Violence seems deeply rooted in human nature and an endemic potential for such is today frequently associated with differing ethnic, religious or socio-economic backgrounds. Ethnic nepotism is believed to be one of the main causes of inter-group violence in multi-ethnic societies. At the site of Els Trocs in the Spanish Pyrenees, rivalling groups of either migrating early farmers or farmers and indigenous hunter-gatherers collided violently around 5300 BCE. This clash apparently resulted in a massacre of the Els Trocs farmers. The overkill reaction was possibly triggered by xenophobia or massive disputes over resources or privileges. In the present, violence and xenophobia are controlled and sanctioned through social codes of conduct and institutions. So that, rather than representing an insurmountable evolutionary inheritance, violence and ethnic nepotism can be overcome and a sustainable future achieved through mutual respect, tolerance and openness to multi-ethnic societies.

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ResumenEn este trabajo se trata el reciente descubrimiento de un fenómeno peculiar de gran interés en el Calcolítico campaniforme del Valle de Ambrona (Soria, España), que es la existencia de numerosos túmulos que parecen tumbas pero que no lo son. Algunos contienen incluso ofrendas materiales valiosas (finas cerámicas decoradas, orfebrería de oro) pero no huesos humanos. Esta ausencia no puede atribuirse a factores de preservación diferencial, ya que estos túmulos no se sitúan en suelos ácidos, y de hecho se encuentran fragmentos de fauna en muchos yacimientos de los alrededores. Podríamos interpretarlos, por ello, como testimonios de actividades ceremoniales, que en ocasiones incluirían rituales de comensalidad (en el interior de algunos túmulos se descubrieron recipients rotos intencionadamente). El túmulo se erigiría para señalar y conmemorar en el paisaje tales acontecimientos (¿cenotafios que evocan la muerte de alguien importante lejos de su tierra?) y lugares (localización de rasgos especiales del entorno en sus geografías mitológicas).Palabras clave: Calcolítico, Campaniforme, Túmulos, Ritual, Soria, España AbstractIn this article we will discuss on a peculiar and interesting feature recently discovered in the archaeological record of Copper Age Bell Beakers in the Ambrona Valley (Soria, Spain), that is the existence of barrows which look like tombs but they were not. They even include valuable items (finely decorated pottery, gold jewellery) but no sign of human bones. This absence could not be explained by selective preservation of the materials, since those barrows are not located in acid soils, and faunal remains are usually found in other sites of the same area. We could interpret this special finds as the archaeological testimonies of eventual ceremonial activities, perhaps including commensality rituals (intentionally broken pots are found inside them), being the stone mound the commemoration in the landscape of those important events (a possible cenotaph evoking the death of someone important away from his hometown?) or places (the location of special features of the environment in their mythic geographies).