The massed violence that defines warfare is often described as ‘senseless’, yet it continues to be a feature of modern social relations, with an established history in the past. It is often that which should not or cannot be discussed in polite conversation due to its horrors. This silence and the notion that violence and warfare make no sense and, therefore, should have no place in society means that its place in social relations and its role in social change remains obscure. This edited volume presents an overview of the nature and development of human conflict from prehistory to the present through the analysis and study of the remains of past people themselves.

Rather than take a generalized approach concentrating on the wider material record and written sources, this book specifically focuses on what human remains indicate about weapons, types of conflict, and the prevalence of violence over a period of thousands of years. Consideration is also given to the scale and frequency of conflict, the existence of multiple types of violence (from personal disputes to wars between superpowers), and to the demography of warfare. However, the book is not simply a catalogue of injuries that serve as a proxy for weapon typologies. While skeletal trauma form the backbone of the data considered, this book also explores the social contexts in which such injuries were inflicted. This approach does not function simply as a culture-historicist narrative detailing ‘progress’ in warfare but rather provides a broad framework in which to explore both continuity and change with regard to a range of important themes, many of which hold continuing relevance throughout human development.