History is nothing but a story, with a place, characters, knots and solution, and a lesson we may have to learn so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Since humans switched from nomadism and hunting to settlement and farming, and created more complex societies, wars began to emerge to resolve disputes over land and resources.

Since then, it does not seem that the scourge of war, death, destruction and pain, has changed anything in the collective consciousness of human beings, or pushed them to adopt peace as a solution to conflicts.

What war?

Why war?

As a young Arab living in the twenty-first century, you have certainly read about wars on large scales, the most famous of which are of course the First and Second World Wars, which changed the face of the world forever, and on a slightly smaller scale, the October War and the Gulf War, for example.

It is also likely that you witnessed the American invasion of Iraq for yourself, and of course you are still following the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation state, which has existed for more than 70 years. Its effects are already affecting the Arab citizen.

War in its common sense is a long and violent struggle, on a large scale, between opposing political groups.

Political writers tend to limit the term war to the conflicts that arise between two forces of equal strength and equipment, which makes the final outcome of the war difficult to predict.

While asymmetric wars between a brute force and an isolated, unarmed group bear many other names, such as "military campaigns" or "explorations".

In the case of intra-group conflicts, the conflict is called "rebellion" or "rebellion".

In the latter scenario, if the resistance had sufficient strength, the matter could develop into a real civil war (1).

But even before the emergence of all these conventions, and before the advent of war in its modern sense, war was part of our human heritage.

During the Paleolithic age, hominins of the genus Homo erectus lived in small groups, and obtained food by gathering and hunting.

This environment was not ideal for resource conflicts, so there is no fossil evidence of these peoples fighting over resources yet. Rather, Homo erectus may have migrated from Africa toward Europe at that time, motivated by a desire to avoid conflict in the first place.

The situation did not change directly with the emergence of Homo sapien more than 300,000 years ago, but the change occurred relatively late in the life of humanity.

When agriculture was discovered about 12 thousand years ago, man began to settle after thousands of years of nomadic life, gathering and hunting, eating what he grows, and raising livestock to obtain meat, milk and leather from them.

This stability led to the formation of groups and control of land and food sources, and then began conflicts over resources and the desire to acquire the most fertile land and abundant food.

Everything has a first time

Paradoxically, the first war before recorded history took place in an area within the borders of the Arab world today, and was identified through excavations that were found in the "Jabal Al-Sahaba" area on Sudan's northern border with Egypt.

This site is now submerged under the artificial Lake Nasser, and was discovered by American archaeologist "Fred Wendorf" in 1964. In the latest analysis of the 61 skeletons found at the site, it was found that it is likely that the area not only witnessed the first real war in human history, but was Also an area of ​​frequent violent conflicts.

This is inferred by the numerous wounds in the bones, some of which were recent (just before death), some less recent (previous fractures and wounds had already healed).

It is likely that these successive battles were the result of climatic and environmental changes that occurred in that region at the end of the Paleolithic period, about 13,000 years ago (2).

This war was preceded by some skirmishes on a smaller scale, seen in the primitive frescoes on the cave walls left by the Aurignacian and Périgordian civilizations that occupied Western Europe 30,000 years ago.

The drawings represent people with arrows piercing their bodies, although it is not entirely certain whether this indicates the outbreak of conflicts or whether it is a form of punishment or ritual sacrifice (3)(4).

Paintings on cave walls in Morilla la Vella, Spain, showing a battle between a group of archers, from the Paleolithic period.

Death pit and mass grave

In the Neolithic era, things were a little clearer.

Several sites have been found in Europe indicating fatal mass violence incidents against the Linear pottery culture of Central Europe between 5500-4500 BC, named after their technique of engraving lines on pottery.

This was the first civilization to introduce agriculture to the area at the time, which may explain the large number of mass violence observed in the area, such as the Talheim death pit and Schöneck-Kilianstädten located within the boundaries of present-day Germany, and the Asparn region within the borders of Austria (5).

The Schönek-Kilianstaten mass grave was discovered in 2006 during road excavations, and 26 bodies were found, who had been fatally beaten before being randomly dumped into the mass grave.

Not only that, but the deliberate fractures of the victims' lower limbs testify to the torture and cruelty they experienced before their death.

In addition, the fractures found in the skulls of the victims were in most specimens on the upper left side of the skull, a classic site for heavy blows in head-to-head combat.

Pottery tools decorated with engraved lines, which characterized the linear pottery culture that inhabited central Europe in the Neolithic period.

It seems, then, that the Linear Pottery Civilization, which greatly influenced the Central European region after its members came from the southeast, ended in a tragic and cruel way.

