April 29, 2004 Cannibals lived in Moravia

The ancestors of today's inhabitants of eastern Moravia ate human flesh. Archaeologists who found evidence in Chmelín came up with such a discovery seventeen years ago. It is a place located next to the main road to Zlín in the place where the northeastern part of the Otrokovice bypass connects to it.

Archaeologists searched the site for the first time at the time when the mentioned bypass was to be built there. They encountered broken skulls and broken bones. "To the best of our knowledge, they were destroyed by man-made tools," said archaeologist Jana Langrová at the time.

But it was not just "ordinary" cannibalism. People apparently ate human flesh during rituals. Key indications leading to this theory have been discovered by archaeologists in pits from the Late Bronze Age. According to archaeologist Jiří Kohoutek, bones were strewn in them.

"They were gnawed and cooked. It was probably a ritual cannibalism, which we judge from the way the victims were buried, "said Kohoutek, who worked at the Institute of Archaeological Conservation in Brno after the research.

Archaeologists have basically discovered the foundations of the settlement, which has made other interesting discoveries. At the time, it was a huge prehistoric settlement, where merchant caravans stopped. In total, archaeologists in the locality discovered 478 housing estates such as storage pits, earthworks (long pile houses) and Celtic two-chamber kilns for the production of ceramics.

At the same time, archaeologists discovered nine graves. "It is interesting that men are placed with their heads to the west, women to the east," Kohoutek remarked.

Until then, archaeologists discovered only two cases of cannibalism in Moravia, in the south. Even in 1999, they encountered a strangely bitten jaw in Mezicestí (today's shopping center in Malenovice). The discovery was consulted with experts from the Moravian Museum in Brno, who have experience with research into interventions on human bones.

"It turned out that there was a so-called spiral fracture on the jaw in the chin area, which could only have occurred by force. In addition, a dark-colored strip was found on the bone, indicating that it had been cooked, ”Langrová said, adding that the pit with the findings was broken by an excavator. "Her dating is therefore uncertain. However, we assume that it belongs to the Late Bronze Age, "added the archaeologist.

Sources: www.idnes.cz, http://tic-otrokovice.cz, www.aktualne.cz