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Published on
22 October 2014
Updated on
19 June 2017
Colloquia
The Archaeology of Violence

International colloquium organized by Inrap and the Museum of Louvre-Lens.
October 2, 3 and 4, 2104 at La Scène du Louvre-Lens

The archaeology of violence: wartime violence, mass violence 
by Maria Teschler-Nicola, Natural history Museum of Vienna

The early Neolithic (Linear Pottery) site of Asparn/Schletz, Lower Austria, comprises a settlement with fortification trenches. At the base of the oval trench the skeletal remains of 67 individuals were found; they all were incomplete and characterized by multiple traumatic peri-mortal lesions. The unusual dismemberment and disarticulation of the skeletons, and specific defects at certain portions of the skeletons can be ascribable to gnawing by animals. These features are interpreted as the consequences of the corpses having remained unburied for an extended period of time. Our findings imply that the inhabitants of the Asparn/Schletz site were the victims of an aggressive attack, which was responsible for the final demise of the settlement. Supporting evidence of increased levels of interpersonal violence at the end of the Linear Pottery comes from another contemporary site in Germany (Talheim). The present contribution will primarily discuss the pattern of traumatic features and the phenomenon of an increased level of inter-human aggression at 5.000 BC probably influenced by an economic crisis.
Maria Teschler-Nicola: Study of physical anthropology, European ethnology, and medicine; research assistant at the Institute of Human biology (University of Vienna), since 1982 curator at the Department of Anthropology, since 1998 Director of the Department of Anthropology, Natural History Museum Vienna. Main areas of research and interest: Palaeopathology (Traumatology, infectious diseases), Palaeoanthropology (Ed. of Early Modern Humans at the Moravian Gate. The Mladec Caves and their Remains. Springer: Wien - New York, 2006), Archaeometry (Sr-isotope ratio analyses), History of Anthropology/provenience studies. 

Bibliography:
  • Teschler-Nicola M. (2012) The Early Neolithic site Asparn/Schletz (Lower Austria): anthropological evidence of interpersonal violence. In Schulting R. and Fibiger L. (Eds.) Sticks, Stones and Broken Bones. Oxford Univ. Press, pp. 101-120.
  • Wahl, J. & König H. G. (1987): Anthropologisch-traumatische Untersuchung der menschlichen Skelettreste aus dem bandkeramischen Massengrab bei Thalheim, Kreis Heilbronn. Fundber. Baden-Württemberg 12: 65-186.
  • Wild, E. M., Stadler, P., Häußer, A., Kutschera, W., Steier, P., Teschler-Nicola, M., Wahl, J. & Windl. H. (2004): "Neolithic massacres: local skirmish or general warfare in Europe?",Radiocarbon 46: 377-385.
  • Windl, H.J. (2001): "Erdwerke der Linearbandkeramik in Asparn an der Zaya/Schletz, Niederösterreich". Preistoria Alpina 37: 137-144.
Year :
2014
Conference
Neolithic