Ten thousand years ago, in the Kenyan Rift Valley, there was an outburst of violence. The bodies of at least 27 people have been located there, ten of whom had from very violent injuries. Skulls had been broken, stabbed and impaled with arrows. One possibly pregnant female was located. With no obvious signs of burial, the study, noted in the journal Nature, provides one explanation for the killings and violence in Kenya – human warfare.
Dr Marta Mirazon Lahr, from the University of Cambridge, led the study. She advised that these injuries are the same as those found on battlefields in from recent times, and that this incident portrays a clear example of human violence.
At the site of the violence, clubs and other types of weapons were located. These would not have been used for hunting, but for warfare.
We believe it was a carefully planned ambush,” Lahr stated. “The attackers undoubtedly brought these weapons with them to attack this group. We then, naturally, have to conclude that there was something they wanted. Maybe the food resources were the goal.
Yet another possibility is that they were after young people. Looking at the demographic profile of the bodies,very few were between six and 20. “Perhaps they came for slaves, they came for the children”