10,000 year old Nataruk Skeletons show violence between Hunter-gatherer groups
21 January 2016
The nature of inter-group relations among prehistoric hunter-gatherers remains disputed, with arguments in favour and against the existence of warfare before the development of sedentary societies.
![Figure 1 - Distribution of the Nataruk Skeletons Figure 1 - Distribution of the Nataruk Skeletons](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/human-evolution/sites/human_evolution/files/styles/large_image/public/Screenshot_2016-01-21_02.jpg?itok=NNtXpGv0)
Ten of the twelve articulated skeletons found at Nataruk show evidence of having died violently at the edge of a lagoon, into which some of the bodies fell. The remains from Nataruk are unique, preserved by the particular conditions of the lagoon with no evidence of deliberate burial. They offer a rare glimpse into the life and death of past foraging people, and evidence that warfare was part of the repertoire of inter-group relations among prehistoric hunter-gatherers.
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