Research Into Early Human Violence Offers 'Stark Warning'

There are two prevailing theories about the early history of interpersonal violence: One claims violence erupted as humans transitioned from hunter-gathering to settled communities; the other claims violence was rampant in early communities before the transition to farming led to cooperation and greater peace, per Scientific American. Yet "a more nuanced picture is emerging," according to an ambitious new study of the remains of 3,539 people who died in what is now Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan over roughly 12,000 years up to 400 BCE, per Newsweek. European researchers, who sought to learn about violence among humans at a time when written records are largely absent, came up with findings that don't neatly match either of the two narratives.

Keying in on weapon-related wounds and trauma to the top of the head, which is unlikely to be caused by a fall, the researchers found historic human conflict peaked during the Chalcolithic or Copper Age, from 4,500 BCE to 3,300 BCE, before a significant decline during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, around 3,300 BCE to 1,500 BCE, followed by another uptick during the transition to the Iron Age, around 1,200 BCE to 590 BCE. The Chalcolithic period, including the rise of early nations, saw people amassing in cities at a time when "metal weapons were rapidly replacing wooden and stone implements," per Scientific American.

"Crowding and rising inequality may have triggered conflicts following appropriation of other groups' resources," reads the study published Monday in Nature Human Behavior, per Cosmos Magazine. Violence likely declined during the transition to the Bronze Age as proto states, previously unable "to settle conflicts within their populations," transformed into organized societies with legal systems and bureaucracy. However, state-based violence would later erupt in a period marked by economic decline, the forced migrations of thousands due to a 300-year-long drought, and "an upgrade in weapons quality, from bronze to more durable iron," Scientific American reports, adding the findings "have the makings of being a stark warning for our current climate-challenged planet." (More archaeology stories.)