The event took place between 9,500 and 10,500 years ago , at the beginning of the Holocene period, after the last Ice Age. It was a tremendously bloody massacre involving women, men and children. It is undoubtedly the first available record of intergroup violence. The place of the macabre event between two groups of humans was Nataruk, about 30 kilometers from Lake Turkana (Kenya).
The results of the investigations after the discovery of this fossil deposit in 2012, have revealed a sinister truth: remains of up to 27 individuals with traces of broken hands, knees and ribs, arrow wounds, blows to the head, stabbed spears, hands tied … a dramatic meeting between hunter gatherers that would represent the origins of the war as we know it.
Experts, including Spanish scientists and led by Argentine biologist Marta Mirazón Lahr, from the Leverhulme Center for the Study of Human Evolution at the University of Cambridge (USA) have managed to gather up to 12 complete skeletons. “None of the 27 individuals found was buried, but presumably they were abandoned in the place where they fell dead”, José Manuel Maíllo, co-author of the study.
Of the total of remains found, eight belong to women, eight to men, five to children and the last one to an adolescent between 12 and 15 years old. Of the remaining five, their sex could not be determined. What they have elucidated is that one of the women was about to give birth , since in her abdominal cavity they have found bone remains of a fetus of about 8-9 months of gestation. If we count the newborn, the number rises to 28 individuals immersed in this prehistoric massacre.
“These deaths in Nataruk testify to the antiquity of intergroup violence and warfare,” says Mirazón Lahr.
“I have no doubt that being aggressive and lethal is in our biology, as is being deeply caring and loving . Much of what we already know about human evolutionary biology leads us to think that these are two sides of the same coin ”, explains Robert Foley, co-author of the work.
The study has been published in the journal Nature .
Image credit: Marta Mirazón Lahr
