9 October 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Researchers measure the impact of Population Pressure on Prehistoric Violence in Japan’s Yayoi Period

Are wars part of human nature? Do people tend to fight instinctively or do they war as a result of environmental factors? Whether war is a result of human nature or not is the main point of various disciplines such as anthropology, archeology, philosophy.

Researchers have put forward a series of ideas about why humans participate in wars. There is a long list of triggers for inter-group violence, whether it is the transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture, the development of weapons, ecological constraints, or population pressure.

The population pressure hypothesis has come to the fore recently with climate changes. The hypothesis points out that population growth will lead to scarcity of resources, leading to competition and conflicts for resources. Although this statement is widely accepted, few studies quantitatively support the origin of inter-group violence caused by population pressure based on actual archaeological data.

Professor Naoko Matsumoto of Okayama University and her colleagues studied skeleton remains and jar coffins, known as kamekan, from the Middle Yayoi era (350 BC to AD 25 CE) in northern Kyushu, Japan, to fill in the gaps in this hypothesis.

Because the skeletal remains in the Yayoi period suggest a large rise in the incidence of violence compared to those living in the preceding Jomon period, this region has been the subject of inter-group violence research.



📣 Our WhatsApp channel is now LIVE! Stay up-to-date with the latest news and updates, just click here to follow us on WhatsApp and never miss a thing!!



“The inhabitants of the Yayoi period practiced subsistence agriculture, in particular wet rice cultivation,” says Professor Matsumoto. “This was introduced by immigrants from the Korean peninsula along with weapons such as stone arrowheads and daggers, resulting in enclosed settlements accompanied by warfare or large-scale inter-group violence. However, those living during the Jomon period were primarily pottery-makers who followed a complex hunter-gatherer lifestyle and had low mortality rates caused by conflict.”

Japan Yayoi culture
The trauma is slightly healed. However, because it seems to have been severe enough to have caused terrible damage to the person, it is likely perimortem (owned by Chikushino City Board of Education)

Professor Matsumoto and her team assessed population pressure from the ratio of population to arable land, using numbers of well-dated burial jars as a proxy for population size. The frequency of violence was determined using percentages of wounded people found among the skeleton population, followed by a statistical study of the relationship between population pressure and the frequency of violence.

The results of the investigation were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The researchers uncovered 47 skeletal remains with trauma, in addition to 51 sites containing burial jars in the Itoshima Plain, 46 in the Sawara Plain, 72 in the Fukuoka Plain, 42 in the Mikuni Hills, 37 in the east Tsukushi Plain, and 50 in the central Tsukushi Plain, encompassing all six study sites. They found that the highest number of injured individuals and the highest frequency-of-violence levels occurred in the Mikuni Hills, the east Tsukushi Plain, and the Sawara Plain. Interestingly, the Mikuni Hills and the central Tsukushi Plain also showed the highest overall values for population pressure. Overall, statistical analyses supported that population pressure affected the frequency of violence.

However, the peak population did not correlate with the frequency of violence. High levels of population pressure in the Mikuni Hills and the central Tsukushi Plain showed low frequency-of-violence values, while the relatively low population pressures of the east Tsukushi Plain and Sawara Plain were linked to higher frequency-of-violence levels.

Professor Matsumoto reasons there may be other factors that could have indirectly influenced such high levels of violence in the Middle Yayoi period. “I think that the development of a social hierarchy or political organization might also have affected the level of violence. We have seen stratified burial systems in which certain members of the ruling elite, referred to as ‘kings’ in Japanese archaeology, have tombs with large quantities of prestige goods such as weapons and mirrors”, she says. “It is worth noting that the frequency of violence tends to be lower in the subregions with such kingly tombs. This suggests that powerful elites might have a role in repressing the frequency of violence.”

The evidence collected by Professor Matsumoto and her team undeniably confirms a positive correlation between population pressure and higher levels of violence and may help devise mechanisms to avoid seemingly never-ending conflicts in motion today. Further research based on these insights could identify other variables at play in determining the root causes of inter-group violence and actively prevent them.


