French archaeologists suggested that climate change in the Nile Valley could lead to bloody battles and mass murders. This indicates that in the ancient burnce of Jebel-Sughab, participants are buried not one battle, but a whole series of cruel clashes. This is reported in the article published in the Journal Scientific Reports.
Researchers re-analyzed the remains and discovered traces of many non-meaning injuries. A quarter of skeletons belonging to gathering hunters were identified helaning wounds, which indicates repeated periods of violence 13,400-18 600 years ago. Most of the injuries were caused by throwing weapons, such as arrows and spears. Thus, conflicts were intergroup, and did not occur inside the group.
Since men, women and children were buried the same, the authors of the article believe that violence was caused by clashes or raids. This time coincides with the end of the last glacial period, when the eastern part of the sugar desert has become arid and less suitable for people’s lives. There were only a few places hospitable for people, but they quickly fill in hunter-collectors, after which competition for resources was aggravated.
When the mass burial was first discovered in the 1960s, archaeologists considered that it was evidence of just one battle.