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Yeah what's the mystery? They can gather the dead and burn them, or bury them in a huge pit, very quickly (and yes casualty rates in ancient battles were grossly exagerated). It's not that time consuming.
..or, most common for the loser, leave them on the field to rot if the battle occured in an isolated area. The bones would be picked clean very quickly by carion and predators.
Really, what takes time is the identification process and burying each seperately. In the civil war what they did was typically bury the dead quickly in a mass trench, and then dig them out later, try to identify them, and then ship them back to where the survivors wanted or bury them seperately. That process would take months. Now that was a messy job. Ancient battles did not bother with those niceties however.
The story is that before Gettysburg there were no vultures/buzzards around. They showed up after the battle (remember the temperatures were in the 90s during the battle) and have never left the area.
The Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) is one of the few birds in the world that has a significant sense of smell, and can detect the smell of a body at the early stages of decomposition. Literally within minutes, the bird can detect the odor of ethyl mercaptan from a dead animal from miles away. it is very common and abundant in every state in the USA, and has been since prehistoric times. In fact, it is difficult in summer to find a spot in rural America where a soaring Turkey vulture cannot be seen within a few minutes somewhere above the horizon.
They are voiceless, by the way, even though foley editors always add a Red-tailed or Red-shouldered Hawk sound track to vulture scenes in movies.
I was surprised that the word "genocide" wasn't coined until 1944. There were probably many horrific slaughters in early history, but the one often called the first genocide is the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC. At least 150,000 Carthaginians perished in an orgy of violence. Carthage was so feared that Cato the Elder always closed his speeches in the Roman senate with the words, "Carthage must be destroyed." There was such visceral hatred for Carthage that it's not likely that many of these bodies received a proper burial. A legend has grown that, after the sacking and burning of Carthage, the Romans plowed the land and heavily salted the city site to keep it from rising again.
I was surprised that the word "genocide" wasn't coined until 1944. There were probably many horrific slaughters in early history, but the one often called the first genocide is the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC. At least 150,000 Carthaginians perished in an orgy of violence. Carthage was so feared that Cato the Elder always closed his speeches in the Roman senate with the words, "Carthage must be destroyed." There was such visceral hatred for Carthage that it's not likely that many of these bodies received a proper burial. A legend has grown that, after the sacking and burning of Carthage, the Romans plowed the land and heavily salted the city site to keep it from rising again.
Well John, if it makes you feel a tad better you might be happy to know that the Vandals under Geiseric who were ruling north africa and living at carthage as their capital sacked Rome in 455 which was the final straw that broke the western empire's back so to speak.
Well John, if it makes you feel a tad better you might be happy to know that the Vandals under Geiseric who were ruling north africa and living at carthage as their capital sacked Rome in 455 which was the final straw that broke the western empire's back so to speak.
6 FOOT 3,
You bring up an interesting point. I wonder if the Vandals actually built on the original site of Carthage, or in the vicinity? As an aside, I'm not sure if the story of the Romans salting the soil of Carthage is true or a myth. I understand the story originated much later.
While on the subject of genocide, I was listening to the History Channel today and the subject was Caesar's destruction of the Germanic people who had crossed over into Gaul. Caesar's army of 50,000 carried out a slaughter that almost defies description. Apparently, over 400,000 humans of all ages were cut down. It almost makes one wonder if it was possible to have lived a "normal" life span in those days.
When you read of some of the incredibly high casualty counts associated with many of the larger battles in the BC era, how did they dispose of the dead after the battle?
Did one or both sides just bury all of them en masse or leave them on the battlefield?
Back in the day, land, particularly open fields couldn't just be left to waste. If there were any bodies left by planting season the farmers probably would have buried/plowed them under to plant their crops.
6 FOOT 3,
You bring up an interesting point. I wonder if the Vandals actually built on the original site of Carthage, or in the vicinity? As an aside, I'm not sure if the story of the Romans salting the soil of Carthage is true or a myth. I understand the story originated much later.
While on the subject of genocide, I was listening to the History Channel today and the subject was Caesar's destruction of the Germanic people who had crossed over into Gaul. Caesar's army of 50,000 carried out a slaughter that almost defies description. Apparently, over 400,000 humans of all ages were cut down. It almost makes one wonder if it was possible to have lived a "normal" life span in those days.
John
As for Carthage being re-inhabited i'm not sure as i'm not enough of an expert on North Africa to answer that and maybe Kovert might answer since he knows alot about that region of Africa .
As for the Germanic peoples i believe that your referring to the Belgae as Gaul was mainly inhabited by three large groups of peoples i.e. Belgae, Aquitanians and Celtae and Ceasar conquered them all.
This is a subject I find interesting, but here is another angle to look at it. Does anyone think its crazy that they still find planes, tanks, bones, guns and artifacts buried from world war 2 remains. I mean how long did it take, for europe to be rebuilt? I mean at least 50 million dead, who knows how many injured and mamed. Countless buildings half leveled. Tanks and planes strewn all about. What did they do with all this destruction?
All the military hardware was collected and sold for scrap. The steel was used to rebuild the cities. I have seen pictures of trains full of destroyed tanks that were collected from the battlefield.
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