A Dataset for Violence Trends in the Ancient Middle East between 12,000 and 400 BCE

Thsi archive provides all data generated and analysed and the custom codes produced for the study which will be published in Nature Human Behaviour with the title "Violence Trends in the Ancient Middle East between 12,000 and 400 BCE". In this paper we study violence trends in the very long run by exploiting a novel dataset on cranial trauma and weapon-related wounds from skeletons excavated across the Middle East, spanning the whole pre-Classical period (ca. 12,000-400 BCE). The data set includes more than 3,500 individuals. These data have been collected from existing online digital archives, electronic and print original publications, and from unpublished field reports.