Spooky Scary Skeleton, There's Violence In His Bones

Video games are the root of all violence, right? Wrong. Wars came before games. In fact, violence and its origin are a bit more complicated than "someone got mad and hit someone else."

There are actually two theories about the history of interpersonal violence - one is that violence erupted as humans transitioned from hunter-gathering communities to settled communities. The second theory is that violence happened in the hunter-gathering communities prior to the transition into settled communities. However, according to a new study of the remains of 3,539 people who died in the Middle East around 12,000 years ago up to 400 BC neither of those theories are the case.

The researchers specifically looked at weapon-related wounds and trauma to the top of the head since they are unlikely to be caused by falls and were able to determine that human conflict appears to have peaked somewhere between 4,500 BC to 3,000 BC before a significant decline around 3,300 BC to 1,500 BC. The violence increased again from 1,200 BC to 590 BC. Interestingly enough, the peak in the Chalclithic period (4,500 BC to 3,300 BC) was the rise of early nations and was a period when metal weapons were beginning to rapidly replace those made from wood and stone.

What caused the violence? It is speculated that crowding and rising inequality may have been the trigger for conflicts resulting in violence. The violence likely declined in the next outlined period once populations previously unable to settle conflicts were able to settle conflicts within their communities. In other words, violence seems to have started with the advancement of weapons and declined as communication within communities/populations increased. There's another uptick after 590 BC that coincides with another advancement in weapons, but that has yet to be explored in detail. The more you know!

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