Larger area analysis needed to understand patterns in ancient prehistory

Phys Org ^ | February 13, 2015 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

"We are looking at Eastern North America," said Milner. "Nowhere else in the world has similar archaeological data been compiled for such a large area." ...

He notes that the popular view of warfare in small-scale societies in North America usually falls either at the extremes of excessively warlike or eternally peaceful. However, the reality, as seen in archaeological evidence, is the levels of warfare varied both through time and space...

The researchers also looked at skeletal indications of conflict including embedded arrowheads, evidence of damage by stone axes or mutilation including scalping.

Over an area that includes the East Coast and Midwestern United States, the researchers found that conflict occurred from the 11th century onward when population pressure and environmental factors due to climate change converged. Warfare then ebbed and flowed over time, eventually causing movement of nearly everyone out of the midcontinent by the 16th century. The chiefdom societies disappeared and the population decreased dramatically.

"By late prehistory in the 1500s, the whole Midwest is depopulated down to Tennessee and Kentucky," said Milner. "Bordering this area on the east and south a band of conflict-prone societies formed."

These are the groups first encountered by European settlers and the ones eventually pushed into the central depopulated area during colonial times.

"There are a handful of agreed upon depopulations in North America," said Milner. "But people didn't realize how frequently these have occurred because of the smaller geographical scales examined." ...

"The groups had a hard time quelling the conflict, even when there was no population or resource pressure," said Milner. "Episodes of retribution went back and forth with an apparent inability of groups to pull out of the cycles of warfare."

[SunkenCiv]

Maybe they were hungry.

[SunkenCiv]

[Da Coyote]

But, but, but, there was no Christianity to blame.

But perhaps they can still blame the U.S.

[Da Coyote]

Also, love how they screwed up and used the term climate chage.

Heh!

Yup, that dastardly capitalism and conservatism existed back then and polluted the atmosphere with deadly CO2.

[bunkerhill7]

There are oral Mohawk records [pre-dated by Columbus` arrival as a marker] of warfare in 700 BC in New York State and Canada against invading tribes from the south.

[SteveH]

how was that warfare dated?

[Born to Conserve]

When a guy’s kids are hungry, it’s time for war.

[hinckley buzzard]

There is good history of Indian tribal warfare in the area of what is now Ohio,Pennsylvania and western New York before and into the era of colonial influence. Tribes allied themselves with the British or the French, depending on who served their interests, but fought among themselves long before European arrival.

There were excellent Indian histories compiled by nineteenth century researchers, when the Indians were still around and sources of information as well as archeological digs.

[blueunicorn6]

It was a hard life and it made for hard people.

[bunkerhill7]

an oral event marker dated from Columbus = 2,200 years prior to Columbus =708 B.C. -
1492-2200= 708

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks all! I agree, there’s no way to date orally transmitted tales, apart from association with datable events (such as “our vanquished enemies painted pottery that looked like *this*”, or tsunami, eruptions, etc). But the oral traditions of PreColumbian and post-1492 activities include a lot of wars, and some natural disasters, which figures, because those are things that make profound impacts. I’ve heard the outline of a migration/tribal war from a (relative to me) kid from a tribe in the Upper Peninsula (Michigan), his tribe had lived in upstate NY somewhere, moved to the UP (ick!) and n Wisconsin due to following the vision of their shaman. Naturally, when they got there, someone already lived there, and there was a long war between them for possession (if you can believe it) of the wild rice supply. They call this The Rice War.

[colorado tanker]

There just has to be some way to blame this on Columbus, Christians and the Crusades.

[SunkenCiv]

:’) Probably was on a Crusade to destroy that mosque in Cuba! ;’) And don’t forget, there’s been a claim that Columbus was a Jew, but passing himself off as Gentile to avoid trouble with the K & Q.