- Title
- Introduction: the massacre and history
- Creator
- Dwyer, Philip G.; Ryan, Lyndall
- Relation
- Theatres of Violence: Massacre, Mass Killing and Atrocity throughout History p. xxi-xxv
- Relation
- Studies on War and genocide 11
- Relation
- http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/DwyerTheatres
- Publisher
- Berghahn Books
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2012
- Description
- Massacres have occurred throughout recorded history and are even known to have existed in pre-recorded times. Archaeologists have found, for example, evidence of a Neolithic massacre in Talheim, Germany, which is believed to have taken place over seven thousand years ago. The remains of thirty-four victims, male and female and ranging in age from two to sixty, were unearthed during digs in 1983 and 1984. They were bound and most killed by a blow to the left temple before being thrown into a pit. There is more than enough evidence to suggest that as agricultural societies expanded in Neolithic times, so too did disputes over territory resulting in an increase in the frequency of massacres. In recorded times, one of the earliest known reports of a massacre is to be found in the Bible, which details how, around 1350 BC, Joshua and the Israelites, after laying siege to Jericho, 'utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword ... And they burnt the city with fire and all that was therein'. It is a scene that has been played out countless times, almost as though it were part and parcel of warfare, although until quite recently scholars have paid scant attention to and failed to explain the dynamics and indeed the psychology of massacre.
- Subject
- history; massacre; mass killing; atrocity
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1340722
- Identifier
- uon:28558
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780857452993
- Language
- eng
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