Warfare and Violence

The assumption that warfare was endemic to prehistoric societies was based in part upon classical references to the Gauls, notoriously aggressive, drunken, boastful headhunters, the so-called ‘Celtic paradigm’. An alternative view, characterized as the ‘pacification of prehistory’, and derived ultimately from the eighteenth-century idealization of the noble savage, saw prehistoric societies as peaceful and egalitarian farming communities. The archaeological evidence in terms of artefacts leaves little doubt that from the later Bronze Age swords and spears were manufactured on an industrial scale, though there has been debate regarding the degree to which these were practical weapons as opposed to status symbols or even ritual objects. Structures are more difficult to interpret, though enclosures on the scale of Iron Age hillforts were surely designed to be defensive as well as serving as community centres. Some certainly from the Neolithic show evidence of assault, while osteological evidence supports the belief that violence was endemic, whether interpersonal, communal, ritual, or judicial.

Accidental · Ancient history · Archaeology · Bronze Age · Geography · Idealization · Osteology · Prehistory · Scale (ratio) · Sociology · Anthropology · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Globalization, Historical Perspectives, and International Relations · History · Sociology and Norbert Elias