A gruesome discovery of nearly 400 skeletons was made in 2016 by tourists hiking on the island in the Hebrides off the coast of Scotland. Criminal investigators were initially called as the remains were assumed to be those of a modern homicide which is now under investigation by archaeologists working for the Historic Environment Scotland (HES).
Dr. Kirsty Owen, HES's manager of archaeology, confirmed that at least 50 bones recovered from the cave belonged to a child no older than 16 and have been dated to between AD1450 and 1620
The ultimate fate of the remains in the cave is yet to be decided.
"When post-excavation analysis has been completed, we will discuss what happens next with the community on Eigg. The decision will be made jointly with them," Dr. Owen told The Scotsman.
For centuries, the massacre was assumed by the people of the surrounding islands to have been merely a legend despite the longstanding oral tradition relating the massacre of nearly the entire population at some time during the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries.
The massacre is generally believed to have occurred around 1577.
According to local tradition, most of the population of the island, around 400 people belonging to the MacDonald clan, took shelter in the cave known as the Frances Cave, during a period of tribal conflict with Clan MacLeod clan.
When the MacLeod soldiers discovered the MacDonald families sheltering in the cave, their leader reportedly prayed for guidance on whether to spare or kill them.
If the wind blew outwards towards the sea they would be allowed to live, if it blew into the mouth of the cave, he would order them to be killed.
The traditional story tells that the wind fatefully blew into the cave. The MacLeods allegedly lit a fire at the cave's mouth, causing smoke to funnel in and suffocate everyone inside.
The brutality of the story has often invited modern comparisons to the HBO hit Game of Thrones, with its focus brutal family feuds and dynastic politics.
