Martin Debra L., Frayer David W. (eds.). Troubled Times: Violence and Warfare in the Past

Routledge, 1998. — 404 p.Evidence amassed in Troubled Times indicates that, much like in the modern world, violence was not an uncommon aspect of prehistoric dispute resolution. From the civilizations of the American Southwest to the Mesolithic of Central Europe, the contributors examine violence in hunter-gatherer as well as state societies from both the New and Old Worlds. Drawing upon cross-cultural analyses, archaeological data, and skeletal remains, this collection of papers offers evidence of domestic violence, homicide, warfare, cannibalism, and ritualized combat among ancient peoples. Beyond the physical evidence, various models and explanations for violence in the past are explored. David W. Frayer is professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. His research studies concern human evolution in Europe, from the Mousterian to the Middle Ages. Debra L. Martin is an associate professor of biological anthropology at Hampshire College in the School of Natural Science. She has conducted fieldwork and laboratory analyses of human skeletal remains from the American Southwest, Sudanese Nubia, and the Arabian Peninsula.