War since 30 000 years ?

	THE WORLD The war during the prehistory

In the prehistoric times, the man is a hunter and also a murderer of the other people. This explains oldest fortifications, weapons, and sifted skeletons of arrowheads. In the upper Paleolithic, towards - 40 000 years, the tool becomes a weapon, and can be before (the fragment of spear in yew tree of Clacton-on-Sea in England, dated from the lower Paleolithic as those found now Lehringen and the three javelins or spears in spruce fir, dated of 360 000 years, discovered in the mine of lignite of Schoeningen in Low - Saxony). Percussion between two flints is replaced with the job of flint by means of other percuteurs as wood of cervidae or of reindeer.The first rupestral engravings representing fights with propellers, are old 17 000 years.

How fought our ancestors?

At the Paleolithic era (before - 10 000 years), the used weapons are stones, bludgeons, assegais in bone, harpoons with barbs which appear to the magdalenian, available since a very long time. One found in the Charente (France) the skull of a man of Neandertal, (about - 36 000 years), broke further to the impact of a sharp object. The man survived his wound looked by his companions. The found stony brightness serve as arrowheads or are planted at the end of the spear. The bow is discovered to Epipaleolithic. Then the dagger and the sling appear. It is a long range weapon as the killing stick, ancestor of the old boomerang of at least 23 000 years..

At the Neolithic era, the man learns to make weapons associating the stone and the wood as tomahawk. In America, the flint is replaced by the obsidian or the other hard stones. The bow is quickly known and it lengthens much the range of the shooting. The warrior carries much more arrows than spears. The "fire power" is superior.

Confrontation initially takes place in the interval ranging between the habitats then directly on the territory of the assaulted and the fortifications appear. Strengths involved in the neolithic in the Middle East are comparable to the troops fighting on the majority of the battlefields of the Middle Age, that is 5 to 10 000 men, but they are often used in reduced groups of individuals hundreds.

One found rupestral paintings describing warriors' line, shooting on order or walking in column, behind their leader who is dressed specifically. The tactics is not absent and a double enveloppement is even observable. One cannot speak of battle but rather of raid or of devastation of the territory. The combat is justified by the control of the invaluable resources (foods, water, raw materials)...

As at the end the territory of the loser is taken, the prehistoric fight is wild. A cemetery was found in Egypt, near Assouan. It dates from the period included between - 12 000 and - 4 500. Half of the skeletons carry traces of violent death caused by small sharp stony brightness, sometimes in great number on the same body. The fracture of certain bones is caused by gestures to avoid the blows. Comparable cemeteries were found in Russia and in Rumania, they date from the 5th millennium.

The most spectacular traces of the war in the prehistoric times are the ruins of massive fortifications built only to protect itself from the other men. In first natural shelters as the caves are enough for the protection against animals and enemies. Then bows and slings oblige people to build artificial obstacles: high walls. To Jericho, neolithic fortifications, round towers and walls with 3 metres in thickness and 10 metres high, are made by a whole village, in the 9th , 8th millennium. The men could work the ground behind these ramparts and amass reserves in this agglomeration of 3 000 persons. There is no distinction between civilians and military. The captives become slaves and the young women, concubines.

The oldest known weapons are wooden spears, already for the hunting, we found to Schoeningen ( in Germany), spears which we were able to date 360 000 years!. In Paleolithic final already, they were equipped with points of flint, bone, wood of reindeers (for example in Kesslerloch, Swiss). The lance arose from the projection of these spears.

Between - 12 000 and - 8 000, we can speak about a technological revolution of the armament. During this period, four new weapons appear: the bow, the sling, the dagger and the mass. The bow and the arrows, appeared to the end of this time, remained during millenniums the main projectiles. In the mesolithique, arrows are made with flint glares "stucks" by means of a plant tar. Points of arrows in cristal of rock appearr to the average neolithic. The sling is superior in precision and in power to the primitive bow. In Anatolie one found slings and missiles in cooked clay, more precise than stones.