Severed arms and brutalized skeletal remains recovered from pits at two 6,000-year-old archaeological sites in northeastern France suggest the region's inhabitants turned torture into a public spectacle to celebrate their victories.

A study on the remains offers evidence that the severed upper arms may have been taken as war trophies, while the excessively mutilated bodies were savagely slaughtered in a ritualized ceremony meant to dehumanize the enemy.

Describing the brutality to Owen Jarus at Live Science, archaeologist Teresa Fernández-Crespo from the University of Valladolid in Spain explains the "lower limbs were [fractured] in order to prevent the victims from escaping, the entire body shows blunt force traumas and, what it is more, in some skeletons there are some marks – piercin

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