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Violence among the LBK

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  The map above depicts the spread of Neolithic culture from the fertile crescent into Europe. There were two migration paths. One around the Mediterranean coast into Southern Europe, and another through Anotolia into Northern Europe. I am interested in the Northern migration wave, and in particular the Linear Pottery Culture (LBK), not so much for their pottery, as because these were the people, three of whose settlements were massacred in Germany and Austria around c.5000 BC. A question which has not been conclusively answered is who carried out the attacks? Were they fellow members of the LBK migrant community, or locals? My first instinct was to blame the locals (European Mesolithic or Western hunter gatherers (WHGs)). If the farmers had been warlike and frequently attacking each other, there would surely be at least some evidence of open battles in the record. If the villagers frequently visited other villages to slaughter the residents while they slept,...
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A theory on violence

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  NSM Rally (image from Southern Poverty Law Centre ) From what I have read so far there is not much evidence of violence among the early neolithic communities of Anatolia and the fertile crescent. There is circumstancial evidence that the priests were up so something strange at Cayonu Tepesi and the copper mace head found at Can Hasan implies that violence was not unheard of in these communities. But there seem to have been plenty of neolithic settlements like Çatalhöyük, where the evidence suggests that people lived peacefully and buried their dead intact. So when, where, why and how did warfare become the norm? Edward (Ned) Pegler’s blog Armchair Prehistory poses a similar question: “What was happening in Neolithic and Chalcolithic Europe and the Near East between 5500BC and 3500BC to make it an apparently much more violent place?” He goes on to ask “What evidence can be used to indicate violence?” I’ll list the four bullet points he suggests, because his ...
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Early Neolithic Communities and Sites

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  One of the earliest known human settlements is at Jericho. According to Wikipedia the site was a popular camping ground for Natufian hunter-gatherers due to the proximity of a spring; they left behind a scattering of crescent-shaped microlith tools as evidence of their presence there. The first permanent settlement on the site developed began around 9600 BC as weather conditions improved. The first settlers seem to have been pre-agricultural. According to Ancient at around 9400 BCE the settlement comprised around 70 homes: circular dwellings about 5 meters across, built with clay and straw. Evidence of grain cultivation begins between 8500 and 7500 BC, but it was carried out alongside the hunting of wild game. The famous “walls of Jericho” first appeared around 7000 BC, but far from being built for defensive purposes, evidence suggests they were built to prevent the low-lying city from being flooded by a nearby river during the rainy season. Excavations from t...
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Early agriculture and warfare

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  According to Haaretz there is growing evidence that the transition from hunting and gathering to herding and cultivation took place gradually as a result of experimentation in a time of relative plenty as the last age waned 20000 to 10000 years ago. Haaretz describes evidence of wild grain cultivation in a village near the Sea of Galilee as early as 23000 years ago, and the domestication of plants and animals in various locations at various times from 11000 years ago. Lumen Learning describes the Halfan culture developing in Nile Valley between 20000 and 17000 year ago and the subsequent Qadan culture harvesting wild-grain with sickles and processing it with grinding stones. Britannica places the dawn of agriculture between 15000 and 10000 years ago. The New York Times reports that “evidence for full-blown agriculture — crops, livestock, tools for food preparation, and villages — dates back about 11000 years”. I’d like to speculate about the personality ...
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Origins of Western Morality

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  Good and evil, right and wrong, are ideas existing only in the minds of humans. They are closely associated with religious teachings, which in turn were developed and promulgated by ruling elites. Where and when did it all begin? There are many preconditions for intergenerational social regulation but they probably include the written word and some level of literacy. At least some of the population must be able to write down and modify the rules, and at least some must be able to read them. And if not everyone can read, those who can need a mechanism for imparting the message to those that cannot. A schedule of community meetings requires an understanding of time, and gatherings of disparate people require an understanding of place. All this is easier to accomplish if at least some portion of the community is settled. And a precondition for settlement is either a very abundant and stable natural source of local food, or at least some form of herding or ...
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