Neolithic Bodies in Vráble – 7000 year-old Headless Human Skeletons in an Enclosed LBK Settlement in South–West Slovakia

Abstract We present here the extraordinary find of an Early Neolithic mass deposition of headless human bodies at the LBK settlement site of Vráble-Veľké Lehemby. While various scientific analyses are under way, we present the archaeological context of this find and preliminary osteological and taphonomic observations. We discuss these in the light of a patterned and meaningful depositional complexity in Vráble, which embeds into a larger corpus of human remains in ditches surrounding LBK settlements in central Europe. Furthermore, we discuss the significance of the find for the overall discourse on the crisis at the end of the LBK period with regard to the role of violence and the nature of Early Neolithic cosmologies.