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| Science & Technology |
| Archaeologist finds traces of "humanity's first war" in Syria |
| 2007-01-04 |
| A German archaeologist says he has found relics of "humanity's first war" in the northeast of Syria in the form of clay balls used as ammunition almost 6,000 years ago, Die Zeit weekly said in its edition due for publication on Thursday. "We have there the oldest example of an offensive war," said Clemens Reichel, who is leading an archaeological dig in the ancient city of Hamoukar, on the border with Iraq, for the University of Chicago. Reichel said that the city, whose fortifications were three metres (10 feet) thick, was besieged and reduced to ashes probably by attackers from southern Mesopotamia. "It was not a little skirmish which took place here," said Reichel, who has been leading the dig since 2003. He spoke of a real "combat zone", to which the some 2,300 balls of clay discovered at the main part of the site bear witness. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #17 Big deal, we had mud pie fights all the time....i am guessing that archeologists will find evidence of these skirmishes in the future some time and marvel at the shape and hardness of our well manufactured mud pies. |
| Posted by: Whugum Hupinens8366 2007-01-04 21:43 |
| #16 I thought it was the extra bone in the ankle of the Sapiens that gave them the extra bounce needed to score goal after goal against the largely land locked mouth breathers. /I mean it sounds plausible don't it? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-01-04 18:16 |
| #15 Male lions too have been known to seek revenge upon rivals on adjacent territories. It's part of the survival of the fittest. Rule one of life. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-01-04 16:29 |
| #14 Actually, there's a good theory that the Neanderthals died out because of a small chunk of bone in their nose. Really. This lump of bone protruded into their sinus cavity and brought more blood capillaries to the surface to warm air as it was being inhaled. This would be a big advantage during an ice age, as it would protect your trachea and lungs from cold air. However, when the ice age was over, and things got warm and humid, these same lumps of bone would almost guarantee perpetual sinusitis and sinus infection. And if you've ever had a months-long sinus infection, you know it can suck the life out of you. In any event, sinusitis might have wiped out the Neanderthal. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-01-04 15:16 |
| #13 Um, I think the operative work here is "Humanity". Sorry, apes may be your brothers, but not mine. |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2007-01-04 13:28 |
| #12 6000 years? Not even close, sweetie. Try 35-40 thousand, when the Neanderthals mysteriously died out. Try at least 3 or 4 million years. If chimpanzes do war you can bet as even the most primitive representatives of the Homo did it too, perhaps even australopithecus did it too. |
| Posted by: JFM 2007-01-04 11:58 |
| #11 Mojo wrote: "Try 35-40 thousand, when the Neanderthals mysteriously died out." I blame Bushitler, and his illegal war for oil. You see, the Neanderthals were located in lots of places where oil would be discovered a mere 40,000 years later. It's all about Halliburton and Dick Cheney's greedy friends. Won't you people open yours eyes and see what's going on? |
| Posted by: Tibor 2007-01-04 11:37 |
| #10 "Humanity's First war?" 6000 years? Not even close, sweetie. Try 35-40 thousand, when the Neanderthals mysteriously died out. |
| Posted by: mojo 2007-01-04 11:31 |
| #9 Hahahahahahaha!!! I laugh in this archaeologists general direction. Humans and their forebears have been waging war on one another since before the first ape-like ancestor stood upright. Somewhere around 50-100 thousand years ago the Cro Magnons and Neandethals probably warred on each other with the end result being that the Neanderthals were wiped out (this is in contention in some circles). Before that, as was pointed out in an earlier post, chimpanzees were warring on other tribes. There's a pretty good book called "The Demon Male" (I forget the author) that goes into detail regarding our misperception of "peaceful" chimps and apes, looks at some of the outright fabrications wrought by anthropologists and apologists through the centuries regarding how bad humans, and particularly human males, are, and beats the liberal notion of "peaceful primitive societies" about the head and shoulders with a #2 cluebat. Humans and our forebears are and always have been a predatory, competitive species. Our rise to dominance on this planet has been won by a lot of hard infighting amongst ourselves. |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-01-04 11:20 |
| #8 War is muuuch older than 6,000 years old. In fact scientists have obeserved tribes of chimpanzes attacking and wiping out smaller tribes. |
| Posted by: JFM 2007-01-04 11:06 |
| #7 Damn good catch, LotR. It was a fortified city and it was the "first"? It wasn't even the second; the attackers knew how to take on the fortifications. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-01-04 10:57 |
| #6 There had to have been war way before this to have given somebody the idea of building a wall around the city in the first place. "First War" my ass... |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2007-01-04 10:27 |
| #5 I dunno. They COULD be sling ammunition, and it's certain there was much more violence in prehistory than in civilized era, but there's another explanation for clay balls. Cooking. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-01-04 10:02 |
| #4 They were doing Gaia dances to celebrate the harvest! Really! /liberal peace loon |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-01-04 10:01 |
| #3 " to which the some 2,300 balls of clay discovered at the main part of the site bear witness." Maybe it was an ancient bowling alley. |
| Posted by: Penguin 2007-01-04 09:56 |
| #2 This is why I always roll my eyes at the "Visualize World Peace" and "War Never Solved Anything" crowd; human beings have been at this war thing for a very, very long time, and we've learned that it does, indeed, solve many problems. As witness the remains of that besieged city... |
| Posted by: Jonathan 2007-01-04 09:49 |
| #1 Gee....go figure...... |
| Posted by: OyVey1 2007-01-04 08:56 |