Ofnet Revisited: chronology, violence, society in the Late Mesolithic

巴伐利亚州诺德林根Ofnet洞穴的两个头骨巢是中欧中石器时代晚期的关键遗址之一。自世纪初发现这些头骨以来，人们对它们的讨论一直充满争议。它们被解释为大屠杀受害者的遗体或作为一种虔诚的头颅处理仪式的证据。这对我们对中欧中石器时代晚期社会的看法产生了重大影响。在第一种情况下，出现了侵略，领土和危机的叙述，而在第二种情况下，我们可以争辩说，葬礼的精心制作是觅食者社会复杂性不断增加的轨迹的一部分。这些因素包括埋葬的确切人数、致命头骨创伤的发生率和事件的顺序，即两个巢穴是同时还是分开存放的，以及每个巢穴是否包含在较长时间内组装的头骨。本项目建议通过有针对性地应用额外分析来解决这些问题。我们将重新评估Ofnet人口的年龄和性别结构;制作并发布任何创伤性损伤的明确文件;并（在现有数据的基础上）直接确定两个头骨巢中所有个体的日期，以制定一个强大的时间顺序框架。通过应用贝叶斯统计，一个或几个事件的可能性，以及沉积的持续时间，可以明确地建模，具有更高的精度比迄今为止是可能的。这将是其次是我们的结果在更广泛的辩论中的中石器时代社会的性质在这个时候的语境。

The two skull nests of Ofnet cave, Nördlingen (Bavaria), are among the key sites for the Late Mesolithic in Central Europe. The skulls have been controversially discussed since their discovery in the early 20th century. They have been interpreted as either the remains of massacre victims or as evidence for a rite of reverential head disposal. This has significant consequences for our perception of late Mesolithic society in central Europe. In the first case, a narrative of aggression, territoriality and crisis emerges, while in the second case we could argue for funerary elaboration as part of a trajectory to increasing social complexity among foragers.Yet in spite of its critical role in this debate, basic facts about Ofnet remain disputed. These include the precise number of individuals buried, the prevalence of fatal skull trauma and the sequence of events, i.e. whether the two nests were deposited simultaneously or on separate occasions, and whether each nest contains skulls assembled over a longer time period or not. The present project proposes to settle these issues by the targeted application of additional analyses. We will re-assess the age and sex structure of the Ofnet population; produce and publish definitive documentation of any traumatic injuries present; and (building on existing data) directly date all individuals in both skull nests to draw up a robust chronological framework. By applying Bayesian statistics, the likelihood of one or several events, and the duration of deposition, can be explicitly modelled with greater precision than has hitherto been possible. This will be followed by a contextualisation of our results in the wider debates about the nature of Mesolithic society at this time.