# Earliest mass grave found?



## Brian G Turner (May 21, 2004)

The remains of 28 early humans found buried at the bottom of a cave shaft in northern Spain may belong to a group that died suddenly in a "catastrophe".   Experts conducted an analysis to determine whether it was likely the bodies accumulated in the shaft over years or were dumped at the same time. 

   They concluded the 400,000-year-old death chamber may have held the victims of a disease outbreak or a massacre. 

   The study details are published in the  Journal of Anthropological Research. 

   "We still don't know how they died. But what does seem increasingly clear is that the death of these people could have been simultaneous," Jose Bermudez de Castro, co-director of the Atapuerca excavation, told BBC News Online.


   The remains were recovered from a 14m-long shaft called Sima de los Huesos (the pit of bones) in the caves of Atapuerca, near the town of Burgos. 

   Atapuerca contains one of the richest records of prehistoric human occupation in Europe. 

  The bodies in the pit belong to a hominid species called Homo heidelbergensis. Some people think this species could have been the common ancestor of the Neanderthals and modern humans (Homo sapiens), although Professor Bermudez de Castro believes it was just ancestral to the Neanderthals.


 More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3725241.stm


----------



## kyektulu (Aug 12, 2005)

Thanks for posting this it is really interesting.


----------

