It would have been impossible to imagine that farming in the Atacama Desert would prove easy.
However, the harsh challenges of living in the harshest, most hostile environments on Earth (and non-polar deserts) proved fatal to many.
The people were some of the most dangerous hazards.
Researchers have conducted a new study to examine the grisly remains of some of the earliest horticulturalists to attempt to cultivate the Atacama desert in Chile. This was approximately 3,000 years ago.
The marks of severe trauma to the face. (Standen et al., JAA, 2021)
It was not just difficult to grow crops in this very dry area. Social tensions during a period of cultural and societal transformation led to violent confrontations and violence. Today, skeletons still bear the marks of these conflicts.
"In this extreme desert farming was severely restricted and confined only to valley terraces and quebradas and oases with these pockets of land separated sterile interfluvial pampas that dominated landscape," write researchers led by Vivien Standen, an anthropologist from the University of Tarapac, Chile.
"Disturbing yourself from the fertile coast meant that you had to move out of these productive oases and face barren landscapes devoid of water and other resources necessary for subsistence. This new socio-cultural framework could have caused social tensions, conflict and violence among those who invest in horticultural lifestyles.
The researchers examined the remains of 194 adults buried in Azapa Valley's ancient cemeteries. This valley was once one the richest and most fertile in northern Chile.
These skeletons have been preserved due to extreme desert conditions. Some still feature hair and soft tissue, some as early as 800-600 BCE.
However, violence and fighting are evident in many of these farmers.
Fractures of the skull, including possible slingstone impacts. (Standen et al., JAA, 2021)
Researchers explain that 21 percent of the 194 adults studied had trauma compatible with interpersonal violence. This was regardless of the extent of completeness of their bodies.
"10% (20/194) of the total sample showed perimortem trauma [at or near death] most often with probable lethal consequences. In 14 cases, perimortem fractures of the cranium could be seen.
Researchers found that many of these trauma marks with high impact would have been caused intentionally and deliberately by individuals who were involved in situations of interpersonal violence. This could include killing blows or frontal confrontations.
Researchers found that some individuals suffered severe, high-impact fractures of their craniums that resulted in massive destruction of their faces and neurocraniums. They also noted that there was a possibility of brain damage from outflowing brain mass and craniofacial disjunction.
Individuals suffering trauma in a mass cemetery, in unusual body positions. (Standen et al., JAA, 2021)
Researchers believe that violence was caused by disputes over living space and resources such as land and water. They also think climate events like the El NioSouthern Oscillation were likely to have contributed to the outbreaks.
The team says that these factors could have caused competition, tensions and violent conflicts among competing social groups in Azapa Valley during Formative Period.
"Moreover, in the new economic mode based upon land use and horticultural cultivation, emergent leaders might have tried to gain greater power and prestige by trying control productive spaces and creating social inequalities in stressful conditions."
These findings were published in the Journal of Anthropological archaeology.
