I'd like to see more detailed pictures. That crown looks especially impressive. It looks almost too good to be true...a picture with better resolution would be nice. I mean, that crown looks damn near perfect which makes the cynic in me raise an eyebrow!

Back to the original post, and as to the disarticulated skeletons, could they have been victims of the anthropophagi, a cannibal tribe that was described by Herotodus in " Histories", book four.

"The manners of the Androphagi are more savage than those of any other race. They neither observe justice, nor are governed, by any laws. They are nomads, and their dress is Scythian; but the language which theyspeak is peculiar to themselves. Unlike any other nation in these parts, they are cannibals. ”

And also by Pliny the elder,
“

The Anthropophagi, whom we have previously mentioned as dwelling ten days journey beyond the Borysthenes, according to the account of Isigonus of Nicæa, were in the habit of drinking out of human skulls, and placing the scalps, with the hair attached, upon their breasts, like so many napkins. "

Naturalis Historia Book 7,Chapter2, trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley, 1855
Pliny places them 10 days journey beyond the Borysthenes, or Dieneppper river in the Ukraine and Beloruss.

I find the fact the the skeletons were disarticulated to be very interesting, it takes a lot of effort to chop up 40 people and that level of violence goes beyond what you see even extremely brutal cultures.
And that level of brutality is usually reserved for mortal enemies.
And I'm not buying a flower dust explosion as the cause of the dismemberment of the bodies.Low energyezplosions just don't work that way.