Today's Economic History: Small-Scale European Neolithic Warfare
Must-Read: : Massacre Scene in Prehistoric Alsace: "In Achenheim, west of Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin are rarer...
...The surprise of this old massacre of more than 6000 years does not stop there. "The second impressive thing is the many fractures on limbs, basins, hands, skulls"... nothing to see with injuries allegedly inflicted on a battlefield. This is a more methodical fury. Along with six complete skeletons, archaeologists also found four left arms, one had to belong to a teenager from 12 to 16 years. This macabre scene... dates back to the Middle Neolithic, between 4400 and 4200 BC.... The Neolithic has long been portrayed as a kind of egalitarian golden age, where the war had not been "invented". This vision is now completely outdated....
The site of Achenheim—which the search, which began in March, will end on 15 June—is remarkable for another reason: the village was surrounded by a defensive ditch, "probably associated with bastions," the first of its kind in Alsace. In this walled, nearly 400 silos, where the farmers of the Neolithic reaping their crops, have been identified. "These temporary storage structures were then used for trash, or as graves for burials reserved to a small part of the population "says Philippe Lefranc. But the silo 124, where the skeletons were discovered, was away from the other, "either on a spot or an area welcoming homes.... The arms cut could be warriors Trophies. The determination may take up to two phenomena. If it is exercised on living, this is torture, whether it's on the dead, speaking insults corpses."... The Alsatian scenario could be that of a raid against newcomers... or a victory over... attackers, celebrated by mutilating the enemy fell on the battlefield and torturing prisoners to death...
