A new analysis of over 300 sets of 5,000-year-old bone remains excavated in a Spanish site suggests that many individuals may have been victims of the earliest period of warfare in Europe, occurring over 1,000 years before the first known larger-scale conflict in the region.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, indicates that both the number of wounded individuals and the disproportionately high percentage of affected males suggest that the injuries resulted from a period of conflict, possibly lasting at least several months.

Conflicts during the European Neolithic period (approximately 9,000 to 4,000 years ago) remain poorly understood. Previous research suggested that conflicts involved short raids lasting no more than a few days, with small groups of up to 20-30 individuals. It was assumed that primitive societies lacked the logistical capacity for longer and larger-scale conflicts.

Plan where the best preserved skeletons are reconstructed. Credit: Teresa Fernández-Crespo et al.

It was previously believed that the first conflict of this kind in Europe took place during the Bronze Age (approximately 4,000 to 2,800 years ago).

Teresa Fernández-Crespo and her colleagues reexamined the bone remains of 338 individuals for healed and unhealed injuries. All remains came from a single collective burial in a shallow cave in Rioja Alavesa, northern Spain, radiocarbon-dated to between 5,400 and 5,000 years ago.

In the same site, 52 flint arrowheads had been discovered, and previous research indicated that 36 of them showed minor damages associated with impact. The authors found that 23.1% of individuals had skeletal injuries, and 10.1% had unhealed wounds, substantially higher than injury rates estimated for the time (7-17% and 2-5%, respectively).

Examples of nonhealing postcranial lesions documented in SJAPL in this study. Credit: Teresa Fernández-Crespo et al.

They also discovered that 74.1% of unhealed injuries and 70.0% of healed injuries occurred in adolescent or adult males, a significantly higher rate than in females, and a difference not observed in other Neolithic mass mortality sites in Europe.

The overall injury rate, the highest injury rate among males, and the previously observed damages on arrowheads suggest that many individuals in the burial were exposed to violence and may have been victims of conflicts.

According to the authors, the relatively high rate of healed wounds suggests that the conflict extended over several months. The reasons for the conflict are unclear, but the authors speculate about various possible causes, including tension between different cultural groups in the region during the Late Neolithic.

Sources

Nature Publishing Group | Fernández-Crespo, T., Ordoño, J., Etxeberria, F. et al. Large-scale violence in Late Neolithic Western Europe based on expanded skeletal evidence from San Juan ante Portam Latinam. Sci Rep 13, 17103 (2023). doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-43026-9

  • Share this article:

Discover more from LBV Magazine English Edition

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

excavation20of20an20early20dolmen20in20albygden-2
One of Scandinavia's Oldest Dolmens is Intact from Neolithic Times, but Skulls and Other Parts of Buried People Are Missing Last summer, archaeologists from the University of Gothenburg and Kiel University excavated a dolmen, an ancient stone burial chamber, in Tiarp near Falköping in Sweden. The archaeologists believe the tomb…
Detail of a threshing sledge
Archaeologists Discover Threshing Sledges were already Used in Neolithic Greece in 6500 B.C., about 3000 Years Earlier than Previously Thought Used until a few decades ago to separate straw from grain in many Mediterranean countries, from Turkey to Spain, the threshing sledge may have appeared in Greece as early as…
The study suggests that there were strong social ties that had nothing to do with biological kinship and that remained important even after death
Researchers Reveal how Stone Age Hunter-Gatherers Avoided Inbreeding New genetic research reveals that prehistoric hunter-gatherers in Western Europe had surprisingly intricate social relationships that went far beyond biological kinship. These late Stone Age foraging groups deliberately mixed with…
This engraving from the Addaura cave in Sicily could represent a ritual sacrifice
Evidence of Ritual Human Sacrifices, Mainly of Women, Found in the European Neolithic Era Recent archaeological findings in Europe have shed new light on the practice of ritual human sacrifice during the Neolithic period. Researchers have identified multiple cases of what appears to be…
Bone with incisions made by Neanderthals, found in Dziadowa Skała cave, Poland.
Oldest Incised Bone Found in Northern Europe Demonstrates Early Cognitive Abilities of Neanderthals A bear radius fragment with seventeen incisions (one of them incomplete) was excavated in the 1950s in the Dziadowa Skała Cave in the Upland of Częstochowa, southern Poland, from a…
1280px-Catalhoyuk_after_the_first_excavations_by_James_Mellaart_and_his_team.-2
The inhabitants of Çatalhöyük were already experiencing typically urban problems 9,000 years ago Around 9,000 years ago, the inhabitants of Çatalhöyük in central Turkey were among the earliest humans to experience some of the dangers of modern urban living. Çatalhöyük was one of…

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Follow LBV Magazine on Google News