A discovery in northern Vietnam has revealed the earliest documented case of human conflict in Southeast Asia, fundamentally altering our understanding of prehistoric violence in the region. The remarkably preserved 12,000-year-old skeleton of a man was discovered in Thung Binh 1 cave within the dramatic limestone karst of the UNESCO World Heritage Trà ng An landscape.
Led by Dr. Christopher Stimpson of the Natural History Museum London, the international research team’s findings, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, demonstrate that the 35-year-old man, designated TBH1, died from a fatal infection caused by a quartz-tipped projectile wound to his neck, explains a Natural History Museum press release. This discovery represents the earliest documented evidence of interpersonal conflict in mainland Southeast Asia, predating similar regional findings by millennia.