Prehistoric Warfare

For a century, archaeologists have puzzled over the enigma of successful whaling unfolding with no predecessors prior to the last two millennia. The emergence of social complexity is linked with the appearance of the Old Bering Sea (OBS) aesthetic engraved on walrus ivory implements found in sites with large cemeteries and thick middens. Significantly, many OBS sites co-occur with major haulout locations for Pacific walrus, whose procurement engendered relationships that, along with seafaring or hunting technology, were the pivotal drivers that fostered whaling. Our revision of extant 14 C assays to correct for marine carbon produces a younger 'Low' chronology placing the OBS florescence between AD 650-1250, with its earliest phase Okvik and allied Ipiutak communities from AD 300 to 600. The lithic technology of OBS is distinctive in its notched bifaces with affinities to 3000-year-old Chukchi Archaic assemblages. Later influences on OBS development include Ipiutak lithic technology and suggest migration, and either adversarial, or trading relationships with Alaska. The acquisition of rare commodities (driftwood, iron and obsidian) contributed to differential success and resulted in inequality recorded in burials.

Following Wheeler’s excavations at Maiden Castle, the multivallate hillforts of Wessex came to be seen as
responses to a specific form of warfare based around the massed use of slings. As part of the wider post-processual
‘rethink’ of the British Iron Age during the late 1980s and 1990s, this traditional ‘military’ interpretation of
hillforts was increasingly subject to criticism. Apparent weaknesses in hillfort design were identified and many of
the most distinctive features of these sites (depth of enclosure, complexity of entrance arrangements, etc) were
reinterpreted as symbols of social isolation. Yet this ‘pacification’ of hillforts is in many ways as unsatisfactory as
the traditional vision. Both camps have tended to view warfare as a detached, functional, and disembedded
activity which can be analysed in terms of essentially timeless concepts of military efficiency. Consideration of the
use of analogous structures in the ethnographic record suggests that, far from being mutually exclusive, the
military and symbolic dimensions are both essential to a more nuanced understanding of the wider social role of
hillforts in Britain and beyond.

This paper considers archaeological evidence for warfare and conflict in Bronze Age Ireland, with specific reference to the destruction of hillforts during the later second millennium BC. These centres were built at a time of growing militarism, reflected in an increased output of bronze weaponry, including the first use of swords. The indications are of a society obsessed with power and status, with competitive tendencies that on occasion led to open warfare. Recent fieldwork has uncovered evidence of conflict at a number of hillforts across Ireland, the significance of which is considered in relation to the political landscape of the Middle and Late Bronze Age.

The purpose of the present paper is to provide a review and analysis of the main archaeological and paleoanthropological markers of armed violence in the period from the emergence of the first stone tools (Lower Paleolithic, ca. 3 mya) to the appearance of metalworking (Eneolithic, ca. 5 kya). This evidence is then used as a basis for assessing the dynamics of armed violence on the chronological scale. Until now this subject has received little attention in the Russian scholarship (in contrast to the Western one). Empirically, the paper is focused on the materials from three Old World continents: Africa, Europe and Asia. Particular attention is given to the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic human skeletal remains bearing the marks of traumas inflicted by weapons, including bones with embedded projectiles. The available evidence makes it possible to try to ascertain the main shifts in the historical dynamics of armed violence during the Stone Age. Its role appears to have substantially increased at least twice: first, at the turn of the Paleolithic and Mesolithic and, second, in the Late Neolithic / Early Eneolithic, that is at the turn of the Stone Age and Early Metal Period. It was exactly during this period that Homo bellicosus for the first time enters the arena of history not as an occasional and secondary actor, but as the main cast. Material and ideological changes and novelties serving to and associated with armed violence and warfare, that can be observed from the end of the Neolithic, are clearly indicative of the process of militarization of culture.

