🌅 Warfare in Europe Is Older than Believed

SOURCE

Fernández Crespo et al. (2023)

WHAT TO KNOW

• Researchers at the University of Valladolid in Spain re-analyzed the 5,000-year-old skeletons of 300 individuals—predominantly males—excavated from a mass burial site in northern Spain, uncovering damaged bones, areas of trauma, and unhealed wounds that together suggest the individuals were casualties of a potentially months-long battle. The finding suggests large-scale conflict occurred in Spain during the Neolithic period, around 1,000 years before the previous earliest known instance of warfare in Europe.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Little is known about war and conflict during the Neolithic period, with previous research suggesting it consisted largely of short raids by small groups of 20-20 people, leading historians to assume early societies lacked the logistical capabilities to engage in larger, longer conflicts. Prior to the present discovery, the earliest such conflict in Europe happened in Germany during the Bronze Age (roughly 2,800 to 4,000 years ago).

CONNECT THE DOTS

• Research has long connected the birth of war with the creation of human settlements, particularly as populations grew and the need to control land and property became increasingly important. During the Neolithic era, the emergence of agricultural and livestock surpluses led to concentrated power and permanent inequality, fueling the desire to both take and defend territory. This in turn led to the creation of the first states, which maintained and expanded power with large armies waging war as we know it today.