| Title |
Lethal Interpersonal Violence in the Middle Pleistocene
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
PLOS ONE, May 2015
|
| DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0126589 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Nohemi Sala, Juan Luis Arsuaga, Ana Pantoja-Pérez, Adrián Pablos, Ignacio Martínez, Rolf M. Quam, Asier Gómez-Olivencia, José María Bermúdez de Castro, Eudald Carbonell |
| Abstract |
Evidence of interpersonal violence has been documented previously in Pleistocene members of the genus Homo, but only very rarely has this been posited as the possible manner of death. Here we report the earliest evidence of lethal interpersonal violence in the hominin fossil record. Cranium 17 recovered from the Sima de los Huesos Middle Pleistocene site shows two clear perimortem depression fractures on the frontal bone, interpreted as being produced by two episodes of localized blunt force trauma. The type of injuries, their location, the strong similarity of the fractures in shape and size, and the different orientations and implied trajectories of the two fractures suggest they were produced with the same object in face-to-face interpersonal conflict. Given that either of the two traumatic events was likely lethal, the presence of multiple blows implies an intention to kill. This finding shows that the lethal interpersonal violence is an ancient human behavior and has important implications for the accumulation of bodies at the site, supporting an anthropic origin. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 305 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Spain | 49 | 16% |
| United States | 33 | 11% |
| United Kingdom | 19 | 6% |
| Canada | 8 | 3% |
| France | 6 | 2% |
| Argentina | 5 | 2% |
| Netherlands | 4 | 1% |
| Japan | 4 | 1% |
| Australia | 3 | <1% |
| Other | 26 | 9% |
| Unknown | 148 | 49% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 238 | 78% |
| Scientists | 55 | 18% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 8 | 3% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 4 | 1% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 193 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 3 | 2% |
| Spain | 2 | 1% |
| United States | 1 | <1% |
| Brazil | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 186 | 96% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 44 | 23% |
| Researcher | 30 | 16% |
| Student > Master | 21 | 11% |
| Student > Bachelor | 20 | 10% |
| Professor | 13 | 7% |
| Other | 30 | 16% |
| Unknown | 35 | 18% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Arts and Humanities | 43 | 22% |
| Social Sciences | 28 | 15% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 22 | 11% |
| Psychology | 11 | 6% |
| Earth and Planetary Sciences | 11 | 6% |
| Other | 32 | 17% |
| Unknown | 46 | 24% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 955. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 25 March 2024.
All research outputs
#17,684
of 25,744,802 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#262
of 224,324 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#116
of 280,888 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#9
of 6,869 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,744,802 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
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