Johannesburg, South Africa. Study of an ancient human cranium shows that interhuman aggression and human induced trauma occurred at least 126,000 years ago.

The wound is consistent with the damage that occurs when someone is struck forcibly with a heavy blunt object.



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Reconstruction of the Maba Cranium. This is the reconstructed Maba 1 cranium (A) Right lateral view (B) anterior view (C) left lateral view (D) posterior view (E) superior view (F) basal view.

Image courtesy of the University of the Witwatersrand.Researchers identified the cranium as that of an East Asian human from Maba, China in the late Middle Pleistocene age. The specimen was discovered with the associated remains of other mammals in June 1958, in a cave at Lion Rock in Guangdong province, China. Farmers made the discovery at a depth of 1 metre by farmers removing cave sediments for fertilizer. The skull shows a 14mm ridged and healed lesion with bone depressed inward to the brain. The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The specimen adds to the increasing number of Ice Age humans with probable evidence of humanly induced trauma, and could possibly be the oldest example of interhuman aggression and human induced trauma ever documented. Also, the remodelled, healed condition indicates the survival of a serious brain injury, a circumstance that is increasingly documented for archaic and modern Homo through the Pleistocene.

At this time, "it is not possible," says Lynne Schepartz at the University of the Witwatersrand. "To assess whether the incident was accidental or intentional, or whether it resulted from a short-term disagreement, or premeditated aggression." This study is important because "The identification of traumatic lesions in human fossils is of interest for assessing the relative risk of injury to different human groups, the location of trauma, and the behavioural implications," adds Schepartz.

"It also helps us to identify and understand some the earliest forms of interhuman aggression, and the abilities of Pleistocene humans to survive serious injury and post-traumatic disabilities." Maba would have needed social support and help in terms of care and feeding to recover from this wound.

The Maba cranium, which is housed in the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was analysed visually using stereomicroscopy and a high-resolution industrial CT scanner. This state-of-the-art imaging technology enabled the researchers to investigate the inner structure of the bone to verify that healing had occurred.

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