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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 11, 2026

The Resident-intruder Paradigm: A Standardized Test for Aggression, Violence and Social Stress

The Resident-intruder Paradigm: A Standardized Test for Aggression, Violence and Social Stress

Published on: July 4, 2013

Lethal interpersonal violence in the Middle Pleistocene.

Nohemi Sala¹, Juan Luis Arsuaga², Ana Pantoja-Pérez¹

¹Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain.

|May 29, 2015

Summary

The earliest evidence of lethal interpersonal violence in hominins was found in a Middle Pleistocene cranium. Two perimortem fractures suggest a fatal face-to-face conflict, indicating ancient human aggression.

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Area of Science:

Paleoanthropology
Human Evolution
Forensic Anthropology

Background:

Interpersonal violence evidence is rare in Pleistocene Homo fossils.
Previous findings rarely identified violence as the cause of death.
The Sima de los Huesos site contains numerous hominin fossils.

Purpose of the Study:

To report the earliest evidence of lethal interpersonal violence in the hominin fossil record.
To analyze cranial trauma on a Middle Pleistocene hominin specimen.
To interpret the trauma in the context of hominin behavior and site formation.

Main Methods:

Analysis of Cranium 17 from the Sima de los Huesos site.
Microscopic and macroscopic examination of perimortem fractures on the frontal bone.
Interpretation of fracture patterns, location, and orientation to infer trauma mechanism.

Main Results:

Two distinct perimortem depression fractures were identified on the frontal bone.
Fractures are consistent with localized blunt force trauma from a single object.
The pattern suggests a face-to-face encounter with lethal intent.

Conclusions:

Lethal interpersonal violence is an ancient human behavior dating back to the Middle Pleistocene.
The findings support an anthropic (human-caused) origin for the accumulation of bodies at the Sima de los Huesos site.
This represents the earliest direct evidence of lethal violence in the hominin fossil record.