About 5,000 years ago Europe was the scene of large-scale war conflicts. Recent studies have revolutionized our understanding of that period, revealing that where Spain is today, 5,000 years ago, different human groups engaged in a prolonged, large-scale war.
The study, published in "Scientific Reports" is based on the analysis of more than 300 groups of skeletal remains. These findings indicate that tens of individuals may have been victims of a long and vicious war, contradicting the previous concept of short raids during the Late Neolithic.
The team of researchers from the University of Oxford examined 338 individuals from a mass burial in northern Spain dating back 5,000 years.
About a quarter of them had bone injuries, 107 of them to the head, some of which were very serious, if not fatal. Most injuries are attributed to trauma from objects such as axes, wooden sticks, and stones thrown from slingshots.
According to the research, the relatively high rate of healed wounds suggests that the conflict may have lasted several months, perhaps years. A number of finds such as arrowheads, blades and polished stone axes were also discovered.
The head of the study, Teresa Fernandez-Crespo, says that the individuals killed and buried were likely defenders of their settlement that was attacked repeatedly.
"The evidence shows that the defense was successful or that there were at least enough surviving community members to bury the dead."
The research not only challenges previous assumptions about Neolithic warfare, but also provides a deeper look into the lives of those groups. The populations in the Rioja Alavesa region, where the site is located, lived in large groups, basing their livelihoods on cereal cultivation, livestock raising, and hunting and gathering activities.
The study not only sheds new light on Neolithic warfare, but also provides a more detailed look at the complex society of those times, showing resilience and the ability to sustain prolonged conflict.
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