regards for Papua New Guinea,” Marape said.

“Never in those moments (has) he spoke of PNG as cannibals,” he added.

Papua New Guinea has for decades tried to shed outdated tropes that paint it as a wild nation full of savagery and cannibalism.

“There are much, much… deeper values in our relationship than one statement, one word, one punchline,” said Marape.

He urged Biden and the White House to instead focus on clearing up the unexploded ordnance that still litters Papua New Guinea today.

In a single bomb disposal expedition on the island of Bougainville in 2014, troops from Australia and the United States destroyed 16 tonnes of wartime munitions.

The US government’s own travel advisory for Papua New Guinea cites unexploded ordnance as one of the main dangers in remote areas.

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