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I tripped over a cool little article today, which clearly demonstrates that the Brits have been kicking each others' heads in since well before the invention of football and steel-toed boots:
Muggings were rife in New Stone Age
From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
Emma Young
If you are worried about being attacked or killed by a violent criminal, just be glad you are not living in Neolithic Britain. From 4000 to 3200 BC, Britons had a 1 in 14 chance of being bashed on the head, and a 1 in 50 chance of dying from their injuries.
Grisly figures from the first systematic survey of early Neolithic British skulls reveal that life then was no rural idyll. "It's certainly more violent than we'd considered," says Rick Schulting of Queen's University Belfast, UK, who conducted the study with Mick Wysocki at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston.
The discovery of craniums from the New Stone Age with signs of human-inflicted trauma is nothing new but this is the first clue to the overall frequency of violence. Schulting and Wysocki have so far identified and studied the remains of about 350 skulls, mostly from southern England. The pair found healed depressed fractures in 4 to 5 per cent of the skulls, and unhealed injuries in about 2 per cent - suggesting the person died from their wounds, or at some point in the attack.
Most of the fatal blows were to the left side of the head, which would make sense if two right-handed people were fighting, says Schulting. The injuries were mostly caused by blunt objects, although some of the skulls seem to have been hacked by stone axes and there is some evidence that ears were chopped off. Schulting presented the work at last month's annual conference of the Society for American Archaeology in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
Emma Young
If you are worried about being attacked or killed by a violent criminal, just be glad you are not living in Neolithic Britain. From 4000 to 3200 BC, Britons had a 1 in 14 chance of being bashed on the head, and a 1 in 50 chance of dying from their injuries.
Grisly figures from the first systematic survey of early Neolithic British skulls reveal that life then was no rural idyll. "It's certainly more violent than we'd considered," says Rick Schulting of Queen's University Belfast, UK, who conducted the study with Mick Wysocki at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston.
The discovery of craniums from the New Stone Age with signs of human-inflicted trauma is nothing new but this is the first clue to the overall frequency of violence. Schulting and Wysocki have so far identified and studied the remains of about 350 skulls, mostly from southern England. The pair found healed depressed fractures in 4 to 5 per cent of the skulls, and unhealed injuries in about 2 per cent - suggesting the person died from their wounds, or at some point in the attack.
Most of the fatal blows were to the left side of the head, which would make sense if two right-handed people were fighting, says Schulting. The injuries were mostly caused by blunt objects, although some of the skulls seem to have been hacked by stone axes and there is some evidence that ears were chopped off. Schulting presented the work at last month's annual conference of the Society for American Archaeology in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
It's a good thing our ancestors didn't do that, here in America.
Guffaw.
I'm certain that every other stone-age culture was peaceful and full of goodwill. It was just the Brits knocking each others' skulls in. This is the proof.
You British people are dangerous, I say. Very dangerous, and perhaps unstable. Please don't hurt me.
You British people are dangerous, I say. Very dangerous, and perhaps unstable. Please don't hurt me.
Originally Posted by Lemur:
You British people are dangerous, I say. Very dangerous, and perhaps unstable. Please don't hurt me.
Let the world tremble! Bwahaahaa! You British people are dangerous, I say. Very dangerous, and perhaps unstable. Please don't hurt me.
Must be something in the water...
My great great great ......great great great.....great great grandfather could beat yours up.
It was certainly the most raucous and troublesome Roman province.
The moral of the story is: We, the British, will not play by anyone's rules - not even our own.
The moral of the story is: We, the British, will not play by anyone's rules - not even our own.
Originally Posted by Taffy_is_a_Taff:
My great great great ......great great great.....great great grandfather could beat yours up.
Not at all - my great....great great great....great great great great....great great grandfather took your great great great ......great great great.....great great grandfather's mother and used her like a Neolithic British wench My great great great ......great great great.....great great grandfather could beat yours up.
So our great great great ......great great great.....great great grandfather could be one and the same.
you're
my
brother!
(
)
my
brother!
(
)Great, another retarded chromosome in the gene pool. 
Originally Posted by Taffy_is_a_Taff:
you're
my
brother!
( )
Well it could be worse - I could be your cousin.......you're
my
brother!
(
)Originally Posted by Byzantine Prince:
Great, another retarded chromosome in the gene pool.
