Gadgetory

it might feel like humanity's history is inseparable from the violence that we see on TV and in history books but for archaeologists who study ancient humans violence between groups of hunter-gatherers isn't a given in fact some scientists think hunter-gatherers weren't prone to warfare at all now researchers say they found 10 skeletons belonging to humans who died violently 10,000 years ago in Kenya it's a rare find and it could put to rest the myth of the peaceful hunter-gatherer in 2012 archaeologists discovered remains belonging to at least 27 people in Nazareth near an area that once held a small Lagoon a large number of these remains were broken and in bad shape but the researchers managed to dig up 12 skeletons 10 of which showed signs of lethal injuries for example one man had a projectile embedded in his skull where is another individual that may have been a woman had a perforating lesion on her forehead signs of trauma on her jawbone and a fractured hand the researchers also found a tiny blade and two small tools made of Flint embedded in two of the skeletons taken together the injuries suggest that these people died at the hands of humans armed with bows and arrows what's perhaps even more gruesome is that the two skeletons that didn't show signs of lethal injuries probably belong to people who were tied up the researchers know this because of the position of their hands which appear to have been found when they died all in all the fight led to the deaths of at least seven men and possibly five women but what about the timing of the attack to find out when these people died the scientists use radiocarbon dating a technique that uses the properties of carbon to assign dates to organic materials they estimate that the bodies are between nine thousand five hundred and ten thousand five hundred years old which is significant because the Wester can a region of Kenya was home to a large population of hunter-gatherers during that period and according to the authors the timing of their deaths means that this is the earliest scientifically dated case of violence among different groups of hunter-gatherers not everyone agrees with that interpretation however skeletons of possible hunter-gatherers who died in battle were discovered in 60s in North Sudan and they might actually be older according to two outside researchers these skeletons are generally thought of as being between 12,000 and 14,000 years old in addition one researcher told us that there may not be enough evidence that the matter excite - solidly conclude that the skeletons belong to hunter-gatherers the study describes a very complex series of events that includes people being tied up and others being injured by projectiles so it's possible that these events happen at different times if so this could be part of an ongoing fight between groups of people with more sedentary lifestyles the truth is that archaeology isn't always cut and dry after all scientists still don't know why the humans in Kenya were murdered it's possible that they died during a raid by another competing group they could have been fighting over resources like territory or food the researchers say or the two groups may simply have had a very bloody and extremely unfortunate disagreement given the many many reasons why humans kill each other today it's not all that surprising that the same kinds of disputes might have led to the deaths of 12 people 10,000 years ago