Yet the violence associated with war also has a history, one linked to our human history. One example of this is Kennewick Man (9,320 to 9,510 years old) who was found in the Columbia River valley in Southeastern Washington State. The bones are among the oldest and most complete ancient human remains found in North America. Kennewick Man died after a rough life: he had a half-dozen fractured ribs, arthritic knees and hands, and, most significantly, a 2 by 5 centimeter stone spear point deeply embedded in his pelvis. The absence of observable healing indicates that he died soon after being wounded. We’ll never know who launched that spear or why. In Mesolithic western Europe, around the time period of Kennewick man (10,000 to 5,000 years ago), there is evidence of conflict and violent death, such as the collection of ‘trophy’ skulls from thirty-four men, women, and children found in Ofnet Cave in Germany. This massacre may not have been the result of what we would call war today, but that level of violence is present during the Neolithic (7,000 to 4,000 years ago, depending on the region) when many of our ancestors had shifted from hunting and gathering to farming. Indications of conflict become more pervasive, and fortifications characterize many areas of the world.

An archaeologist by training, I have personally encountered evidence resulting from the violence of war. The earliest large scale evidence of primitive warfare in China consists of fortifications built by pre-state societies in the early to late Neolithic period. As in many cultures around the world, these earliest fortifications emerged from intensive inter-group conflict leading to competition between belligerent polities. Evidence of this conflict includes stone arrowheads, defensive wounds on skeletal remains (especially arms broken from parrying blows) and partial human skeletons representing battle ‘trophies’ at fortification sites. I have excavated pits with disarticulated bones representing as many as eighteen individuals who appear to have died particularly violent deaths. Many of my colleagues working in China and Europe have had similar experiences. As Lawrence Keely notes in his book War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage, the archaeological record suggests that homicide has been with us at least since the appearance of modern humankind. Evidence for warfare can be found in the archaeological record of the past 10,000 years in every well-studied region.

It is not surprising, therefore, that folklore, legends, and epic oral traditions of preliterate cultures so often focus upon wars and warrior kings. Homer’s epic about the fall of Troy is only one example of this. Nor is it surprising that the first recorded written accounts of human exploits are military histories. Some of the earliest Egyptian pictographic and hieroglyphic records proclaim victories of Egypt’s first pharaohs, and among the oldest cuneiform documents are accounts of battles between rival Sumerian city-states. Intricately inscribed stelae convey the biographies and military exploits of Mayan kings. In fact, stories that appear to take war for granted can be found in the majority of human societies.

In The Invention of Peace, author Michael Howard holds that war is as old as humankind, but the idea of peace may be a modern invention. This modern concept of peace is more than the mere absence of war. Peace requires a social and political ordering of both the local and the global society that is generally accepted as just. Resentment arising from global competition, international capitalism, and the threat posed by both to indigenous values and social cohesion make achieving and maintaining peace a complex affair. Both war and peace start in the minds of people. This brings me back to my little bubble and the fact that not only do I live in history, but also I live in a complex world of social relations that make agreeing on the fundamental conditions of peace very difficult. There will continue to be wars into the foreseeable future; our task is to limit war by finding common goals that lead us back to peace. As Sun Tze says in The Art of War (2,475-2,221 years ago, early Warring States period in China), “The best battle is the battle that is won without being fought.”

This is our last issue of The Figure in the Carpet until September 2003. We wish all our readers a peaceful summer and we, your friendly neighborhood humanists, will see you in the fall.

Jian Leng
Assistant Director, IWC

Where can one go to learn tips on writing a romance novel, find fun facts about Route 66 and just about everything in between? St. Louis County Library, of course. But, instead of having to look these up in the card catalog (well, okay, on the computer now-days), you’ll be able to ask the authors your questions first hand.

During “Get Caught Reading,” a nationwide, month-long event in May that was launched in 1999 by the Association of American Publishers (AAP), St. Louis County Library (SLCL) will bring in several authors for the public to come hear speak about their profession or their latest work and ask questions of, free of charge, just like it has since 2001. The campaign’s philosophy to “remind people of all ages how much fun it is to read” was right up the library’s alley and SLCL jumped into the campaign with both feet.

Authors who visited in 2001 were: Michael Kahn, William Least Heat-Moon, Alexandra Villard de Borchgrave and Eileen Dreyer. The Friends of St. Louis County Library sponsored most of the author visits with William Least Heat-Moon’s arranged by Left Bank Books.

In 2002 the library held 14 programs specifically for Get Caught Reading Month. Cardinal baseball, the St. Louis Zoo, romance, the Plague, and gardening were just a few of the topics touched upon by the authors. Several authors were local, including David Carkeet, Rett McPherson, Bobbi Smith, Edward Sylvia, Patricia Corrigan, and Rob Rains.

From classes on how to use NoveList, an electronic database that can help you find other books to read, to authors Gary Shteyngart (The Russian Debutante’s Handbook), Iris Chang (The Chinese in America: A Narrative History) and Washington University alum Marshall Boswell (Trouble with Girls), to a presentation on Route 66, SLCL will continue to “promote the message that reading is one of life’s true joys” in 2003.

To find out more about “Get Caught Reading” at SLCL, please go online to: www.slcl.org or call 314-994-3300. To find out more about “Get Caught Reading” in general, visit: www.getcaughtreading.org or call: 212-255-0200.

Carrie Zukoski is the Public Relations Coordinator for St. Louis County Library.