Cases of Violence from the Final Palaeolithic

We have to wait for the Final Palaeolithic for further evidence for injuries caused by projectiles. This might be related to technological changes, especially the appearance of the bow and arrow.

One cannot, however, easily distinguish between projectiles such as arrowheads or spear tips and those shot with a spear thrower (or atlatl). From the cave site of San Teodoro in Sicily the remains of five individuals were excavated in 1937. The pelvic bone of an adult female buried with a red deer antler was found with a broken flint projectile embedded in it. Signs of healing indicate survival of the injury for many years.1^{^[103]} This was only possible because the arrow did not penetrate the abdominal area. Otherwise, the chances of surviving such an injury would have been negligible or non-existent.

A clear case of a lethal projectile injury from the Final Palaeolithic is the double burial of two children, aged 2 and 3 years, from the Grotte des Enfants (Grotta dei Fanciulli) in Liguria, Italy. This burial was excavated in 1875 and dates to around 11,000 BP. The children were buried side by side. In the pelvic area, hundreds of perforated snail shells belonging to the clothing of both individuals were found. During a reinvestigation of the remains, researchers found that a triangular arrowhead embedded in the bone had hit one of the upper thoracic vertebrae of one of the children. The location of the projectile and the fact that traces of healing are absent indicate a lethal injury.^{^[104]}

There are further examples of projectile injuries from both the Final Palaeolithic and the Mesolithic. This is indicated by isolated finds like the only broadly dated vertebra from Montfort Saint-Lizier, France, that shows a perforation from a quartzite point still embedded in the bone.^{^[105]} An embedded projectile was also found in the seventh or sixth thoracic vertebra of a middleaged male from Kebara cave in Israel from the early Natufian, an Epipalaeolithic culture in the Near East.^{^[106]}

All these cases are isolated and may have resulted from intra- or intergroup conflicts. There are no signs of conflicts at a larger scale in Europe during this period.

In northern Africa the graveyard ofJebel Sahaba, in the Sudan, may indicate another level of conflict at the end of the Pleistocene. The site belongs to the Epipalaeolithic Qadan culture and is about 11,600 years old. The actual age might be even older, taphonomic processes having affected bone samples used for the radiocarbon dating.^{^[107]} At least twenty-three of fifty-eight individuals (40 per cent) exhibit direct injuries or projectiles within the body area. Direct hits on the bone are in a minority (four cases), but 110 projectiles were found in direct association with the bodies.^{^[108]} According to a recent analysis of the preserved remains, traumatic incidents might be more frequent than previously noted. Healed blunt force trauma on the skulls, defence fractures on the lower arm and on hands and feet indicate that violent behaviour was a common occurrence in the lives of these individuals. Besides these well-healed traumatic lesions, two previously unknown projectile injuries and cut marks on upper leg bones were recorded.^{^[109]}

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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

Cases of Violence from the Final Palaeolithic

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