Congratulations to Professor Rick Schulting and his co-authors, awarded the Ben Cullen prize for their paper titled: ‘The darker angels of our nature’: Early Bronze Age butchered human remains from Charterhouse Warren, Somerset, UK'
Antiquity awards two prizes annually for outstanding work in the field of archaeology.
Ben Cullen (1964 – 1995) was a promising young archaeologist when he died unexpectedly, and the Ben Cullen prize was founded by Ian Gollop in his honour in 1996. His work was published posthumously by Steele et al. (2000) Contagious Ideas: on Evolution, Culture, Archaeology and the Cultural Virus Theory. Selected Writings of Ben Cullen.
You can read the paper by clicking here.
Abstract: Direct physical evidence for violent interpersonal conflict is seen only sporadically in the archaeological record for prehistoric Britain. Human remains from Charterhouse Warren, south-west England, therefore present a unique opportunity for the study of mass violence in the Early Bronze Age. At least 37 men, women and children were killed and butchered, their disarticulated remains thrown into a 15m-deep natural shaft in what is, most plausibly, interpreted as a single event. The authors examine the physical remains and debate the societal tensions that could motivate a level and scale of violence that is unprecedented in British prehistory.
