The skull, though weathered from millennia of brutal heat and scouring sands, is unmistakably human. Unmistakable, too, are the signs of a violent death: massive fractures from the blunt force of a weapon wielded by another human. The shattered cranium is one of several from a site in Kenya known as Nataruk, where, long ago, a band of hunter-gatherers met its end.
Described in Nature in 2016, the remains are believed to be among the earliest evidence of human warfare. Although the terrain is arid and desolate now, around 10,000 years ago this was a lagoon near Lake Turkana, surrounded by lush vegetation. In this Eden-like landscape, aggressors captured and massacred at least 27 people: men, women — one of them pregnant — and children.
The most complete remains are 12 skeletons found facedown in what was the lagoon. The captors used blunt force trauma to the head to kill, ...
