Project description
Unveiling Europe’s first warriors with ancient clues and modern science
Buried deep within the archaeological record, injuries etched on prehistoric skeletons tell a brutal tale of ancient conflicts. Neolithic graves in the Mid-Upper Ebro and Rhine valleys bear witness to skeletal trauma and arrowhead wounds, hinting at possible mass killings. The EU funded WEAPON project will pioneer the investigation into this pivotal period of social unrest. It will seek to uncover the identities and life histories of these early warriors. Employing a ground-breaking interdisciplinary approach, the project will combine stable isotope analysis of bone collagen and tooth dentine, tooth enamel analysis, and radiocarbon dating. The research aims to shed light on the existence of specialised warriors, as well as explore the relationship between violence, societal inequalities, and population movements during Neolithic Europe.
Objective
The origins of human conflict, up to and including warfare, lie not in historical documents but in the prehistoric archaeological record. While some evidence is ambiguous, injuries to the skeleton are the indisputable result of real incidents. Neolithic (6000-3000 BC) graves of the Mid-Upper Ebro and Mid-Upper Rhine valleys (northern Spain and northeastern France, respectively) contain skeletons with skeletal trauma and/or arrowhead injuries. Some of these may represent massacres involving many individuals. Moreover, emerging isotopic evidence suggests the existence of specialised warriors among them – potentially the first such in Europe. This reflects a rise in social unrest and provides an outstanding opportunity for investigating almost intangible cultural aspects. The WEAPON (Warrior Elites: Assessing their Presence and Organisational identity in Neolithic Europe) project proposes an unprecedented interdisciplinary approach to explore the identity and life-histories of those involved in the violence observed in this pivotal period. A combination of analytical methods will be used to this end, including stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur analysis of bone collagen and tooth dentine, strontium and oxygen analysis of tooth enamel, and radiocarbon dating. The research aims to confirm the existence of ‘specialised warriors’, as well as to investigate if violence, whether regular or not, may relate to the emergence of inequalities and/or population movements across Neolithic Europe.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2017
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75794 Paris
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.