Many of the mass graves of this region's Neolithic people contained entire communities.

Prior to this date, targeted mass violence was not known, or compelling evidence, such as those found in Germany and Austria that marked the end of an entire civilization.

Dark Bronze Age

If we advance in time a little to the Copper/Bronze Age, that is, the period between 4000-1500 BC, we will find that organized wars and mass violence continued and increased.

One of the most famous sites that researchers have been interested in is the "Hamoukar" site, located in northeastern Syria, on the border between it and Turkey and Iraq.

The city of Hamukar was destroyed in 3500 BC, in a battle considered the first of its kind in the history of the Mesopotamian region north of the Fertile Crescent, the cradle of the first known human civilizations.

Researchers from the University of Chicago in conjunction with the Syrian Ministry of Antiquities believe in a study issued in 2005 that a war between the citizens of Hamukar in the north, and the people of the city of Uruk in the south, eventually led to the destruction of Hamocar and its subsequent seizure and settlement by the Uruks. (6).

It is worth noting that the city of Uruk is the first civilized city in history, where writing was invented for the first time, and was home to the Sumerians, Babylonians, and the famous tyrant Gilgamesh.

In addition to the destroyed and burnt buildings, the remains of which were found in Hamokar, which indicates that an intense bombardment of stones had taken place in the area, many weapons were also found, such as stone throwers, small stone bullets, in addition to circular projectiles made of clay.

This discovery reshaped our understanding of the development of civilization in the region of Mesopotamia.

The invention of writing in the Copper Age facilitated our knowledge of later wars with greater accuracy.

The invention of chariots pulled by horses was a milestone in the history of wars in the Near East and Egypt.

Here the desire to expand the empires strongly appeared, and Egypt alone was invaded and occupied by both the Hyksos and the Macedonians led by Alexander the Great, as well as the Nubians and Assyrians.

An example of a war chariot drawn by horses, which upended the balance of power in Bronze Age warfare.

One of the best recorded battles in ancient history is the famous Battle of Kadesh in 1275 BC, between Ramses II, King of Egypt, and Mwatili II, King of the Hittites.

Ramses II documented his victory in this battle on the walls of the temple of Abu Simbel in what is known as the Song of Kadesh, despite the fact that the two sides were tied in the battle.

The Hittites prevailed at the beginning of the battle thanks to their heavy chariots, which destroyed the lightweight chariots of Ramses II in the first confrontation.

The scales turned after the element of surprise disappeared, and Ramses II's light chariots managed to penetrate the ranks of the Hittites and overturn the defeat to a relative level.

A peace treaty was signed between the two parties 15 years after this signing, the first of its kind in recorded history (7).

In the same period in world history, the region of Northern Europe, to which writing had not yet reached, witnessed one of the largest battles in its history.

The Tollense River battle, located in northern Germany, took place in 1250 BC, and involved spears, clubs, swords, and knives made of bronze, stones, and granite.

In the period between 2009-2015, and at a distance of three kilometers on the banks of the Tullens River, many war tools, nearly 100 human skeletons and 5 horse skeletons were found, shedding light for the first time on the occurrence of this war, which fell from memory recorded history.

Copper swords from the Bronze Age.

At a time when Northern Europe was a historically insignificant region, dominated by the civilizations of the Greeks and Mesopotamia, it came as a surprise to find traces of the Battle of the Tullens River.

The size of the battle, the type of weapons used, and the number of dead indicated that the people of that region had advanced in the arts of war and fighting more than expected.

This discovery changed the understanding of researchers about Bronze Age Europe, and the extent of violence that its inhabitants reached at that time (8).

It is strange that stability pushes a person to take violence as a means to maintain this stability.

In a world whose resources were plentiful, and whose inhabitants were few, groups were not spared attacks and raids to seize what they owned.

Not only does history seem to repeat itself, but in fact it is an unending chain of violence and unending cruelty.

Do you see, do today's wars reshape the future, just as the wars of the past have changed our present?

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Sources:

1- war |

History, Causes, Types, Meaning, Examples, & Facts |

Britannica

2- New insights on interpersonal violence in the Late Pleistocene based on the Nile valley cemetery of Jebel Sahaba |

Scientific Reports

3- Perigordian industry |

archaeology |

Britannica

4-Aurignacian culture |

prehistoric technology and art |

Britannica

5- The mass massacre grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten reveals new insights into collective violence in Early Neolithic Central Europe

6- University of Chicago-Syrian team finds first evidence of warfare in ancient Mesopotamia

7- Battle of Kadesh |

Summary |

Britannica

8- Slaughter at the bridge: Uncovering a colossal Bronze Age battle |

Science |

AAAS