ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the relationship between environmental change and the bioarchaeological evidence for violence in Europe through time, focusing on three case-studies: the Neolithic period, the Bronze Age, and the Medieval period. Clinical research has proven that the influence and impact of environmental change reach beyond physical violence and include migration, famine, and poverty. Furthermore, the social and environmental sciences emphasize that climate is an “influencer” on human behavior, suggesting that warfare and conflict will only arise in periods of environmental change if socio-economic inequalities and injustice are also present. Therefore, a broad perspective of violence is explored, not only the effect of “slow violence,” as in the case of the Norse colonization of Greenland, but also “structural violence,” seen in the poor health of populations during The Thirty Years’ War. It also highlights the Medieval primary source evidence for nutritional cannibalism and violence against minority communities. Overall, the evidence shows that from the introduction of farming onwards, environmental change in Europe exacerbated existing inequalities and political instability, often resulting in conflict, migration, and food insecurities. Overall, with the wider recognition that archaeological evidence is a unique archive of climate change, bioarchaeology has the ability to make an unparalleled contribution to research.
