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Ice Age & Warfare

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QUESTION: Did the sea level rise after the last Ice Age? When did warfare begin?

HS

ANSWER: About 85% if pre-history ancient sites are actually underwater.  Usually, ancient people were close to the sea. As a result, many pre-history sites are still underwater which sunk after the last Ice Age. A great example of that is Atlit Yam which was an ancient submerged Neolithic village off the coast of Atlit, Israel. It has been carbon-dated as to be between 8900 and 8300 years old. Among the features of the 10-acre site is a stone circle.

The Neolithic (“New Stone Age”), was the final division of the Stone Age period, which began about 12,000 years ago and is distinguished by the first developments of farming. The Neolithic first farmers, spread westward from Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) arriving in central Europe 7500 years ago. They tended to be more settled lives than the nomadic fishing and foraging peoples they displaced, but they also were territorial. There is evidence that there was violence with mass graves so there was clearly warfare even back during the transition to the Neolithic period.

Stonehenge

There are over 35,000 megaliths in Europe alone, ranging from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, which is probably the most famous of this megalithic period. The Neolithic Megalithic era gives way to the Bronze Age. Archaeologists believe Stonehenge was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC.

So yes the sea level rose following the Ice Age and there is evidence that warfare existed even during pre-history.