Men Fighting Over Women? It's Nothing New, Suggests Research
ScienceDaily
(June 4, 2008) —
Men may usually settle it over a drunken brawl in the pub or perhaps a verbal spat -- but new
evidence has shown for the first time that fighting over women in prehistoric times could have
been worse than that.
A mass grave of skeletons investigated by Durham University-led researchers suggests that neighbouring tribes from prehistoric times were prepared to brutally kill their male rivals to secure
their women.
The research, described in the academic journal Antiquity, focused on thirty four skeletons found
buried in the village of Talheim in the south-west of Germany. Genetic evidence inferred from the skeletons' teeth suggests they were of people killed in an attack between rival tribes around
5000 BC.
The researchers found that, although there were adult females among the immigrant skeletons,
within the local group of skeletons there were men and children only. They conclude the absence
of local females indicates that they were spared execution and captured instead which may have
indeed been the primary motivation for the attack.
Lead author Dr Alex Bentley from Durham University's Anthropology Department said: "It seems this community was specifically targeted, as could happen in a cycle of revenge between rival groups. Although resources and population were undoubtedly factors in central Europe around that time,
women appear to be the immediate reason for the attack.
"Our analysis points to the local women being regarded as somehow special and were therefore kept alive."
The Durham University-led team, with researchers from University College London, University of Wisconsin and a German government body, came to their conclusions after analysing the strontium, carbon and oxygen isotopes signatures of the skeletons' teeth. These give vital information about
the skeletons' geological origin and diet.
There have been many witness accounts of fighting over women in the last hundred years but most archaeological evidence points to violence erupting over resources, overcrowding and property. The archaeological findings from this study for the first time strongly suggest violence took place over
mates as early as prehistoric times, according to the scientists.
The skeletons from the mass grave in Talheim, which were excavated in the 1980s, were all buried
in a single pit of three metres long. The deliberateness of the prehistoric attack was first realised
when German skeletal experts determined that the majority had been killed by a blow to the left side
of the head, suggesting the victims were bound and killed, probably with a stone axe. Others may
have been killed from arrow-wounds from behind as if the victims had tried to flee.
The research was funded primarily by the Leverhulme Trust, with support from the National Science Foundation.
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Adapted from materials provided by Durham University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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MLA Durham University (2008, June 4). Men Fighting Over Women? It's Nothing New, Suggests Research. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 8, 2008, from
http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/06/080602214132.htm
