Nineteenth-Century Arrow Wounds and Perceptions of Prehistoric Warfare
Nineteenth-Century Arrow Wounds and Perceptions of Prehistoric Warfare
复制标题
十九世纪的箭伤和对史前战争的看法
作者：
G. Milner
近年来，史前战争越来越多地吸引了北美考古学家的注意，就像世界其他地区一样。有多种创伤的骨骼，包括箭伤，经常被用作群体间冲突的证据，尽管就战争对日常生活的影响而言，这些伤亡可能意味着什么，意见分歧。19世纪美国西部印第安人战争中的191名病人的资料表明，只有大约三分之一的箭伤了骨头，多达一半的伤者在受伤后存活了数月或数年。在印第安战争病例、现代巴布亚新几内亚患者和北美东部的史前骨骼中，箭伤的分布各不相同，这在很大程度上是因为战斗方式的不同。尽管有相反的观点，但我们有理由推断，即使考古骨骼中有明显冲突相关骨骼损伤的比例很低，也表明战争一定对生活方式产生了可察觉的影响。
In recent years, prehistoric warfare has increasingly attracted the attention of archaeologists in North America, much like other parts of the world. Skeletons with several forms of trauma, including arrow wounds, are often used as evidence of intergroup conflict, although opinion is divided over what these casualties might mean in terms of the effect of warfare on everyday life. Information on 191 patients from the nineteenth-century Indian Wars in the American West indicates that only about one in three arrows damaged bone, and as many as one-half of wounded lived for months or years following their injuries. Arrow wound distributions vary among Indian Wars cases, modern Papua New Guinea patients, and prehistoric skeletons from eastern North America, in large part because of differences in how fighting was conducted. Despite arguments to the contrary, it is reasonable to infer that even low percentages of archaeological skeletons with distinctive conflict-related bone damage indicate that warfare must have had a perceptible impact on ways of life.