We Are Living In the Least Violent Time in Human History
So why does it not feel that way?
Historians study past violence through paper and ink, but anthropologists study violence through the very marrow of its victims.
And bones rarely lie.
The bones of truth in this tale are 15 skeletons found in the 5000-year-old mass grave at Koszyce, southern Poland. Each was killed by a blow to the top of the head, most likely with a stone axe.
Researchers suspect they were killed execution-style because the skeletons lacked parry fractures — defense injuries sustained to the upper limbs and forearms. When someone sees a fist or weapon coming at them, their natural inclination is to hold up their arms to protect their face. Therefore, the absence of parry fractures usually indicates the victim was not killed in a fight.
More revealing, anthropologists discovered through genome sequencing that many of the victims were related. These genetic relations explain why bodies were placed next to their closest kin — mothers cradling children, cousins side by side, and siblings in death’s last embrace.
