The original mafia-style murders: Women in Neolithic Europe were killed 5,500 years ago by having their legs bent behind their backs and tied to their necks, gruesome research shows

Scientists have uncovered a secret from Europe’s grisly history by uncovering a gruesome case of human sacrifice.

Researchers from Paul Sabatier University discovered that two women buried in an ancient grave were victims of a ritual murder more than 5,500 years ago.

The bodies, found in a pit designed to mimic a grain silo, were first uncovered twenty years ago in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, France.

New analysis now shows that these women had their legs bent behind their backs and tied at their necks in a style of murder often associated with mafia revenge killings known as incaprettamento.

This practice was believed to ensure good harvests and could have continued in Europe for as long as 2,000 years.

The bodies of three women were found in a Neolithic settlement in modern-day Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, France

The tomb was one of several sites discovered in the central Rhone Valley and dates to the Middle Neolithic between 4250 and 3550 BC.

The distribution of these sites suggests that they were part of an agricultural settlement where Stone Age people lived and farmed.

But in the residential areas, researchers also identified numerous silos and pits dug into the ground.

Some of these were used by the Neolithic people to store their grain, but others appear to have had a ritual function and contain crushed grinding stones and sacrificed dogs.

In a pit built to mimic a grain silo, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of three women, two of whom are believed to have been ritually murdered.

Researchers have uncovered a glimpse into Europe’s grisly past as they discover the bodies of two women (pictured) believed to have been killed in a ritual murder

While the central body, a woman aged around 50, was laid on its side in a conventional manner, the other two bodies were forced into an overhang.

Their legs were bent in unusual and twisted positions, indicating that they had been tied with ropes that had long since decayed.

The two women were also held down with heavy pieces of broken grindstone, pinning them in place so that only the middle woman would be visible from above.

In their article, published in Scientific progressthe researchers write: ‘These grindstone fragments were forcibly inserted while positioning the women, causing the two bodies to block.’

The fact that the bodies appeared to be so tightly secured, combined with their unusual position, suggests that they were buried alive and that they had to hold them in place.

The authors added: ‘If they were still alive, combined with their position under the pit overhang, they could no longer move and breathing became very difficult.

‘In such a situation, death occurs relatively quickly, even if the victims have not been drugged or beaten.’

This diagram shows how the bodies of the two women were pressed into the sides of the pit and secured in place with large fragments of a broken grindstone. The researchers suggest they were buried alive

According to Eric Crubézy, a biological anthropologist at Paul Sabatier University, these deaths may have had agricultural significance.

He notes that a wooden structure built over the grave was aligned so that the sun would shine during the solstice and that several stones for grinding grain had been found.

“You’ve got the alignment, you’ve got the silo, you’ve got the broken stones – so it looks like it was a ritual related to agriculture.” Dr. Crubezy told it Living Science.

Human sacrifice for harvest is actually a well-known phenomenon in certain periods of human history.

The grave was built in the shape of a grain silo and would have been under the floor of a large wooden structure

As in the 1973 horror classic The Wicker Man, experts believe these women were sacrificed as part of a ritual designed to ensure good harvests and food security.

There are well-documented cases of sacrifices of young women, children, and some adults over long periods of early human development.

And the researchers even believe that this specific form of death by ‘incaprettamento’ also has a long and ancient history in Europe.

By re-examining evidence from numerous sites across Europe, researchers discovered twenty cases of suspected murder by ‘ligature strangulation or positional asphyxiation’ spanning a period of 2,000 years.

The oldest was found in a tomb in the Czech Republic dating from 5400 BC, with the tomb at Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux being the most recent.

Cave paintings in Sicily’s Adduara Cave, created between 14,000 and 11,000 BCE, appear to show people bound in this way while others dance around them.

The researchers point out that the structure would have aligned with the sun on the day of the solstice, suggesting that the structure had a ritual function related to agriculture.

This cave painting depicting people on their way to sacrifices was found in Sicily and dates back to at least 11,000 BC. This suggests that ritual murder by binding had a long and ancient history in Europe

Even to this day, the practice seems to persist in a modern form, as a murder ritual associated with the Italian mafia.

One study found 18 cases of murder in which people were tied up incaprettamento style and died of suffocation.

In the case of the mafia, this is believed to be a punishment reserved for traitors.

It is unclear why incaprettamento is so widespread, but the researchers suggest that this method of killing is sometimes seen as a form of ‘symbolic suicide’.

The researchers write: ‘It is the individual who, by strangling himself, causes death.’