Bibliographic Essay

For a sound evaluation of the Early Neolithic mass violence sites of the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) a basic knowledge of this archaeological culture and its funerary customs is necessary.

A recent volume touches upon many aspects of the LBK, based on a vast amount of data and multidisciplinary analyses of burials: Penny Bickle and Alasdair Whittle (eds.), The First Farmers of Central Europe. Diversity in LBK Lifeways (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2013). The known funerary ritual within cemeteries and settlements is explicitly examined in the following works: Norbert Nieszery, Linearbandkeramische Gräberfelder in Bayern (Espelkamp: Marie L. Leidorf, 1995); Iris Trautmann, The Significance of Cremations in Early Neolithic Communities in Central Europe (Tübingen: Universität Tübingen, 2006); Joachim Pechtl and Daniela Hofmann, ‘Irregular Burials in the LBK - All or None?', in Nils Müller-Scheeßel (ed.), ‘Irreguläre’ Bestattungen in der Urgeschichte: Norm, Ritual, Strafe... ? (Bonn: Habelt, 2013), pp. 123-38; Daniela Hofmann, ‘The Burnt, the Whole and the Broken: Funerary Variability in the Linearbandkeramik', in Zoe L. Devlin and Emma-Jayne Graham (eds.), Death Embodied. Archaeological Approaches to the Treatment of the Corpse (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2015), pp. 109-28.

Concerning the massacre and mass violence sites, it is advisable to always consult the original analytical papers, as superficial secondary treatments sometimes tend to misrepresent certain aspects. The core texts are as follows. For Talheim: Joachim Wahl and Hans Günter Konig, ‘Anthropologisch-traumatologische Untersuchung der menschlichen Skelettreste aus dem bandkeramischen Massengrab bei Talheim, Kreis Heilbronn’, Fundberichte aus Baden-Württemberg 12 (1987), 65-186; and Joachim Wahl and Iris Trautmann, ‘The Neolithic Massacre at Talheim: A Pivotal Find in Conflict Archaeology’, in Rick Schulting and Linda Fibiger (eds.), Sticks, Stones, and Broken Bones: Neolithic Violence in a European Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp.

77-100. For Asparn/Schletz: Maria Teschler- Nicola et al., ‘Anthropologische Spurensicherung: Die traumatischen und postmortalen Veränderungen an den linearbandkeramischen Skelettresten von Asparn/Schletz’, Archäologie Osterreichs 7 (1996), 4-12; Maria Teschler-Nicola, Thomas Prohaska and Eva Maria Wild, ‘Der Fundkomplex von Asparn/Schletz (Niederosterreich) und seine Bedeutung für den aktuellen Diskurs endlinearbandkeramischer Phänomene in Zentraleuropa’, in Jürgen Piek and Thomas Terberger (eds.), Frühe Spuren der Gewalt - Schädelverletzungen und Wundversorgung an prähistorischen Menschenresten aus interdisziplinärer Sicht (Schwerin: Landesamt für Kultur und Denkmalpflege, 2006), pp. 61-76; Maria Teschler-Nicola, ‘The Early Neolithic Site Asparn/Schletz (Lower Austria): Anthropological Evidence of Interpersonal Violence’, in Schulting and Fibiger (eds.), Sticks, Stones, pp. 101-20. For Schoneck-Kilianstädten: Christian Meyer et al., ‘The Massacre Mass Grave of Schoneck-Kilianstädten Reveals New Insights into Collective Violence in Early Neolithic Central Europe’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112.36 (2015), 11217 22. For Halberstadt: Christian Meyer et al., ‘Early Neolithic Executions Indicated by Clustered Cranial Trauma in the Mass Grave of Halberstadt’, Nature Communications 9 (2018), 2472. Mainly based on sitespecific papers, several comparative studies have focused upon LBK deviant mass burial: Eva Maria Wild et al., ‘Neolithic Massacres: Local Skirmishes or General Warfare in Europe?’, Radiocarbon 46 (2004), 377-85; Christian Meyer et al., ‘Mass Graves of the LBK: Patterns and Peculiarities’, in Alasdair Whittle and Penny Bickle (eds.), Early Farmers: The View from Archaeology and Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 307-25; Andrea Zeeb-Lanz and Fabian Haack, ‘Diversity in Ritual Practice at the End of the LBK’, in Luc Amkreutz et al. (eds.), Something Out of the Ordinary? Interpreting Diversity in the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik and Beyond (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2016), pp.

247-79.

A wider perspective on Neolithic violence, conflict and warfare, in geographical and chronological terms, is presented by, among others, Jonas Christensen, ‘Warfare in the European Neolithic’, Acta Archaeologica 75 (2004), 129-56; R. Brian Ferguson, ‘The Prehistory of War and Peace in Europe and the Near East’, in Douglas P. Fry (ed.), War, Peace, and Human Nature: The Convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 191-240; Julian Maxwell Heath, Warfare in Neolithic Europe: An Archaeological and Anthropological Analysis (Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2017); Linda Fibiger, ‘Conflict and Violence in the Neolithic of Central-Northern Europe’, in Manuel Fernandez-Gotz and Nico Roymans (eds.), Conflict Archaeology: Materialities of Collective Violence from Prehistory to Late Antiquity (London: Routledge, 2018), pp. 13-21.

Monographs on the general origin and prehistory of warfare are available from different authors, who naturally have slightly differing views. An influential work is Lawrence H. Keeley, War before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). Another example is Steven A. LeBlanc and Katherine E. Register, Constant Battles: Why We Fight (New York: St Martin's Press, 2003).

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Source: Fagan Garrett G., Fibiger Linda, Hudson Mark, Trundle Matthew (eds.). The Cambridge World History of Violence. Volume 1: The Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds. Cambridge University Press,2020. — 756 p.. 2020

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