Conflict, violence, and warfare among early farmers in Northwestern Europe

This paper explores the key role bioarchaeology plays in creating meaningful perspectives on human conflict and the emergence of warfare in Neolithic Europe. Skeletal datasets are considered in the context of social, economic, and demographic changes that accompanied the shift to a sedentary farming economy. Increasing competition and inequality are key factors that fostered the emergence of larger-scale human conflict and warfare. Beyond numbers, these insights should allow for more significant engagement with the unique experiential qualities of violence in prehistory.