Dang, how long have the Balkans been the balkans?

The amount of education and multigenerational cultural effort required to get our species not to behave like dumb animals is insane.

One scenario could be that there was a large regional conflict, and refugees from many areas gathered in one camp (maybe a sanctuary or a neutral area). Then whoever killed them realized afterward that not all of them were from their intended enemies.

My unsorted thoughts:

Maybe it was a slave revolt.

• pro: people from different settlements. Stolen at some point and brought to the same place where they revolted and were beaten down.
• contra: who would give them offerings and bury them with respect?

Maybe it was the supply train of an army that was also killed after the defeat of said army.

• pro: mostly women
• contra: why the tribal diversity? Was it a battle of the five armies style train?

Maybe a treck of refugees as someone else commented.

There's more detail and analysis in the academic paper:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02399-9

I didn't read all of it, but one part suggests that the unrelated genetics could mean that the dead are from a larger settlement rather than a small village.

Suppose there was an uprising or rebellion in a region, the men fought, but lost and many were killed in battle and the remainder were in hiding. As punishment a woman from each family was slaughtered.

This might explain why they were killed violently but buried with reverence.