Friends, Romans, Neolithics, Give me your Ears
The idea that Neolithic people were hairy savages has long since been discredited by the amazing discoveries at Catal Huyuk and elsewhere, showing that although they might not have discovered or used metal, the Neolithic people had a high level of culture, sophisticated social organisation and a good command of building techniques. It now appears that they had another attribute of humanity - violence towards each other.
Of course, we might have guessed that from the existence of defences around Neolithic towns and settlements. The famous Neolithic tower at Jericho, discovered by Kathleen Kenyon, shows not only that the people who built it were capable of devising and constructing impressive defences, but also unfortunately indicates the necessity for them!
Now Rick Schulting of Queen's University, Belfast, and Mick Wysocki at the University of Central Lancashire, have been able to compile some crime statistics for the Neolithic Period. Apparently people back then had a 1 in 14 chance of being hit on the head with a club or axe and a 1 in 50 chance of dying during the attack.
The two professors examined 350 Neolithic skulls, mostly from south England and discovered that 7% of them had depressed fractures of the skull, mostly to the left-side of the head - which is what you would expect if two right-handed people were fighting. 2% of the fractures showed no sign of healing, showing that the unfortunate person had died soon after the injury was inflicted (and probably as a result of the injury) while the rest showed partial or complete healing, indicating that the person had lived for a considerable period after the injury or even made a complete recovery.
Of course, violence and hand-to-hand fighting are hardly news and although you cannot tell sex from a skull, it is probable that these were all the remains of warriors for whom head injuries and death were occupational hazards. What renders their research a trifle out of the ordinary was the discovery of marks on the side of some skulls which they interpreted as evidence that the victim's ears had been chopped off.
Many cultures removed the heads of dead enemies, either as trophies or as a way of acquiring the dead warrior's "mana". The removal of other parts of the body is more likely to be a convenient means of keeping score - the Egyptians, as shown in the Medinet Habu reliefs, removed hands or penises and piled them up in heaps for the scribes to count. A skull is a bulky thing to have to carry around, particularly in the heat of battle, and a successful warrior encumbered with two or three heads was not likely to remain successful for long.
It seems likely, then, that at least in southern England, Neolithic tribesmen removed the ears of those they had killed, slipped them into their pockets and went rampaging on looking for the next victim. Mark Antony, it would seem, was an Age or two out of date when he exhorted the Romans to "Give me your ears".
© Kendall K. Down 2009
