War, Archaeology of

The study of warfare in prehistory is a specialty of its own embedded within the anthropology of war. To study prehistoric warfare requires knowledge of the conceptual and theoretical ideas set forth in the entries for “Feuding” and “War, Anthropology of,” as well as an awareness of how to apply this knowledge to the archeological record. Because warfare is distinct from violence and feuding, which occur within political communities, the first task of the archaeologist is to identify the polities within a region and attempt to ascertain their relationships to each other. The notion of a warfare system is useful here. Hence, a regional approach is preferable to a focus upon a single site. In taking a regional approach, the archaeologist will determine settlement location and movement, which settlements have expanded and which have contracted in size, and which have fissioned and which have coalesced. This is a first step toward developing an understanding of whether intergroup relations were peaceful or hostile.

Determining the presence of warfare from archaeological finds is complicated—indeed, evidence for armed combat (weapons) and homicides (projectile points in bones) may or may not be indications of warfare. What follows is an attempt to give some guidelines. Finding burials with weapons suggests a warrior class; mass graves of homicide victims of both sexes and all ages suggests a surprise attack upon a village; mutilated bodies suggest torture and execution, acts performed upon members of the polity by other members. Special purpose weapons, body armor, and drawings of combat on walls or pottery vessels indicate the presence of warriors or soldiers and military organizations; general purpose weapons, such as spears and bows and arrows, may indicate only the presence of hunting and self-defense. Walls surrounding settlements and settlements located on a hill or in a place that is difficult to find and approach suggest the presence of warfare; hidden homesteads suggest fear of attacks connected to feuds; fortified houses, compounds, and neighborhoods indicate fear of crime, attacks, or of an uprising against the upper or ruling class. A burned settlement may indicate warfare; burned houses, an uprising.

The application of these guidelines to the archaeological record gives evidence that warfare occurred in a number of regions before the rise of agriculture: hunting and gathering bands in the Upper Paleolithic,Northern Australia, and the Archaic of North America engaged in armed combat on occasion. Upper Paleolithic cave paintings depict figures with darts (perhaps launched with spear throwers) or spears protruding from them (executions or battle casualties) as well as warriors shooting projectile weapons at each other (line battles). Projectile points in pelvic bones have been found at a number of sites, the earliest being20,000 years ago. Burials, including mass burials, of individuals with projectile points lodged in them have been found along the Nile. This is evidence for warfare 14,000 years ago. In Northern Australia, rock art spanning thousands of years depicts three phases of armed combat, from individual combat with boomerangs or spears to battles between 20 to 30 warriors on a side. In North America, numerous skeletons have been uncovered that bear evidence that these early arrivals to the New World were killed with weapons. Kennewick Man had several healed wounds and a spear point embedded in his pelvis. At the Grimes Burial Shelter, a young man died as a result of being stabbed in his chest with a [Page 2301]knife. In Western Tennessee, six individuals were killed with projectile weapons.

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