CAMS/HIST 180

Ancient Warfare

Possibilities
Operational definition would require adanced organization
Warfare unlikely before Neolithic

Attitudinal definition allows Palaeolithic warfare

Issue of population densities

Can these propositions be tested against prehistoric evidence?

risks circularity of argument

Archaeology
No written records before ca. 3000 BC Prehistory restricted to physical remains Three classes of evidence for early warfare
Human remains with trauma Weapons/images fortifications

Human Trauma
Very ancient damaged bones are known
Breaks, fractures, puncture wounds Evidence for warfare?

Some wounds correspond to size and shape of stone artifacts How was wound inflicted?
Animal attack? Ritual? Clumsy accident?

Violent death in groups is best

Ofnet, Germany (Mesolithic)

Jebel Sahaba (10,000 BC)

Jebel Sahaba Stats

Age
children (6 mos-12 yrs) 11 adolescent 2 young adult 5 adult 15 middle-aged 18 old 8

Sex
female male 21 20

Violent Death

w/ artifacts

28 (4 uncertain)

undetermined: 18

w/out artifacts 31

Talheim Deposit (5000 BC)

Excavated in 1983-1984 in Germany 34 skeletons (18 adults, 16 children) Skeletons
Showed signs of violent death, most from behind Multiple blows were common All buried jumbled up, entagled no grave goods

Artifacts
Stone tools: axes, arrow- and spearheads, javelins, spear-throwers (atl-atl), bows All could be used for hunting Two exceptions:
Mace Dagger

BUT, could be ceremonial Iconography (from ca. 25,000 BC)

Hunting Bowmen

Hunting Accident

Cougnac, ca. 13,500 BC

Cougnac Detail

Castellon, Spain (7-4,000 BC)

Castellon, Spain

Castellon, Spain

Iconography
Seems to be incontrovertible evidence for warfare Pincushioning attested in other cultures But we do not know exactly how to read these images We do not know conventions of neolithic iconography How would our art be interpreted by scholars 69,000 years from now?

Jericho (7000 BC)

Jericho (site)

Jerichos Walls

Jericho: Tower

Jerichos Walls

Jericho: Flints

atal Hyk (6500 BC)

atal Hyk

atal Hyk: headless (?) corpses and vulture

Kuruay

Archaeology Again
Evidence open to multiple interpretations Less evidence => more possible interpretations No written sources to guide us Lack of clarity about cultural context of deposits Danger of circular reasoning Evidence for intraspecies killing IS secure

Ethnography: Use
One approach: ethnographic data Researchers look to modern primitive societies for patterns that explain archaeological evidence
Pincushioning Yanomamo and Maring Kellys attitudinal model

All of these assume modern = Ancient

Ethnography: Problems
Some critics of this approach Hard view: all observation changes behavior
A version of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

Modern primitives not cavemen, bypassed by evolution Behavior deeply influenced by contact with settled populations Environment also has changed (constrained) Response: What is being compared?

Sociobioly & Ethology

Universality of war is striking
of 563 known cultures, 8 are warless Cultural and contextual explanations found to be wanting

Humans not the only violent animal (ant wars) Perhaps violence and war are hardwired behaviors?
Sociobiology; E.O. Wilson (1975) Ethology

Jane Goodall, Gombe Chimpanzee Reserve, tanzania

1960s - present

 Chimps closest ancestor

Chimp Wars

We share 98% of their genetic code Shared ancestor ca. 5 million years ago

Internal violence and hunting In 1974 remarkable discovery

1970-1973: Chimps fractured into two bands Border patrols Organized raids of 6-8 males; marked by stealth Any neighbor chimp caught alone was brutally killed

One band wiped out neighbors in three years

Reading Chimp Wars

Violence of chimps is established Is brutality hardwired into us?
Male coalitional violence

Problems:
Contrast with Bonobo chimps, where females are equal; no violence Does modern chimp = 5/6 mill. ancestor? 15 years before violence erupted at Gombe Modern chimps constrained, hunted (Gombe is 12.35 sq. miles)

Nave chimps found at Goualougo Triangle, Congo in 1999

Conclusions
Hardwired argument is unproven
In all cultures, warfare needs justification

Interesting that chimps and humans react with coalitional violence when circumscribed and resources are scarce Violence and war => propensity elicited by circumstance
Not an inevitable destiny

Archaeology shows intraspecies killing goes back millennia Definition of warfare resurfaces to constrain conclusions