7 Violence against the living, violence against the dead on the human remains from Herxheim, Germany. Evidence of a crisis and mass cannibalism? Jörg Orschiedt and Miriam Noël Haidle ABSTRACT Since their discovery, human skeletal remains of the Herxheim pit system, like individuals from the mass grave at Talheim and the earthwork of Asparn/Schletz, have often been taken as a proof for violent conflicts and for a crisis at the end of the Linear Pottery Culture. Yet, different from Talheim and Schletz, no clearly lethal trauma can be attributed to any of the minimum of 325 individuals from Herxheim. The highly fragmented sample is dominated by skull caps shaped in a recurring manner; jaws, facial, and interior cranial bones as well as postcranial elements are markedly underrepresented. Owing to the fragmented preservation of the assemblage it is impos- sible to give a detailed demographic description of the population, but all age classes (from fetal/neonate to senile) and both sexes are present. Cut marks (particularly on the skull caps, less frequently on mandibles and other skeletal elements), rare evidence of burning/ heating, and the specific fragmentation of mostly fresh bones refer to a complex death ritual. Scavenger marks are rare and can mainly be attributed to rodents. The frequency of enamel hypoplasia and cribra orbitalia as evidence of individual nutritional crises is low and fea- tures are generally not very pronounced. In sum, skeletal remains