Violence and warfare were widespread in early farming society: study

By Alice Clifford via SWNS

Violence and warfare were widespread in early farming society and the move to crops might even have fueled it, a new study reveals.

Conflict appeared to be rife among Neolithic communities across Northwest Europe when farming was adopted.

While this time has previously been believed to be marked by peaceful cooperation, violent injuries discovered on skeletons have led scientists to think otherwise.

Researchers studied over 2300 skeletal remains of early farmers from 180 sites dating from around 8,000-4,0000 years ago.

Over one in ten had weapon injuries, with more than ten per cent showing damage potentially caused by frequent blows to the head by blunt instruments or stone axes.

Penetrative injuries thought to be from arrows were also found among the remains.

Some injuries were also linked to mass burials, suggesting that entire communities were destroyed in the violence.

Their findings show that during the period from 60,000 BC to 20,000 BC there were high levels of conflict.

While it is difficult to give concrete reasoning for this violent period, the team believe it could have been caused by the introduction of farming.

Replacing hunting and gathering for growing crops and herding animals as a way of life could have laid the foundations for formalized warfare.

Dr. Martin Smith, of Bournemouth University’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, explained: “The study raises the question to why violence seems to have been so prevalent during this period.

“The most plausible explanation may be that the economic base of society had changed.

“With farming came inequality and those who fared less successfully appear at times to have engaged in raiding and collective violence as an alternative strategy for success, with the results now increasingly being recognised archaeologically.”

The team used bioarchaeological techniques to study human skeletal remains from sites in Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain and Sweden.

North Western Europe has the greatest concentration of excavated Neolithic sites in the world.

Dr. Linda Fibiger, from the University of Edinburgh’s School of History, Classics and Archaeology, said: “Human bones are the most direct and least biased form of evidence for past hostilities and our abilities to distinguish between fatal injuries as opposed to post-mortem breakage have improved drastically in recent years, in addition to differentiating accidental injuries from weapon based assaults.”

The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.