Comment by pyrale

1 day ago

The link you give documents warfare that happened significantly later than the era discussed by the above poster.

To suggest that the lack of evidence is enough to support continuity of a behaviour is also flawed reasoning: we have many examples of previously unknown social behaviour that emerged at some point, line the emergence of states or the use of art.

Sometimes, it’s ok to simply say that we’re not sure, rather than to project our existing condition.

Well, this one is at least pertinent to the time period we’re discussing:

> One-half of the people found in a Mesolithic cemetery in present-day Jebel Sahaba, Sudan dating to as early as 13,000 years ago had died as a result of warfare between seemingly different racial groups with victims bearing marks of being killed by arrow heads, spears and club, prompting some to call it the first race war.

  • Mesolithic (although in this case it may also be Epipaleolithic - I'm not an expert, though) is the time period that happens just after Paleolithic, the one that was being talked about.

    It is a transition period between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic, with, depending on the area, features of both. In the middle-east; among others, (pre)history moved maybe a little bit faster than elsewhere, so in this particular example, which is the earliest case shown in the book you pointed out, it's hard to say that it tells about what happened before, as opposed to what happened after.