Beating ploughshares back into swords: warfare in theLinearbandkeramik

Abstract

Armed with a number of powerful arguments, the authors invite us to face up to the evidence for violence in early Neolithic Europe.Linearbandkeramik(LBK) people first attacked the hunter-gatherers they encountered and then entered a period of increasingly violent warfare against each other, culminating in an intense struggle in the area of central and western Germany. The building of fortifications, physical mutilation and cannibalism, while no doubt enacted with ritual airs, nevertheless had their context and purpose in the slaughter of enemies.