A massacre of early Neolithic farmers in the high Pyrenees at Els Trocs, Spain

Kurt W Alt,Georg Schulz,Cristina Tejedor Rodríguez,Íñigo García Martínez De Lagrán,Esther López Montalvo,Héctor Arcusa Magallón,Balázs Gusztáv Mende ,Eva Scheurer,Philipp Brantner,Florian M Thieringer ,Petra Held,Corina Knipper,David A Roth ,Nicole Israël ,Rafael Garrido‐Pena ,Susanne Lindauer,Jose Ignacio Royo Guillén ,Veit Dresely,Nicole Nicklisch,Guido Brandt,Frieder Enzmann,Sandra Pichler ,Thomas Schuerch,Anna Szécsényi-Nagy ,Frank Ramsthaler,Christian Meyer,Manuel Rojo-Guerra

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-58483-9

Abstract

Violence seems deeply rooted in human nature and an endemic potential for such is today frequently associated with differing ethnic, religious or socio-economic backgrounds. Ethnic nepotism is believed to be one of the main causes of inter-group violence in multi-ethnic societies. At the site of Els Trocs in the Spanish Pyrenees, rivalling groups of either migrating early farmers or farmers and indigenous hunter-gatherers collided violently around 5300 BCE. This clash apparently resulted in a massacre of the Els Trocs farmers. The overkill reaction was possibly triggered by xenophobia or massive disputes over resources or privileges. In the present, violence and xenophobia are controlled and sanctioned through social codes of conduct and institutions. So that, rather than representing an insurmountable evolutionary inheritance, violence and ethnic nepotism can be overcome and a sustainable future achieved through mutual respect, tolerance and openness to multi-ethnic societies.

Highlights

Evolutionary legacy? The basic fact seems obvious, because humans are not the only species of great ape that kill their conspecifics
Evolutionary and behavioural approaches to research into violence assign to human aggression both significant phylogenetic and ontogenetic components, deeply rooted in human nature[7,8]
Violence is a part of our history as a species and of our existence as individuals. This realisation is difficult to accept for people today, as we consider ourselves rational and equipped with mechanisms to control our actions (Supplementary Text S1)

Summary

Phase I Phase I

Phase I assigned stratigraphically assigned stratigraphically assigned stratigraphically With regard to their chronological and osteological context, the traces of violence on the human remains from the Early Neolithic suggest a singular episode of conflict to which these individuals fell victim. While most Neolithic migrants reached Western Europe from the Fertile Crescent via a Mediterranean route, it cannot be ruled out that the phase I individuals from Els Trocs came from the north via the Rhone Valley. The grounds for this assumption are the genetic profile set of the group. One adult male from Els Trocs (CET 5) exhibits mtDNA haplogroup

Start Trocs I

Materials and Methods

Author contributions

Additional information