The study is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Source: Okayama University( August 19, 2021)

Related Articles

5500-year-old city gate unearthed in Israel -the earliest known in the Land of Israel-

15 August 2023

15 August 2023

The Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday that archaeologists have discovered the earliest known ancient gate in the land of...

Unique Rock Tomb Discovered in Southeastern Türkiye’s Şanlıurfa

3 March 2025

3 March 2025

Hasan Şıldak, the governor of the city of Şanlıurfa in south-eastern Türkiye, announced on his social media account that a...

Extraordinary discovery for the Western Baltic Sea region: a 400-year-old shipwreck Found at Bottom of German River

3 August 2022

3 August 2022

During a routine measurement at Trave, near Lübeck, in the northern part of Germany,  Kiel-Holtenau Waterways and Shipping Authority (Wasserstraßen-...

The World’s Earliest Ground Stone Needles Found in Western Tibetan Plateau

26 June 2024

26 June 2024

In western Tibet, six peculiar stone artifacts were discovered in 2020 by archaeologists excavating close to the shore of Lake...

Ancient Mastaba Tomb of Royal Physician “Magician of the Goddess Selket” discovered in Sakkara

7 January 2025

7 January 2025

In the southern region of the Saqqara archaeological site, a joint French-Swiss archaeological team made an important discovery uncovering the...

The Lord’s Prayer Carved in Stone with Scandinavian Runes and a Picture of a Boat Discovered in Ontario, Canada

17 June 2025

17 June 2025

Hidden deep in the northern Ontario wilderness, an extraordinary archeological discovery has puzzled researchers and captured the imagination of history...

Spectacular gold find from early medieval tombs in Basel

28 November 2022

28 November 2022

An excavation in Basel’s Kleinbasel neighborhood, Switzerland, has uncovered 15 graves, some richly furnished, from an early medieval burial ground....

China’s 4300-Year-Old Ancient Pyramids

26 March 2021

26 March 2021

Shaanxi Province in Northwest China is famous for its rich archaeological treasures. Among the many sites discovered in Shaanxi, the...

Buried Treasure of Trajan’s Forum: Colossal Marble Head Discovered

23 June 2025

23 June 2025

A remarkable archaeological discovery has emerged from the heart of imperial Rome. During recent excavations on Via Alessandrina—funded by Italy’s...

The mythical hero of Troy and Rome Aeneas’s peerless mosaic discovered in Türkiye

11 May 2023

11 May 2023

A large mosaic depicting the legendary Trojan hero Aeneas, the protagonist of Virgil’s epic poem “The Aeneid” and the ancestor...

Christians Supplied Medieval Pagans with Horses for Sacrifice for Funeral Rituals

20 May 2024

20 May 2024

In the late medieval period, pagans in the Baltic region of northern Europe imported horses from neighboring Christian nations for...

Well-Preserved Wooden Houses Over 2,000 Years Old Discovered in Zhejiang, China

15 March 2025

15 March 2025

In a remarkable archaeological find, researchers in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China, have uncovered exceptionally well-preserved wooden houses dating back over...

Early Farmers in Central Asia? 9,000-Year-Old Barley Harvest in Uzbekistan Challenges Agricultural Origins

1 September 2025

1 September 2025

Archaeologists have uncovered groundbreaking evidence in southern Uzbekistan that reshapes our understanding of when and where farming began. A new...

1500-year-old Amulet Made to Ward off the Evil Eye in Galilee

26 May 2021

26 May 2021

Discovered about 40 years ago in the Galilee village of Arbel, the necklace sheds light on life 1500 years ago....

Rare Anglo-Saxon Gold and Garnet Artifacts Discovered in Wiltshire

12 May 2025

12 May 2025

A breathtaking discovery in the southwestern English county of Wiltshire has captivated archaeologists and metal detecting enthusiasts alike. Two detectorists,...