The ancient cranium, bearing the mark of a fracture (red box) that eventually healed IMAGE COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND
A millennia-old human cranium from China bears the oldest documented marks of violence between humans, according to a team of researchers who studied the find. The skull, which is likely 150,000-200,000 years old, was discovered in a cave near Maba in southern China more than 40 years ago. Though the gender of the individual who owned the skull in life is unclear, an international team of researchers reported in this week’s issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that a healed fracture located near the right temple was probably the result of being hit with a projectile—which would make it the earliest evidence of interhuman violence. "There are older cases of bumps and bruises—and cases of trauma," co-author Erik Trinkaus of Washington University ...
