Spanish archaeologists from the University of Valladolid concluded that the first large-scale war in Europe took place 1 thousand years earlier than thought. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Scientific Reports (SciRep).
It was previously believed that the earliest such conflict in Europe occurred during the Bronze Age, approximately 4 thousand to 2.8 thousand years ago. But a reanalysis of more than 300 skeletons dating back nearly 5,000 years shows that many of these people may have been victims of the earliest wars in Europe.
The remains were found in a mass grave in the Rioja Alavesa region of northern Spain. The age of the bones was determined by radiocarbon dating.
Approximately 52 flint arrowheads were also discovered in the same area; previous investigations showed that 36 of them had minor damage from being shot.
The study authors found that 23.1% of people had skeletal injuries, while 10.1% had injuries that did not heal; this rate is significantly higher than injury rates estimated at the time (7-17% and 2-5%, respectively).
They also found that 74.1% of non-healing injuries and 70.0% of healing injuries occurred in adolescent or adult males, a significantly higher rate than females, a difference not observed at other Neolithic mass death sites in Europe.
The overall injury rate, higher injury rates among men, and previously observed damage to arrowheads suggest that many individuals at the cemetery site were subjected to violence and may have been victims of conflict.
According to archaeologists, the relatively high number of healed wounds indicates that the conflict lasted several months.
The causes of the Stone Age wars are still unclear, but the authors suggest that the conflict may have arisen from tensions between different cultural groups in the region during the Late Neolithic period.
Previously in Spain to create A cup made from a Neolithic human skull.