慢速英语:Scientists Find Most Ancient Evidence of War

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British scientists say they have found the oldest known evidence of war.

Researchers discovered the remains of 27 people near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. Scientists say they believe the remains are from a Stone Age culture of about 10,000 years ago. The so-called Nataruk fossils show signs of a violent attack.

The dig also uncovered weapons including arrows, clubs and stone blades. The scientists published a paper on their findings in the journal Nature.

Marta Mirazon Lahr was the lead investigator. She is a paleoanthropologist at the University of Cambridge in Britain. She wrote that the victims were people who hunted, fished and gathered plants for food.

She described the 10,000-year-old battle in which they were killed as a “brutal” attack.

One skeleton was found with a blade of volcanic glass still stuck in his head. A woman in late pregnancy appeared to have been bound by her hands and feet.

Our species arose 200,000 years ago in Africa. Many experts had thought war did not begin until humans started to form settled communities. But the Nataruk people were nomadic hunter-gatherers of an earlier period.

So, scientist Lahr says, the findings “raise the question of whether warfare has been part of the human experience for much longer than previously thought."

The remains found included 21 adults and six children. Most of the children were younger than 6.

I'm Anne Ball.

Jim Dresbach adapted this story for Learning English from Reuters news report. Caty Weaver was the editor.

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