Drone footage of the excavation site.
© Nils Müller-Scheeßel
A problem for biblical literalist creationists is that they are wedded to the absurd and demonstrably false notion that the Bible is a literal account of real history, including a catastrophic, genocidal flood just a few thousand years ago. Such a flood would have left a tell-tale, globally recognisable layer of flood sediment containing the jumbled remains of the animals and plants it had killed. It would also have destroyed, displaced or buried earlier human settlements beneath one unmistakable flood horizon.
This, of course, flies in the face of abundant evidence to the contrary. The predicted global layer of flood silt is not there, and the archaeological record continues, uninterrupted, through the very period in which creationists need their flood to have occurred. Practically every archaeological find older than the various creationist dates for Noah's Flood — from the pyramids at Giza to the less spectacular but more numerous Neolithic and Bronze Age burial grounds, field systems, settlements, tools and artefacts that litter the African and Eurasian landscape — should not be where it is, least of all in the Middle East, the supposed epicentre of the alleged catastrophe.
And yet archaeologists are regularly digging up evidence of human activity that long predates the creationist timescale. A recent example is the grim, 7,000-year-old evidence of headless human bodies at Vráble-Veľké Lehemby in Slovakia, reported in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. The refutation of creationist mythology is, of course, entirely incidental. The archaeological question is what this extraordinary find tells us about an Early Neolithic farming society. The indications so far are that the heads were not removed by violent decapitation as a form of execution — which might have suggested a society in crisis or conflict — but were skilfully removed around the time of death. That points instead to some form of social, ritual or funerary practice, although the precise meaning of that practice remains uncertain.
The site at Vráble-Veľké Lehemby comprises more than 300 house outlines arranged in three neighbourhoods, with up to 80 buildings inhabited at the same time. The settlement existed for several centuries, approximately between 5250 and 4950 BCE. One neighbourhood was enclosed by a ditch, probably marking a boundary, and it was in or around this ditch, especially near the entrance to the settlement, that archaeologists found the remains of at least 78 individuals. Of these, 77 lacked heads, the single exception being a child whose skull was still present.
Background^ Vráble-Veľké Lehemby. Vráble-Veľké Lehemby, in south-western Slovakia, is one of the largest known settlements of the Linear Pottery Culture, or LBK, the first widespread farming culture in much of Central Europe. The site dates to about 5250–4950 BCE, a period when farming communities were spreading across the continent, bringing with them cultivated cereals, domestic animals, timber longhouses and a new way of life based on settled village communities.The paper in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society is accompanied by a press release from Kiel University's Cluster of Excellence ЯOOTS, which appears to have been translated from German:
The site is remarkable for its scale. Geophysical survey and excavation have identified more than 300 longhouse plans, arranged not as a single compact village but as three distinct neighbourhoods. Radiocarbon dating suggests that these were not three successive settlements, but existed at the same time for much of the site's history. At its peak, about 70–80 longhouses may have been occupied simultaneously, implying an unusually large and densely occupied Early Neolithic settlement.
These houses were not temporary shelters. LBK longhouses were substantial timber buildings, often associated with pits, storage areas and working spaces. Each probably represented a household or farmstead, with its own domestic economy, but Vráble also shows signs of cooperation at a larger scale. Farming, cattle husbandry, house-building, food storage and perhaps ritual activity would all have required social rules, shared expectations and some form of community organisation.
That does not mean Vráble was a peaceful egalitarian idyll. One of its three neighbourhoods was later separated from the others by a large double ditch and palisade more than a kilometre long. Archaeologists caution that this need not have been a simple defensive fortification; it may also have acted as a boundary marker. Even so, the fact that only one neighbourhood was enclosed suggests some degree of separation, rivalry or tension within the settlement.
The most disturbing discoveries came from this ditch system, especially near an entrance. Archaeologists found the remains of dozens of people, many of them placed in confused positions rather than carefully arranged as formal burials. Most strikingly, almost all lacked heads. Earlier excavations revealed 38 individuals, but further work has raised the number to at least 78, of whom 77 were headless. The single exception was a child whose skull was still present.
At first glance, this might suggest massacre, execution or warfare, but the evidence is more complex. Initial analysis suggests that the heads were not simply hacked off in violent decapitations. Instead, they appear to have been skilfully removed around the time of death or shortly afterwards. This could point to ritual treatment of the dead, secondary burial practices, ancestor-related customs, social exclusion, or other practices whose meaning is now difficult to reconstruct.
Vráble is therefore important not merely because it contains a dramatic and macabre find, but because it reveals the social complexity of Europe's earliest farming communities. It shows settled villages, household autonomy, communal organisation, boundary-making, possible inequality, changing mortuary customs and perhaps rising internal tension. In other words, it is a snapshot of real human history: complex, continuous, archaeologically visible and thousands of years older than the mythical chronology required by biblical literalism.
Headless skeletons offer new insights into farming societies 7,000 years ago
First results on the extraordinary archaeological site Vráble Vel’ke-Lehemby have been published.
Dozens of human skeletons, lying apparently randomly on and next to each other, of which the skulls are missing, presents a terrifying sight at first glance. Since 2022, this is what researchers have been excavating in a 7,000-year-old settlement near the current town of Vráble in Slovakia. Are the headless skeletons the remains of a Neolithic massacre and represent gruesome evidence of a crisis in the ancient society?
Initial bone analyses and a compilation of the excavation results until now point in a different direction.
In contrast, we have evidence that the interments – which appear unusual to us – were part of social practices, which structured local and supra-regional relationships and are only limited signs of conflict and crisis.
Professor Dr. Martin Furholt, lead author.
Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology
Kiel University, Germany.
He is the lead author of the corresponding study, which has now been published in the international journal Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society.
One of the most important archaeological sites of the Linear Pottery culture
The large Neolithic settlement at Vráble belongs to the most important excavation sites of the so-called Linear Pottery culture (LBK) in Central Europe. Researchers from Kiel University and the Slovakian Academy of Sciences in Nitra have been investigating it since 2012.
The excavation site is comprised of more than 300 house outlines in three neighbourhoods, where intermittently up to 80 buildings existed which were simultaneously inhabited. The settlement existed for a period of several centuries, approximately between 5250 and 4950 BCE.
One of the neighbourhoods was surrounded by a ditch which probably served as a border. During earlier excavations, researchers already found human remains. Since the fieldwork in 2022, these finds have accumulated spectacularly. At the entrance to the settlement, the remains of at least 78 individuals have been uncovered – in various postures and without discernible order.
Spectacular finds of headless skeletons
77 of the individuals lacked a head. The excavators found only one skeleton of a child with a preserved skull. Initial evidence suggests that little time passed between the death of these individuals and their interment.
The features clearly exhibit an intentional manipulation of the bodies. First analyses suggest, above all, that violent ‘decapitations’ were not conducted here, but rather skilful removals of the skulls.
Dr. Katharina Fuchs, co-author
Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology
Kiel University, Germany.
How this practice should be interpreted, however, is still open. One hypothesis is discussed that the heads may have been stored separately – a phenomenon that is not yet directly attested for Vráble, but known from other contexts.
Comparable interventions associated with human bodies are proven for many prehistoric societies, also within the LBK. However, the details of the practices differ greatly. Furthermore, the deposition of the dead or of body parts in settlement ditches is not an isolated phenomenon. It is, however, notable, that mass graves, depositions in settlement ditches as well as manipulations of bodies appear at many archaeological sites at the end of the LBK.
This phenomenon has frequently been interpreted as evidence of a time of crisis, for example, in connection with violence or conflicts. The participants of the current study, however, suggest a differentiated perspective.
The deposition of bodies and body parts may have been part of more complex, meaningful and recurring practices sein [sic]. We must assume that these practices were embedded in completely different contexts of meaning than those of modern societies. This is what makes an interpretation of them so challenging.
Dr. Nils-Müller-Scheeßel, co-author.
Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology
Kiel University, Germany.
The site provides keys for the discussion of fundamental questions
The publication is thus a springboard for further analyses in the current research project ‘Neolithic Bodies’, which has been funded by the German Research Foundation since 2025. Presently, the participating research groups continue to sort the recovered bones in order to determine the age at the time of death, the biological sexes and to analyse the cutting marks on the cervical vertebra in more detail. Further studies on the possible impacts of violence and forensic investigations on decomposition processes are being conducted as well. Isotope and DNA analyses will also provide added information on the origins, diet and kinship ties of the Neolithic individuals. The construction of the ditch system also raises further open questions.
But the first results already show that Vráble is an exceptional excavation site. It provides us with the keys for the discussion of fundamental questions, for example, how were death and the body understood in the Neolithic and what role did the associated practices play in the social fabric of early farming societies?
Professor Martin Furholt.
Publication:
The mass deposition at the ditch. Below: photos; above: a tracing of the skeletons in various colours. Most of the individuals are found to the far left, where the ditch ends and the entrance to the settlement was located.© Katharina Fuchs, Agnes Heitmann, Nils Müller-Scheeßel, Till Kühl
Drone footage of the excavation site. In the foreground, an area is visible that has just been stripped open by an excavator and waits to be excavated. This spot was chosen because it exhibits an opening through the ditch, where further depositions of human skeletons were expected. In the background, two further trenches are shown, one with the mass deposition.© Nils Müller-Scheeßel
While the excavation of the mass deposition was concentrated on the eastern area starting in 2022, the western section has been under excavation since 2024. The tent above the trench protects the excavation from rain and sun.© Katharina Fuchs
As with so much of archaeology, the significance of Vráble-Veľké Lehemby lies not in any deliberate attempt to disprove creationism, but in the simple fact that it is real. It is a carefully excavated, scientifically dated settlement, occupied for centuries by real people with homes, fields, animals, social divisions, customs and beliefs. Their lives, deaths and treatment of the dead are part of a continuous human story that reaches back thousands of years before the period in which biblical literalists need their mythical flood to have happened.
That continuity is precisely the problem for creationism. A recent global flood would not leave archaeologists patiently reconstructing the internal organisation of a 7,000-year-old farming community from house plans, ditches, burials and radiocarbon dates. It would leave one unmistakable global catastrophe layer, with everything before it destroyed, displaced or buried in a single chaotic deposit. Instead, we find settled communities, local histories, gradual changes, abandonment phases, regional cultures and recognisable patterns of human behaviour extending across the supposed date of the flood without interruption.
The headless bodies at Vráble are macabre and mysterious, but they are not mysterious in the way creationists need them to be. They do not point to a supernatural catastrophe, divine judgement or a world-destroying flood. They point to complex human societies, ritual behaviour, social stress and cultural practices whose meanings archaeologists can investigate using evidence. In other words, they belong to history, not mythology.
Once again, the evidence does not merely fail to support the Bible story; it contradicts it. The ground beneath our feet preserves the record of real human beings living, farming, building, dying and burying their dead in ways that are wholly incompatible with a recent global flood. Creationism can only wave this evidence away, misrepresent it, or ignore it. Science, by contrast, can dig it up, date it, analyse it and use it to tell us something true about our past.
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