Steady violence part of life in ancient societies in Chile's Atacama Desert, study finds

New Delhi, Sep 24 (PTI) Consistent violence was a part of life for the ancient populations that once inhabited the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, researchers say.

Absence of a central political system and competition for resources in the extreme desert environment may have enabled consistent violence for many millennia in the region, the researchers from universities in the US and Chile said in their study.

They were examining signs of violent trauma on the skeletal remains of 288 adult individuals dating from 10,000 years ago to 1450 AD from funerary sites across the coast of the Atacama Desert, a desert plateau located on the Pacific coast of South America.