PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Massacres, torture and mutilation: Extreme violence in neolithic conflicts

Massacres, torture and mutilation: Extreme violence in neolithic conflicts
2015-08-18
(Press-News.org) Violent conflicts in Neolithic Europe were held more brutally than has been known so far. This emerges from a recent anthropological analysis of the roughly 7000-year-old mass grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten by researcher of the Universities of Basel and Mainz. The findings, published in the journal PNAS, show that victims were murdered and deliberately mutilated.

It was during the time when Europeans first began to farm. To what degree conflicts and wars featured in the early Neolithic (5600 to 4900 B.C.), and especially in the so-called Linear Pottery culture (in German, Linearbandkeramik, LBK), is a disputed theme in research. It is particularly unclear whether social tensions were responsible for the termination of this era. So far two mass graves from this period were known to stem from armed conflicts (Talheim, Germany, and Asparn/Schletz, Austria).

Researcher from the Universities of Basel and Mainz now report new findings after analyzing the human remains of the mass grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten (Germany), a massacre site discovered in 2006. Their results show that the prehistoric attackers used unprecedented violence against their victims. The researchers examined and analyzed the bones and skeletons of at least 26, mainly male, adults and children - most of them exhibiting severe injuries.

Torture and mutilation

Besides various types of (bone) injuries caused by arrows, they also found many cases of massive damage to the head, face and teeth, some inflicted on the victims shorty before or after their death. In addition, the attackers systematically broke their victims' legs, pointing to torture and deliberate mutilation. Only few female remains were found, which further indicates that women were not actively involved in the fighting and that they were possibly abducted by the attackers.

The authors of the study thus presume that such massacres were not isolated occurrences but represented frequent features of the early Central European Neolithic period. The fact that the Neolithic massacre sites examined so far are all located in some distance to each other further underlines this conclusion. The researchers thus suggest that the goal of this massive and systematic violence may have been the annihilation of entire communities. The research team was led by Prof. Kurt W. Alt, former Head of the Institute of Anthropology at the University of Mainz and guest lecturer at the University of Basel since 2014.

INFORMATION:

Original source

Christian Meyer, Christian Lohr, Detlef Gronenborn, and Kurt W. Alt
The massacre mass grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten reveals new insights into collective violence in Early Neolithic Central Europe
PNAS Early Edition ..... http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1504365112


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Massacres, torture and mutilation: Extreme violence in neolithic conflicts Massacres, torture and mutilation: Extreme violence in neolithic conflicts 2 Massacres, torture and mutilation: Extreme violence in neolithic conflicts 3

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Key genetic event underlying fin-to-limb evolution

Key genetic event underlying fin-to-limb evolution
2015-08-18
A study of catsharks reveals how alterations in the expression and function of certain genes in limb buds underlie the evolution of fish fins to limbs. The findings are reported by researchers from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG, Barcelona) and their collaborators in the journal eLife and give new insight into how fish evolved to live on land in the form of early tetrapods. The first four-legged, land-living creatures - known as early tetrapods - evolved from fish, following the transformation of fins into limbs. This ...

Patient satisfaction is a poor surrogate for quality of care in brain surgery

2015-08-18
Patient satisfaction is a very poor proxy for quality of care comparisons in elective cranial neurosurgery. Because deaths are rare events in elective cranial neurosurgery, reporting of surgeon or even department-specific mortality figures cannot differentiate a high or low level of the quality of care. The current focus on patient safety in health care has led to public quality-of-care comparisons between health care facilities and even between individual health care professionals. In the United States, a new reimbursement method based on patient satisfaction ratings ...

Challenge to classic theory of 'organic' solar cells could improve efficiency

Challenge to classic theory of organic solar cells could improve efficiency
2015-08-18
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - New research findings contradict a fundamental assumption about the functioning of "organic" solar cells made of low-cost plastics, suggesting a new strategy for creating inexpensive solar technology. Commercialization of organic solar cells has been hindered by inefficiencies, but the findings point toward a potential path to create a new class of solar technology able to compete with standard silicon cells. "These solar cells could provide a huge cost advantage over silicon," said Muhammad Ashraful Alam, Purdue University's Jai N. Gupta Professor ...

Most comprehensive projections for West Antarctica's future revealed

Most comprehensive projections for West Antarcticas future revealed
2015-08-18
A new international study is the first to use a high-resolution, large-scale computer model to estimate how much ice the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could lose over the next couple of centuries, and how much that could add to sea-level rise. The results paint a clearer picture of West Antarctica's future than was previously possible. The study is published today (18 August) in The Cryosphere, an open access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). "The IPCC's [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] 4th and 5th Assessment Reports both note that the acceleration ...

