IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nathum/v7y2023i12d10.1038_s41562-023-01700-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Violence trends in the ancient Middle East between 12,000 and 400 bce

Author

Listed:
  • Joerg Baten

    (University of Tübingen)

  • Giacomo Benati

    (University of Barcelona)

  • Arkadiusz Sołtysiak

    (University of Warsaw)

Abstract

How did interpersonal violence develop in early human societies? Given that homicide records are only available for the more recent period, much of human history remains outside our purview. In this paper, we study violence trends in the very long run by exploiting a new dataset on cranial trauma and weapon-related wounds from skeletons excavated across the Middle East, spanning the pre-Classical period (around 12,000–400 bce). The dataset includes more than 3,500 individuals. We find evidence that interpersonal violence peaked during the Chalcolithic period (around 4,500–3,300 bce). It then steadily declined during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages (around 3,300–1,500 bce) and increased again between the Late Bronze and the Iron Age (1,500–400 bce). By documenting variations in violence patterns across a vast temporal and geographical scale in an incredibly rich historical setting, we broaden perspectives on the early history of human conflict.

Suggested Citation

  • Joerg Baten & Giacomo Benati & Arkadiusz Sołtysiak, 2023. "Violence trends in the ancient Middle East between 12,000 and 400 bce," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(12), pages 2064-2073, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:7:y:2023:i:12:d:10.1038_s41562-023-01700-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01700-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01700-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41562-023-01700-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:7:y:2023:i:12:d:10.1038_s41562-023-01700-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.