Another useless comment from the peanut gallery....Great, another retarded chromosome in the gene pool.
Originally Posted by Byzantine Prince:
Great, another retarded chromosome in the gene pool.
There is no such thing. I'd get into how down syndrome happens, but that might swell your head a bit to much.Great, another retarded chromosome in the gene pool.
Gentlemen... please!
Originally Posted by Redleg:
Well it could be worse - I could be your cousin.......
If you lived in Norfolk you could be his cousin AND his brother. And your own Aunty Betty.Well it could be worse - I could be your cousin.......
I'm surprised your odds were only 1 in 14 of being bashed on the head if you lived in Stone Age Britain. These days, you've got more chance than that of being bashed on the head in a three hour charter flight from Birmingham to Faliraki . And you'd have an STD by the end of the flight too.
(Edit: in addition to the ones you started the flight with I mean)
Oh, man, so funny.
1. The Stone Age "Britons" have little or no connection to the actual British, the Celts.
2. The "British" today are the Welsh, Scots and Irish, the hooligans are the English.
Show me a study about ancient Germanic tribes bashing each other in the head and don't connect me to these non-ancestors.
1. The Stone Age "Britons" have little or no connection to the actual British, the Celts.
2. The "British" today are the Welsh, Scots and Irish, the hooligans are the English.
Show me a study about ancient Germanic tribes bashing each other in the head and don't connect me to these non-ancestors.
Nope, you're wrong. They're your ancestors, and they were violent. And clearly you are violent as well. I mean, after all, you're British, so you must be violent. It's possible you're a skinhead with big bother boots. I have no way of knowing. But I'm definitely frightened of you.
Originally Posted by Wigferth Ironwall:
Oh, man, so funny.
1. The Stone Age "Britons" have little or no connection to the actual British, the Celts.
Oh, man, so funny.
1. The Stone Age "Britons" have little or no connection to the actual British, the Celts.
of course not...
Prove it.
Edit: just saying that the evidence is a little slim(or not even there) either way.
I liked the studies of stone age remains from Somerset that found genetic links with the current locals, that was excellent.
Originally Posted by Ice:
There is no such thing. I'd get into how down syndrome happens, but that might swell your head a bit to much.
Stone axes at dawn its the only way to settle it!There is no such thing. I'd get into how down syndrome happens, but that might swell your head a bit to much.
Let the blunt trauma begin!
Originally Posted by Lemur:
Nope, you're wrong. They're your ancestors, and they were violent. And clearly you are violent as well. I mean, after all, you're British, so you must be violent. It's possible you're a skinhead with big bother boots. I have no way of knowing. But I'm definitely frightened of you.
bother boots...lmfao.Nope, you're wrong. They're your ancestors, and they were violent. And clearly you are violent as well. I mean, after all, you're British, so you must be violent. It's possible you're a skinhead with big bother boots. I have no way of knowing. But I'm definitely frightened of you.
Not for nothing, but does anybody think that if you found antrhopological remnants from any corner of the globe, the results would be any different? Most ancient folks were incredibly bloodthirsty, I don't think neolithic Britains held any special honors there.
bovver!
p.s.
Oi!
p.s.
Oi!
See? You're being intimidating and violent again. Clearly it's genetic.
Originally Posted by Lemur:
See? You're being intimidating and violent again. Clearly it's genetic.
you looking at my pint? See? You're being intimidating and violent again. Clearly it's genetic.
Originally Posted by Taffy_is_a_Taff:
you looking at my pint?
Oi Taff. He's not just looking mate, he called your pint a poof.you looking at my pint?
Originally Posted by Kanamori:
It's a good thing our ancestors didn't do that, here in America.
Probably due to the fact that most Americans now were not at America at the time It's a good thing our ancestors didn't do that, here in America.
Originally Posted by English assassin:
Oi Taff. He's not just looking mate, he called your pint a poof.
I don't know what his problem is, I try to help him out and he accuses me of being aggressive and makes some comment about my family.Oi Taff. He's not just looking mate, he called your pint a poof.
He then spends all night staring at my pint and now he's questioning its sexuality.
It's not even like he's drunk or anything, he's stone cold sober and trying to start something.
B*stard.
{Lemur curls into a fetal position and awaits his kicking at the hands of British hooligans.}
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