The blog Bones Don’t Lie recently discussed an interesting study of skeletons of Middle Ages Ireland.  The study indicated a high level of intergroup violence in certain areas before the arrival of Vikings in the 11^th C and Anglo-Normans in the 12^th C.  The piece is found here.

Interestingly enough, recent news articles about the finding of stone spear and arrow tips dating back 500,000 years are currently prevalent in the news.  One such article from the Scientific American blog is here.  They were presumably used to kill prey and likely competing humans.  I wonder how much study has been done to determine if death of skeletons dating that far back indicated possible injury with stone tips.  If you didn’t think those weapons were being used that far back, were the injuries noticed?  Were injuries like that attributed to animal claws and teeth?  I don’t know paleontology or bioarchaeology well enough to know that answer but I’m sure someone out there does.  

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