ArticleNature human behaviour2023
Violence trends in the ancient Middle East between 12,000 and 400 BCE.
Article in Nature human behaviour, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- How inequality became durable before states: Evidence from 6000 years in the Central Plain of China.Science advances · 2026Article
- The chronospatial revolution in psychology.Nature human behaviour · 2025Review
- Fingerprinting conflict: A comparative model with applications to archaeological and historical data.PloS one · 2025Article
- Patrilineal segmentary systems provide a peaceful explanation for the post-Neolithic Y-chromosome bottleneck.Nature communications · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
How did interpersonal violence develop in early human societies? Given that homicide records are only available for the more recent period, much of human history remains outside our purview. In this paper, we study violence trends in the very long run by exploiting a new dataset on cranial trauma and weapon-related wounds from skeletons excavated across the Middle East, spanning the pre-Classical period (around 12,000-400 BCE). The dataset includes more than 3,500 individuals. We find evidence that interpersonal violence peaked during the Chalcolithic period (around 4,500-3,300 BCE). It then steadily declined during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages (around 3,300-1,500 BCE) and increased again between the Late Bronze and the Iron Age (1,500-400 BCE). By documenting variations in violence patterns across a vast temporal and geographical scale in an incredibly rich historical setting, we broaden perspectives on the early history of human conflict.
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