FRIDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) -- Men fighting over women?
Nothing new there, based on the findings of a prehistoric mass
grave in southwest Germany.
Durham University-led researchers say that genetic evidence from
34 skeletons dating back to around 5000 B.C. shows the deaths were
the result of a tribal war over the need for female
companionship.
While adult females were found among the immigrant skeletons,
only men and children were found among the native group of
skeletons buried in the village of Talheim. The lack of local
females, the researchers said, shows that they were captured
instead -- a possible primary motivation for the attack.
"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," lead author Dr. Alex Bentley of Durham University's
Anthropology Department, said in a prepared statement. "Our
analysis points to the local women being regarded as somehow
special and were therefore kept alive."
The findings are published in the journal
Antiquity.
The team, which included researchers from University College
London, University of Wisconsin and a German government body, made
the conclusions based on the strontium, carbon and oxygen isotopes
signatures of the skeletons' teeth. These give vital information
about the skeletons' geological origin and diet.
While written accounts of fighting over women in the last
hundred years exist, most archaeological evidence points to
violence erupting over resources, overcrowding and property in more
ancient times. The German findings for the first time strongly
suggest violence took place over mates as early as prehistoric
times, scientists said.
German skeletal experts first suspected the deliberateness of
the prehistoric attack after determining that a blow to the left
side of the head killed most of the victims. This suggested the
victims were bound and killed, probably with a stone axe.
More information
The American Psychological Association has more about
women and men.
