Reading Violence in the Bones: Bioarchaeological Perspectives on Skeletal Trauma and Socio-Environmental Change in Past Societies

While violence in past societies has traditionally been inferred from weapons, fortifications, and texts, skeletal remains offer direct, long-term evidence of interpersonal conflict. This talk reviews how recent bioarchaeological studies have used skeletal trauma, especially cranial and weapon-related injuries, to examine interpersonal violence and peace over long time scales. Rather than treating violence as the result of a single cause, the talk considers how different studies have connected trauma evidence with broader questions of population pressure, climate variability, gender, and social complexity.

Examples from diverse archaeological contexts will be discussed to show how scholars have approached violence at different spatial and temporal scales. Particular attention is given to how skeletal data have been integrated with demographic proxies, palaeoclimate records, and archaeological indicators of social change. The final part of the talk considers future research possibilities in ancient China, asking how craniofacial trauma might be examined alongside radiocarbon-based population estimates, climate records, and evidence for social transformation. In doing so, the talk reflects on how bioarchaeological evidence of violence can move beyond isolated injury toward a wider socio-environmental and historical understanding of past societies.