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posted by janrinok on Thursday March 16 2023, @03:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the turning-ploughshares-into-swords dept.

Violence and warfare were widespread in many Neolithic communities across Northwest Europe:

Of the skeletal remains of more than 2300 early farmers from 180 sites dating from around 8000 – 4000 years ago to, more than one in ten displayed weapon injuries, bioarchaeologists found.

Contrary to the view that the Neolithic era was marked by peaceful cooperation, the team of international researchers say that in some regions the period from 6000BC to 2000BC may be a high point in conflict and violence with the destruction of entire communities.

The findings also suggest the rise of growing crops and herding animals as a way of life, replacing hunting and gathering, may have laid the foundations for formalised warfare.

[...] More than ten per cent showed damage potentially caused by frequent blows to the head by blunt instruments or stone axes. Several examples of penetrative injuries, thought to be from arrows, were also found.

Some of the injuries were linked to mass burials, which could suggest the destruction of entire communities, the researchers say.

Journal Reference:
Linda Fibiger, Torbjörn Ahlström, Christian Meyer, and Martin Smith, Conflict, violence, and warfare among early farmers in Northwestern Europe [open], PNAS, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2209481119


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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday March 17 2023, @01:46PM

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 17 2023, @01:46PM (#1296679) Journal

    No, I'm just saying that the Amerinds weren't exceptional (except perhaps the Aztecs), I you want I could also mention the Chinese, and the Africans had a few techniques of their own. I don't know anything particular about the groups in South America or Australia or... well, lots of places. But the Amerinds were not more given to torture than other folks were. (OTOH, "Noble Savage" is a foolish idea. They're typically better in some ways and worse in others.)

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