War: All too habitual

Prehistoric Axes    (Photo by Locutus Borg)

It sure would be nice to know that war is just a blip on the timeline of human history, an aberration that will soon fade away.

Unfortunately, recent findings suggest just the opposite: that war has been a dominant activity throughout most of human history.

Michelle Starr of Sci-Tech reports that the “fossilized bones of at least 27 individuals” have been unearthed in Kenya.  These bones indicate that an unbridled massacre took place there between 9,500 and 10,500 years ago. 

It appears that “warfare was part of the repertoire of inter-group relations among some prehistoric hunter-gatherers.”  So much for fantasies about idyllic back-to-nature lifestyles.

Grimly, these remains included those of women and children.  It seems that no one was spared, not even a “heavily pregnant” female, who was “found with the tiny bones of a fetus in her abdomen.”

Resources

http://www.cnet.com/news/a-history-of-violence-worlds-oldest-massacre-unearthed/#ftag=YHF65cbda0 

Copyright January 22, 2016 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved