Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communications Arising
  • Published:

Contesting the massacre at Nataruk

Nature volume 539, pages E8–E10 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

A Brief Communications Arising to this article was published on 23 November 2016

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

ARISING FROM M. Mirazón Lahr et al. Nature 529, 394–398 (2016); doi:10.1038/nature16477

Mirazón Lahr et al.1 present the earliest evidence of inter-group warfare at the East African site of Nataruk. Their evidence of warfare is based on three inferences: that the skeletons were all contemporaneous, that the bodies were left unburied, and that most individuals exhibited perimortem trauma consistent with interpersonal violence. We believe the data suggest that the burials are not contemporaneous and that most of the observed cranial damage is inconsistent with blunt force trauma. Therefore, the inference of inter-group warfare is premature. There is a Reply to this Comment by Mirazón Lahr, M. et al. Nature 539, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature19779 (2016).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Examples of cranial vault taphonomy and trauma from modern forensics cases.

References

  1. Mirazón Lahr, M. et al. Inter-group violence among early Holocene hunter-gatherers of West Turkana, Kenya. Nature 529, 394–398 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Berryman, H. E. & Symes, S. A. in Forensic Osteology (ed. Reichs, K. J. ) 333–352 (Charles C. Thomas, 1998)

  3. Galloway, A. & Wedel, V. L. in Broken Bones (ed. Wedel, V. L. & Galloway, A. ) 133–160 (Charles C. Thomas, 2014)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Kroman, A., Kress, T. & Porta, D. Fracture propagation in the human cranium: a re-testing of popular theories. Clin. Anat. 24, 309–318 (2011)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Sauer, N. J. in Forensic Osteology (ed. Reichs, K. J. ) 321–332 (Charles C. Thomas, 1998)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Symes, S. A., L’Abbé, E. N., Chapman, E. N., Wolff, I. & Dirkmaat, D. C. in A Companion to Forensic Anthropology (ed. Dirkmaat, D. C. ) 340–389 (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012)

  7. Calce, S. & Rogers, T. L. Taphonomic changes to blunt force trauma: a preliminary study. J. Forensic Sci. 52, 519–527 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Crist, T. A. J., Washburn, A., Park, H., Hood, I. & Hickey, M. A. in Forensic Taphonomy (ed. Haglund, W. D. & Sorg, M. H. ) 319–336 (CRC Press, 1997)

  9. Erdal, Ö. D. A possible massacre at early Bronze Age Titris¸ Höyük, Anatolia. Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. 22, 1–21 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Gheggi, M. S. Conflict in pre-Hispanic northwest Argentina: implications arising from human bone trauma patterns. Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. 26, 17–27 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Scott, R. M. & Buckley, H. R. Biocultural interpretations of trauma in two prehistoric Pacific Island populations from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 142, 509–518 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Manson, P. N. et al. Frontobasal fractures: anatomical classification and clinical significance. Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 124, 2096–2106 (2009)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Zephro, L. Determining the Timing and Mechanism of Bone Fracture in Bovine Bone. Ph.D. Diss., Dept. of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz. (2012)

  14. Galloway, A., Zephro, L. & Wedel, V. L. in Broken Bones (ed. Wedel, V. L. & Galloway, A. ) 47–58 (Charles C. Thomas, 2014)

  15. Salvatori, S., Usai, D. & Zerboni, A. Mesolithic site formation and palaeoenvironment along the White Nile (central Sudan). Afr. Archaeol. Rev. 28, 177–211 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287, Arizona, USA

    Christopher M. Stojanowski, Andrew C. Seidel, Laura C. Fulginiti, Kent M. Johnson & Jane E. Buikstra

  2. Center for Bioarchaeological Research, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287, Arizona, USA

    Christopher M. Stojanowski, Andrew C. Seidel, Kent M. Johnson & Jane E. Buikstra

  3. Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner, Phoenix, 85007, Arizona, USA

    Laura C. Fulginiti

Authors
  1. Christopher M. Stojanowski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  2. Andrew C. Seidel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  3. Laura C. Fulginiti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  4. Kent M. Johnson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  5. Jane E. Buikstra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christopher M. Stojanowski.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Stojanowski, C., Seidel, A., Fulginiti, L. et al. Contesting the massacre at Nataruk. Nature 539, E8–E10 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19778

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19778

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing