Archaeology has tended to promote the notion that Neolithic societies were generally egalitarian and the emergence of stratified society (Chiefdoms) is an Iron Age phenomenon. Humans in prehistory are often depicted as 'noble savages', who wore animal furs and were in a constant battle with the environment and wild animals, but who were otherwise living some hippy-eutopia where everybody makes everything they own.
Rick Schulting (Queens University Belfast) has been examining Neolithic human crania and has discovered some interesting facts which contradict the egalitarian eutopia model. Between 4000 and 3200 BC the crania Schulting studied from British long barrows suggest a relatively high rate of blunt trauma injury (c.1 in 14), whilst in Orkney the figure can be as high as c.1 in 5. Yes Schulting had a relatively small sample (350 skulls), and they possibly represent a specific group (where are the crania of everybody who didn't get buried in long barrows?), but we can only use the available material - we cannot examine what we do not have access to.
If we factor-in the very considerable archaeological evidence for conflict in the Neolithic (long bone trauma, projectile points embedded in human skeletons, presence of weapons, evidence for settlement destruction) it seems very likely that Schulting is on the right track.
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