- The Spanish village of La Hoya was destroyed in a brutal
massacre sometime between 350 and 200 BCE. - A new analysis of skeleton remains showed that men, women, and children were all victims.
- Some of the villagers were wounded in the conflict. Others likely burned inside their homes.
The remains that archaeologists have unearthed in northern
The millennia-old village of La Hoya didn't come to a peaceful end. Researchers already knew that a brutal massacre wiped out its last inhabitants; archaeologists have been excavating the village since 1973.
Though only 15% of it has been unearthed so far, new findings continue to offer clues about how the attack transpired — and who the victims were.
Recently, a team set out to analyze 13 skeletons recovered from the site. Their study, published in the journal Antiquity on Thursday, found that the remains were of nine adults, two adolescents, a 3-year-old child, and a 6-month-old infant.
The new analysis paints a violent picture of the village's destruction. Examinations of the bones suggested that attackers likely used bladed metal weapons such as swords or axes to annihilate villagers. Two of the victims, a 30-year-old man and a teenage girl, had their arms amputated. The girl's forearm was found several feet from her body, suggesting she survived the dismemberment long enough to walk away from her attacker before either losing consciousness or getting struck again.
Her arm was discovered with a chain of bracelets still around the wrist.
There was also evidence that at least one victim, a 35-year-old man, confronted his attacker head-on.
"One male suffered multiple frontal injuries, suggesting that he was facing his attacker," Teresa Fernández-Crespo, the lead author of the research, said in a statement. "This individual was decapitated but the skull was not recovered, and may have been taken as a trophy."
The man was left lying in the street near the village's main square.
Other skeletons were charred from extensive fires that took down buildings, the study found. Those who didn't die in the street likely burned inside their homes.
Many personal belongings were also found at the site — a sign that no one survived to reclaim them.
"We can conclude that the aim of the attackers was the total destruction of La Hoya," the researchers said in a statement.
Had the village not been attacked, the skeletons likely wouldn't have been preserved, since La Hoya villagers usually cremated their dead.
An attack over coveted land
The attack probably didn't come out of nowhere: La Hoya was a coveted location during the Iron Age, around the late third century BCE, thanks to its fertile land and proximity to the Cantabrian and Mediterranean regions.
At its zenith, the 1,500-person village was relatively urbanized, with paved sidewalks and pedestrian crossings. It was even surrounded by walls to guard against invaders.
That means the group that destroyed the site must have been large and well organized. The researchers think that since the Romans hadn't arrived in the region yet, the attackers must have been fellow Spaniards who wanted control of the land.
The remains, they wrote, showed evidence of "a surprise attack, resulting in the indiscriminate and brutal killing of helpless or unresisting people."
Scant archaeological evidence previously gave the impression that the region was less violent during the Iron Age, but the massacre is a sign that vicious conflict was occurring in Spain at that time. The site is a reminder, the researchers said, that warfare affects entire communities, not just those engaged in battle.