Possible test for liver cancer using technology for analysing rocks and minerals

2015-08-18
A group of clinicians and geochemists are working to develop a test for the most common form of primary liver cancer, HCC (Hepatocellular Carcinoma). HCC kills over 600,000 people worldwide every year. It usually develops from chronic liver disease such as hepatitis or cirrhosis, but there is no good biochemical test to indicate when the cancer develops, meaning that even for patients most at risk, it is nearly impossible to know when a cancer may develop until symptoms appear. Now a multi-national group of scientists are developing a new test for HCC, based on methods ...

How having racially diverse friends can help you on the job

2015-08-18
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Employees with a racially diverse group of friends outside of work may actually perform better at their jobs, a new study suggests. Researchers found that workers who had more different-race friends in their personal lives than their co-workers also tended to have a more racially diverse network of friends on the job. This broader network was linked to employees who did more tasks beyond their job responsibilities and who, under certain circumstances, had more trust in their supervisors. "Your friends outside of work actually have this connection to ...

Frequency of family meals increased by a new school presentation

2015-08-18
This news release is available in French. This news release is available in French. New research shows that teaching young adolescents practical cooking skills leads to positive changes for the entire family. In an article published today in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, an NRC Research Press journal (a division of Canadian Science Publishing), researchers evaluated the Kinect-Ed presentation and found an increase in the frequency of family dinners after participation. Kinect-Ed, a 90-minute motivational nutrition education presentation, was ...

Powdered cranberry combats colon cancer in mice

2015-08-18
BOSTON, Aug. 18, 2015 -- Cranberries are often touted as a way to protect against urinary tract infections, but that may be just the beginning. Researchers fed cranberry extracts to mice with colon cancer and found that the tumors diminished in size and number. Identifying the therapeutic molecules in the tart fruit could lead to a better understanding of its anti-cancer potential, they say. The team will describe their approach in one of more than 9,000 presentations at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest ...

Solar cell efficiency could double with novel 'green' antenna

2015-08-18
BOSTON, Aug. 18, 2015 -- The use of solar energy in the U.S. is growing, but panels on rooftops are still a rare sight. They cost thousands of dollars, and homeowners don't recoup costs for years even in the sunniest or best-subsidized locales. But scientists may have a solution. They report today the development of a unique, "green" antenna that could potentially double the efficiencies of certain kinds of solar cells and make them more affordable. The researchers are presenting their work at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ...

IU School of Medicine researchers report biomarkers and apps that predict risk of suicide

IU School of Medicine researchers report biomarkers and apps that predict risk of suicide
2015-08-18
INDIANAPOLIS -- People being treated for bipolar disorder and other psychiatric illnesses are at greater risk of attempting suicide, but physicians may now have tools to predict which of those individuals will attempt it and intervene early to prevent such tragedies from occurring. Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine reported Tuesday in the Nature Publishing Group's leading journal in psychiatry, Molecular Psychiatry, that they have developed blood tests and questionnaire instruments that can predict with more than 90 percent accuracy which of those patients ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Smarter tools for policymakers: Notre Dame researchers target urban carbon emissions, building by building

Here’s how we help an iconic California fish survive the gauntlet of today’s highly modified waterways

New technique can dramatically improve laser linewidth

Forest trees and microbes choreograph their hunt for a ‘balanced diet’ under elevated CO2

Beyond health: The political effects of infectious disease outbreaks

For tastier and hardier citrus, researchers built a tool for probing plant metabolism

Stay hydrated: New sensor knows when you need a drink

Quantum internet meets space-time in this new ingenious idea

Soil erosion in mountain environments accelerated by agro-pastoral activities for 3,800 years

Optogenetic platform illuminates new antiviral strategies

A new theory explaining oscillations in tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR)

Early antibiotics alter immune function in infants

With the second grant to therapy

Research center developing digital twins for manufacturing

Colombia’s biofortified rice has untapped potential to improve nutrition. And consumers want it

Study shows pregnancy can significantly worsen risk of serious brain injury in women with arteriovenous malformations

Mapping important infrastructure could aid emergency response after hurricanes

Nighttime pistachio snacking may reshape gut microbiome in prediabetic adults

Friendship promotes neural and behavioral similarity

Neural pathway for nicotine withdrawal symptoms

How your DNA reveals your true age with astonishing accuracy

First electronic–photonic quantum chip created in commercial foundry

High-performance scientific computing can compute molecule ground-state energy

Cryo-electron microscopy – Reaction cycle of an enzyme for CO2 fixation decoded

Feeling more extroverted? Study finds you may have learned how to handle daily stress better

Kindness counts—even to a five-day-old baby

Endocrine Society guideline calls for increased screening for common cause of high blood pressure

Macromolecular gene delivery systems: advancing non-viral therapeutics with synthetic and natural polymers

Study finds political instability, environmental conditions, and social inequality accelerate aging

New insights into malaria: Proteins in the blood can reveal the severity of the disease

[Press-News.org] Massacres, torture and mutilation: Extreme violence in neolithic conflicts