Archaeologists are struggling to put together the pieces after 77 headless skeletons were discovered in a Stone Age gravesite in Slovakia, per a grisly study in the journal The Proceedings of The Prehistoric Society.

“We must ᴀssume that these practices were embedded in completely different contexts of meaning than those of modern societies,” lead author Martin Furholt, a professor of archaeology at Kiel University, said in a statement, Popular Mechanics reported.

The macabre caper dates back to 2022, when archaeologists excavated a 7,000-year-old settlement near Vrable that belonged to the Linear Pottery Culture (LBK), one of Europe’s earliest farming communities.

However, it also harbored a dark secret. While investigating the site, the scientists stumbled across a ghastly scene — 78 skeletons piled atop each other.

All of the bodies were missing a head, save for the skeleton of a child that had been curiously placed among the adults.

Archaeologists initially ᴀssumed that the grave’s inhabitants, who were buried soon after they died, must have been the victims of an act of violence such as war or human sacrifice.