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Wendorf Archives of the British Museum
Individuals buried at the prehistoric cemetery Jebel Sahaba in Sudan seem to have experienced violence and trauma at several points during their lives. The discovery may help us understand the prehistory of violence before the origin of farming.
At about 13,400 years old, Jebel Sahaba is one of the earliest sites displaying signs of mass conflict. Violence between communities seems to have become more common once people settled in one place to farm, which had begun happening by about 12,000 years ago. But evidence of organised violence among more mobile communities, like those represented by Jebel Sahaba, is unusual.
Scientists announced Thursday the discovery of new evidence that the people buried at the prehistoric cemetery Jebel Sahaba survived several violent assaults throughout their lives, lending credence to the idea that these hunter-fisher-gatherers battled other groups as natural resources dwindled amid a drastically changing climate.
Archival photograph showing the double burial of individuals JS 20 and JS 21 with pencils marking the position of associated lithic artifacts. (Credit: Wendorf Archives of the British Museum)
(CN) For decades, the prehistoric cemetery known as Jebal Sahaba in the Nile Valley near the northern border of Sudan and Egypt has been credited with containing the oldest known evidence of warfare in human culture.