The Past as a Foreign Country:

Biographical Data: Linda Fibiger is a Lecturer in Human Osteoarchaeology at the University of Edinburgh and Programme Director of the MSc in Human Osteoarchaeology. She has published on the promotion of professional standards, ethics and legislation in bioarchaeology and is currently involved in the European-funded TRACES project that focuses on the challenges and opportunities inherent in transmitting contentious cultural heritage in contemporary Europe. She also has a long-standing interest in interpersonal violence and cranial trauma, investigating - through analytical and experimental approaches - how age and gender influence involvement in violent interaction in prehistoric Europe. Abstract: Steven Pinker’s thesis on the decline of violence since prehistory has resulted in many popular and scholarly debates on the topic that have ranged – at times even raged – across the disciplinary spectrum of evolution, psychology, philosophy, biology, history and beyond. Those disciplines that made the most substantial contribution to the empirical data underpinning Pinker’s notion of a more violent prehistoric past, namely archaeology and bioarchaeology/physical anthropology, have not featured as prominently in these discussions as may be expected. This article will focus on some of the issues resulting from Pinker’s oversimplified cross-disciplinary use of bioarchaeological datasets in support of his linear model of the past, a model that, incidentally, has yet to be incorporated into current accounts of violent practices in prehistory.