Lethal interpersonal violence in the Middle Pleistocene

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 5; p. e0126589
• Main Authors: Sala, Nohemi, Arsuaga, Juan Luis, Pantoja-Pérez, Ana, Pablos, Adrián, Martínez, Ignacio, Quam, Rolf M, Gómez-Olivencia, Asier, Bermúdez de Castro, José María, Carbonell, Eudald
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 27.05.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Aggression; Animals; Anthropology; Bones; Cannibalism; Cause of Death; Clay; Cranium; Fossils; Fractures; Head injuries; Hominidae; Human behavior; Mental depression; Motivation; Paleolithic; Pleistocene; Pleistocene Epoch; Skull - injuries; Skull Fractures - diagnosis; Stratigraphy; Trauma; Violence; United States; China; Spain
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0126589

Evidence of interpersonal violence has been documented previously in Pleistocene members of the genus Homo, but only very rarely has this been posited as the possible manner of death. Here we report the earliest evidence of lethal interpersonal violence in the hominin fossil record. Cranium 17 recovered from the Sima de los Huesos Middle Pleistocene site shows two clear perimortem depression fractures on the frontal bone, interpreted as being produced by two episodes of localized blunt force trauma. The type of injuries, their location, the strong similarity of the fractures in shape and size, and the different orientations and implied trajectories of the two fractures suggest they were produced with the same object in face-to-face interpersonal conflict. Given that either of the two traumatic events was likely lethal, the presence of multiple blows implies an intention to kill. This finding shows that the lethal interpersonal violence is an ancient human behavior and has important implications for the accumulation of bodies at the site, supporting an anthropic origin.