{"id":23074,"date":"2016-01-27T05:30:59","date_gmt":"2016-01-27T10:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=23074"},"modified":"2016-01-26T20:39:18","modified_gmt":"2016-01-27T01:39:18","slug":"the-end-of-the-noble-savage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/01\/the-end-of-the-noble-savage\/","title":{"rendered":"The end of the “noble savage”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Archaeologists have discovered the site of a deadly massacre in which 27 people were killed by primitive weapons.\u00a0 The researchers date the site at some 10,000 years ago and say the people were hunter-gatherers.\u00a0 This upsets the theory that warfare and organized violence appeared only when early humans settled down into permanent settlements.<\/p>\n

This also upsets the perhaps related theory of the \u201cnoble savage\u201d of Jacques Rousseau, according to which primitive people in \u201cthe state of nature\u201d live lives of peace and virtue, with violence and other evils coming only as a result of \u201ccivilization.\u201d\u00a0 Apparently, human beings have been fallen and sinful as far back as we can see.<\/p>\n

From Camila Domonoske, Discovery Of Ancient Massacre Suggests War Predated Settlements : The Two-Way : NPR<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

A pregnant woman with her hands and feet bound. A man with an obsidian blade embedded in his skull. Men and women with arrow wounds to the head and neck.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the grisly scene archaeologists describe at Nataruk, in modern-day Kenya, where they say they\u2019ve uncovered unique evidence of violence in prehistoric, nomadic hunter-gatherer communities.<\/p>\n

The massacre they\u2019ve uncovered is striking, they say, because it pushes back against a theory that warfare didn\u2019t become a feature of human culture until communities settled down.<\/p>\n

Archaeologists from Cambridge University excavated the remains of 27 people, including at least eight women and six children, in a region that was once the edge of a lagoon, near modern-day Lake Turkana. The remains included 12 skeletons that were fairly complete, \u201cpreserved by the particular conditions of the lagoon,\u201d the researchers write in Nature this week.<\/p>\n

They all appeared to have died at the same time, 10,000 years ago or so. The researchers focused on the 12 skeletons \u2014 10 showed evidence of fatal injuries, including sharp-force and blunt-force trauma, and several had blades or projectiles embedded in them.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archaeologists have discovered the site of a deadly massacre in which 27 people were killed by primitive weapons.\u00a0 The researchers date the site at some 10,000 years ago and say the people were hunter-gatherers.\u00a0 This upsets the theory that warfare and organized violence appeared only when early humans settled down into permanent settlements. This also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,33,35,40,49],"tags":[201,4248,4249,2021],"class_list":["post-23074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-nature","category-philosophy-2","category-science","category-war-2","tag-archaeology","tag-history-of-warfare","tag-noble-savage","tag-sin"],"yoast_head":"\nThe end of the "noble savage"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Archaeologists have discovered the site of a deadly massacre in which 27 people were killed by primitive weapons.\u00a0 The researchers date the site at some\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/01\/the-end-of-the-noble-savage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The end of the "noble savage"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Archaeologists have discovered the site of a deadly massacre in which 27 people were killed by primitive weapons.\u00a0 The researchers date the site at some\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/01\/the-end-of-the-noble-savage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-27T10:30:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-01-27T01:39:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/01\/the-end-of-the-noble-savage\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/01\/the-end-of-the-noble-savage\/\",\"name\":\"The end of the \\\"noble savage\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-27T10:30:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-27T01:39:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"Archaeologists have discovered the site of a deadly massacre in which 27 people were killed by primitive weapons.\u00a0 The researchers date the site at some\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/01\/the-end-of-the-noble-savage\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/01\/the-end-of-the-noble-savage\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/01\/the-end-of-the-noble-savage\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The end of the “noble savage”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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