ABSTRACT
In addition to these cases, the late Mesolithic site of Ofnet in Bavaria, provides a relatively unique example of prehistoric violence: a massacre in which a large number of men, women and children were slaughtered with selected parts buried in two mass graves. Human sketetal remains from Ofnet were excavated by Schmidt in 1908. Prior attempts to excavate the sediments were foiled by a large ceiling rock which covered most of the exposed floor. But, after this slab was blasted apart, excavations proceeded in 1908. The cave is a small, low chamber with a single opening which faces southwest. All human material derived from two pits dug into a late Magdalenian deposit, located about 0.9 meters below the original cave floor. The pits were overlain by Neolithic and later deposits, and the two mass graves were at approximately the same depth, separated from each other by about one meter.
