The 27 skeletons were found in a state of distress. Ten showed clear signs of a violent death, with severe blunt-force trauma to the skulls and cheekbones and arrow wounds on the necks, among broken bones. An obsidian bladelet was embedded in one man’s skull. A pregnant woman was found with her broken knees jutting out from the ground, her body position indicating that her hands and feet were bound.
Researchers from the Univ. of Cambridge believe the roughly 10,000-year-old massacre at Nataruk—located 30 km from Kenya’s Lake Turkana—may be the earliest scientifically-dated evidence of human conflict.
Twenty-one of the skeletons unearthed were adults: eight males, eight females, and five of unknown sex. Partial remains of six children were found.
Three artifacts that the researchers believe were arrow or spear tips were found within two of the bodies. Two artifacts were made from obsidian, which, according to Lahr, is rare among other Stone Age sites in the area. It’s perhaps suggestive that the two groups were from different home ranges.
Radiocarbon and other dating techniques allowed the researchers to date the bodies to between 9,500 and 10,500 years ago.
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