Evidence
of inter-group violence between East African hunter-gatherers 10,000 years ago
Inter-group violence has long
played a part in human affairs, but just how long is unclear. Over the last
thirty years, evidence has accumulated that massacres were a frequent occurrence
in Neolithic Europe. Mass graves have been found at a number of sites
associated with the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) culture dating to around 5,000 BC.
In all cases, the victims appeared to have been attacked and killed with
weapons associated with farming groups suggesting internecine conflict between
LBK groups rather than attacks by local hunter-gatherers.
Evidence has now emerged of much
earlier inter-group violence involving hunter-gatherers at Nataruk, west of
Lake Turkana, Kenya. At the time in question, the lake extended around 30 km
(18 miles) beyond its present limits and Nataruk would have been located near
its western margins.
In 2012, the remains of at least
27 individuals were discovered, partly or completely exposed upon the surface
of a gravel bar ridge. Most were found fully exposed and fragmented, surviving
in varying states of preservation and erosion; 12 individuals were partly
preserved articulated in situ. Among
these, no burial pit was identified, and no preferred orientation or position
of head, face, or body was noted. The total number of individuals at the site
is unknown, as only those partly exposed were excavated. The remains included
21 adults (8 men, 8 women, the others of unknown sex) and 6 children. One of
the women was in the third trimester of pregnancy.
Excavations also revealed stone
tools similar to other Later Stone Age assemblages in the area; and fragments
of bone harpoons typical of Early Holocene hunter-fishers of Lake Turkana. The skeletal
remains lacked collagen so radiocarbon dates were obtained from associated
sediments and shells, and an optically stimulated luminescent date was obtained
from lake sediments. Based on these, it was estimated that the Nataruk human
remains dated to between 9,500 and 10,500 years ago; consistent with dates
obtained for shells, harpoons, and charcoal from sites in the immediate
vicinity, and corresponding to a period of early Holocene high water levels in Lake
Turkana.
10 of the 12 skeletons found in situ show evidence of major trauma
that would have proved fatal in the immediate-to-short term, including five or
possibly six cases of head and/or neck probably caused by arrows; five cases of
head injury inflicted by a blunt instrument; two cases of knee fracture; two cases
of multiple fractures to the right hand; and once case of fractured ribs. Only
two of these skeletons show no obvious injury. Four of the skeletons, including
both that lacked injuries may have been bound hand and possibly foot at time of
death. Three artefacts were found within or embedded in two of the bodies: an
obsidian bladelet embedded in a male skull; and a chert lunate and obsidian
trapeze, found inside the pelvic and thoracic cavities of a male skeleton. Both
the injuries and the embedded projectile points are considered to be diagnostic
of inter-group conflict, although there was no evidence of scalping or other
trophy-taking, which often observed in prehistoric warfare.
West Turkana at this time
supported a substantial hunter-gatherer population. The Nataruk massacre might
have resulted from a raid for territory, women, children and stored food. The
pursuit of these resources would in later agricultural times make violent
attacks upon settlements and the need to defend against these an ever present
fact of life. Alternatively, it might have been a simple antagonistic response
as two groups came into contact.
I
n either case, the deaths at
Nataruk are a depressing testimony to the antiquity of inter-group violence and
warfare.
References:
Lahr, M. et
al., Inter-group violence among early Holocene hunter-gatherers of West
Turkana.; Kenya. Nature 529, 394-398 (2016).
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