200,000-Year-Old Skull Bears First Signs of Human Violence

A new analysis of an ancient skull found in China concludes that it's the remains of the earliest murder victim.

A skull believed to be 200,000 years old bears the world's earliest signs of human-on-human violence, according to an American researcher. The prehistoric skull, found in southern China back in 1958, bears a fracture on its right side that led Erik Trinkaus of Washington University to conclude that it was caused by another early human bashing in the victim's face. As such, Trinkaus has determined that the skull belongs to the world's first known murder victim, as the fracture bears the marks of a "very directed, very localized" strike that would have been almost certainly carried out by a human attacker. Trinkaus says that there's a chance the crack could have been caused by an animal or a hunting mishap as well, but that the mano-a-mano violence theory is more convincing. And cool, especially if you dream up all sorts of scenarios that would have led to the murder. A cave break-and-enter gone awry, a lover's quarrel, hunters fighting over the last mastodon rib, Zog's relentless snoring...