A 2022 study at Sima de los Huesos in northern Spain counted 57 healed head injuries among 20 individuals living about 430,000 years ago. Nine had potentially fatal skull fractures, and six showed puncture wounds clustered at the back of the head — same spot again and again, so the team judged deliberate blows more likely than accidents. 🦴 Human-on-human violence clearly predates farming and settlement by a long way.
57 healed head injuries among 20 individuals dated to 430,000 years at Sima de los Huesos
GreeceBioarchaeology
Site mentioned
Key facts
- A 2022 study of the Sima de los Huesos site in northern Spain found 57 healed head injuries among 20 individuals dating to about 430,000 years ago
- Nine individuals had potentially fatal skull fractures and six had puncture wounds to the back left of the head
- Because the wounds clustered in almost the same place, the team concluded deliberate blows were more likely than accidents
- For decades many archaeologists linked organized warfare to farming and settled life; these earlier finds from hunter-gatherers and Neanderthal predecessors show individual killings predate farming by a long way
Sources
Clarifying the origins of Sima de los Huesos homininsiphes.cat
Analysis of nuclear DNA isolated from hominins from the 430,000 year-old Sima de los Huesos locality in northern Spain, in Atapuerca (Burgos) provides more ...
How the Sima de los Huesos was won - Arsuaga - 2024anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
by JL Arsuaga · 2024 · Cited by 19 — The story of the excavations and research carried out in the Sima de los Huesos is an exciting succession of amazing scientific discoveries, but ...
Genomic Identity of the Sima de los Huesos Homininsauthorea.com
The Sima de los Huesos (SH) hominin assemblage (~430 ka, Atapuerca, Spain) occupies a critical phylogenetic node in Middle Pleistocene ...
Focus on the Sima de los Huesos - Nutcracker Mannutcrackerman.com
Probably in the next months we will have results about the nuclear DNA analysis of the hominid bones found in the Sima de los Huesos, ...
The Sima de los Huesos Crania: Analysis of the cranial ...sciencedirect.com
by N Sala · 2016 · Cited by 52 — The Sima de los Huesos (SH) site has provided the largest collection of hominin crania in the fossil record, offering an unprecedented opportunity to ...
Was this story useful?
Keep exploring
Every site on this page sits on the globe, and the people who research them are on the Discord.
3D Globe · Sites by country · Story Archive · Research Library · Weekly Journal · Search
AI-generated text · images from the original sources · always verify with the sources.