Grisly slaughter of babies and women

Everybody knows about England’s Stonehenge, the imposing 33-metre circle of huge stones built 5000 years ago. Less well known are the thousands of other stone circles or ‘‘henges’’, also built all over Europe.

Some of these circles are twice the size of Stonehenge. Sweden’s Ales Stones, for example, is

67m long, comprising 59 boulders each weighing

1.8 tons and shaped like a boat. Turkey’s Gobekli Tee is 300m long.

Stonehenge and many other megalithic stone circles are aligned towards sunrises and sunsets at solstices and must have served as giant calendars marking important annual events, such as midsummers and midwinters.

It is supposed that these stone circles served as sites for religious, spiritual or ritual activities, ancestor worship, and perhaps as healing centres (as in Lourdes).

Most were used as burial grounds – no fewer than 50,000 cremated human bones and 63 individuals have been dug up at Stonehenge and there is evidence of ritual beheadings.

In the latest issue of the journal Antiquity, archeologists Andre Spatziere and Francois Bertemes report on another 5000-year-old circle they have uncovered at Pommelte, 140 kilometres south of Berlin.

The German site is three times the size of Stonehenge, and comprises four concentric circles of walls, ditches and pits.

There are no stones at Pommelte but holes along the concentric ridges show where thousands of lamppost-sized wooden poles once stood. The place has already become known as the ‘‘German Stonehenge’’.

Pommelte also has its skeletons but most of them are of babies, teenagers and women, along with axes and butchered farm animals.

Most of the skulls have been bashed in and one woman had her hands tied together.

The archaeologists suggest the site was a religious centre devoted to the cult of the dead. Spatzier says, ‘‘It’s possible that the dead were victims of an attack or raid. But given that no adult men were found buried there, and that ritualistic broken artefacts were buried with the bodies, human sacrifice seems more likely.’’

Presumably these babies, teenagers and women were ritualistically sacrificed to honour or appease their megalithic gods.

Given that no adult men were found buried there, human sacrifice seems more likely.