Early Warfare and its Contribution to Neolithisation and Dispersal of First Farming Communities in Anatolia
Lee Clare-Bernhard Weninger Στο M. Reindel, K. Bartl, F. Lüth & N. Benecke (eds) 2016. Palaeoenvironment and the Development of Early Settlements. Proceedings of the International Conferences at Şanliurfa 2012 and Aqaba 2013, Halle/Saale: 29-49.
This paper focuses on the influence of conflict and violence on Neolithisation and Neolithic dispersal in the Eastern Mediterranean. While the transition from hunter-gathering to Neolithic economies in the early Holocene is sometimes regarded as solely practicable at times of peace and harmonious relations between communities, we ask whether the subsequent dispersal of Neolithic lifeways over tens of hundreds of kilometres in the 7th millennium calBC was “facilitated” or “accelerated” by climate-induced inter-group violence. We conclude that although early warfare may have become more frequent among Neolithic societies at this time, it is unlikely that it played any significant role in contemporaneous expansion processes.