War, war never changes, even if it happens in the prehistoric stages of mankind.
The concept that humans have the innate tendency to fight among themselves has been around for hundreds of years up to this point. But now, a research group has found that a number of Kenyan fossils may mark the beginnings of human warfare, dated to almost 10,000 years ago.
These remains were found in Kenya near Lake Turkana, on the site named Nataruk. The fossils of 27 prehistoric hunters, with 8 women and 6 children in tow, were found in the lagoon of the site, a location which would have been extensively productive for foraging-type tribes. From the 12 skeletons dug up in a relatively good shape, only two of them did not present evidence pointing towards a violent death.
Blunt-force trauma to the head, bone laceration from arrows near the neck, broken bones and spines, all of these factors point out to the alleged fact that this specific group was completely massacred by another tribe. The way in which the bodies were found, left on the ground without proper burial, shows researchers even further how this event was carried out in a manner similar to warfare.
The concept of war was considered to be common only from the starting point of agriculture and farming. This is due to the fact that once territories became more and more important, with humans becoming less nomadic, war for territories and resources started to be increasingly prevalent.
But the remains found in Kenya show that this type of behavior predates agriculture by a significant margin. It is marked as the further scientific evidence of warfare in our species’ history. True, some parties claim that this was not exactly a war between two tribes, attributing this phenomenon to a random meet-up between two groups of humans.
If the research team further proves their claim that the remains point out to the first human massacre in dated history, with scientific evidence to back it up, the underlying socio-economic battles between tribes will get extended to the Holocene period.
If the idea that the Kenyan fossils may mark the beginnings of human warfare is completely correct, the concept that humans have war in their blood may gain even more prevalence. Even if it is fighting over territory, resources, females or just simply for sport, humans have always had a way to improve their means of killing other humans, no matter the age in which these battles occurred.
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