NATARUK, Kenya – Archaeologists from Cambridge University say they have found 10,000-year-old evidence of a bloody battle. To put it simply, this is the earliest evidence of human warfare on record.
Ten thousand years ago, our ancestors were nomadic hunter-gatherers who had very few possessions to defend or steal. This contradicts long-held assumptions that connected wars to more advanced stages of human evolution, when populations were settled. So, who knows? Perhaps they were fighting for food, women, or just because someone said the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Researchers unearthed ancient skeletons with broken skulls and fragmented bones near Lake Turkana. According to archaeologists, at least 27 men, women and children were massacred with spikes and wooden clubs. It took a while, but the incident finally made your daily newscast.
“Nataruk is extraordinarily special”, said Dr. Marta Mirazon Lahr, head of the research team. “Because for whatever reasons people were killed and they fell or were left in the shallow waters of a lagoon, and their bodies were preserved.”
In conclusion, scholars say aggression and cooperation are the Yin and Yang of human nature and that’s how our species survives. So, peace in the neighborhood, and let’s try to behave like humans… or not.