Since 1973, a long-term, variable-scale, multi-disciplinary program of archaeological research has been conducted in the Crawford Lake area, above and below the Niagara Escarpment, north of Lake Ontario in southern Ontario, Canada.  This study in settlement archaeology has revealed an intensive and complex occupation of the area by Ontario Iroquoian peoples between approximately A.D. 1000 and 1650.  These Iroquoians were slash-and-burn horticulturalists, who grew corn, beans, squash, sunflower and tobacco, and who also hunted, fished and gathered.  They lived in villages of longhouses often surrounded by palisades.  The Niagara Escarpment is the most prominent geological feature of the local landscape, and it served as a frontier area between the two major confederacies of Iroquoians, the Huron and Neutral.  J.V. Wright’s Ontario Iroquois Tradition (1966) is adopted as the cultural-historical model best suited to the study, and is refined with the definition of Early and Late Pickering substages of the Early Ontario Iroquois stage and the proposal  that Glen Meyer peoples were ‘proto-Algonquians’, not ‘proto-Iroquoians’.
This study has revealed that the Crawford Lake area was initially occupied by ‘proto-Huron’ Pickering, Uren and Middleport peoples.  During the occupation by these ‘proto-Huron’ Middleport peoples, several communities of ‘proto-Neutral’ Middleport peoples moved into the area from the west and evolved into the prehistoric and historic Neutral peoples documented by French missionaries in the early 17th century.  The fate of the ‘proto-Huron’ Middleport people remains unknown; four hypotheses are presented as possible explanations.
Using data on phases of forest clearance and non-clearance inferred from the palynological study of the varved sediments of Crawford Lake by Roger Bryne, the chronology of the Ontario Iroquois Tradition has been refined.  It is proposed that the Early Pickering substage of the Ontario Iroquois stage dates from A.D. 1030 to 1180; the Late Pickering substage from A.D. 1180 to 1330; the Uren substage of the Middle Ontario Iroquois stage from A.D. 1330 to 1420; the Middleport substage of the Middle Ontario Iroquois stage from A.D. 1420 to  1504; and the prehistoric Neutral division of the Late Ontario Iroquois stage from A.D. 1504 to 1550.  This fine-grained chronology suggests that the Middleport substage lasts considerably longer and ends later than previously thought, while the prehistoric Neutral division starts and ends earlier than current interpretations based on course-grained C-14 dates.
Using this chronology, the culture history of the Crawford Lake area is presented, including new data in support of J.V. Wright’s (1992) Conquest Theory in which Pickering peoples of southeastern Ontario conquered the Glen Meyer people of southwestern Ontario in the early 14th century.  This conquest was possible due to the formation of militaristic confederacies by Early Pickering substage people in the 12th century which resulted in very large villages on the western frontier.  After the conquest, the frontier moved west and with the threat of imminent attach lessened, the Uren peoples no longer had to live in palisaded villages. 
One of the most important contributions of the study is the presentation of evidence that Middleport peoples in these frontier communities made their tools, articles for personal adornment and motifs on ceramics as badges of their identity.  Characteristics of the Crawford Lake locality ‘proto-Huron’ Middleport sites include: pottery vessels with high frequencies of lip and interior decoration ; high collared vessels with an average of 11 relatively narrow horizontal lines of decoration; ceramic pipes with elaborated decoration comprised of squares and rhomboids filled with parallel incised lines; modified deer phalanges with the proximal end cut off to expose the marrow cavity; and projectile points which are predominantly triangular.  By way of contrast , the ‘proto-Neutral’ Middleport sites of the Mountsberg and Kelso localities are characterized by very low frequencies of lip and interior decoration, high collared vessels with an average of eight rows of relatively wide horizontal lines, ceramic pipes with flaring bowls; modified deer phalanges with distal ends perforated; a variety of bone projectile points and projectile points for the Mountsberg locality, which are predominantly side-notched.  Further, there are sufficient differences amongst contemporaneous “proto-Neutral’ Middleport communities which assist in their definition.
The data gathered in this four-volume study are used to test a model developed from ethnographic data on the Yanomamo, a society of  slash-and-burn horticulturalists in Brazil and Venezuela, and from the ethnohistorical data for the Huron to explain interactions amongst these contemporaneous Middleport settlements  in the Crawford Lake area.  Current evidence suggests that alliance formation and maintenance were the key factors in the changes which these societies and their material culture underwent. 
The study concludes with a retrospect on the results of the first 25 years of research with suggested directions for research in the 21st century.

H. Meller, Armeen in der Frühbronzezeit? In: H. Meller/M. Schefzik (Hrsg.), Krieg – eine archäologische Spurensuche. Begleitband zur Sonderausstellung im Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale) 6. November 2015 bis 22. Mai 2016 (Halle [Saale] 2015) 243-252.

H. Meller, Krieg im europäischen Neolithikum. In: H. Meller/M. Schefzik (Hrsg.), Krieg – eine archäologische Spurensuche. Begleitband zur Sonderausstellung im Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale) 6. November 2015 bis 22. Mai 2016 (Halle [Saale] 2015) 109-116.

The full 1981 original report for the USACE-Omaha District on the Crow Creek Massacre (39BF11) in South Dakota. 379 pages. A poorly scanned pdf of the typescript, but very readable. Image scans are of poor quality. The scanners scan records occupy the first few pages, so scroll by them. Authors: L. Zimmerman, T. Emerson,  P. Willey, M Swegle, J. Gregg, P. Gregg, T. Haberman, E. White, C. Smith, M. P. Bumsted. The Appendices include all reviewer comments and author responses.

JEUNESSE C. (2021) Guerre et idéologie du guerrier dans l’Europe des IVe et IIIe millénaires, L’Archéologue 160, 2021, 13-21 – with full english translation

The data available for the European Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods suggest that the practice of warfare preceded the emergence of a warrior ideology in this geographical area. The second appears in the first half of the fourth millennium, probably within the North Caucasian culture of Maikop. The development of a warrior ideology, whose social and symbolic impact goes far beyond the practice of war strictly speaking, is typical of stratified societies (chiefdom or primitive kingship). It can, however, spread to contemporaneous peripheral or later acephalous societies. In this case, there is an adaptation to local socio-political contexts. Oral literature probably plays a central role in this diffusion process. The article examines how an ideology born in the North Caucasus at the beginning of the fourth millennium contributed to a profound change in the European ideological landscape during the following 15 centuries.

Why do people fight each other? How is it possible that people who are able to peacefully live together at one moment, can kill each other at another? These are questions that have been occupying philosophers and social scientists for a long time. This small book shows that answers to these fundamental questions on the human condition tend to be looked for in our deep past. Since archaeology is our prime source of information on that past, it is the investigation of prehistory that should concern us when dealing with such questions. This text aims to do so, by contrasting a case of extreme violence in relatively peaceful Early Neolithic society, to ways people had to resolve social tensions in violent societies of the Bronze and Iron Age in Europe. Using insights from psychology, it shows people are first and foremost social beings, and that both violence and peace are rooted in sociality.

H. Meller, Der Anfang vom Ende. Überlegungen zur Entstehung des Krieges im Neolithikum. In: H. Meller (Hrsg.), 3300 BC. Mysteriöse Steinzeittote und ihre Welt. Sonderausstellung vom 14.11.2013 bis 18.05.2014 im Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Halle [Saale] 2013) 239–245.

A review of fortified places in Northern Central Europe and Scandinavia dated to the Pre-Roman Iron Age. It is shown that only very such places have been investigated, but that the diversity in spite of this is great. In Denmark two fortified villages have been investigated while in most other places the inner space of the fortifications have either not been excavated or did not show signs of settlement of a permanent character. Beside enclosures also a number of cross country barrages  as well as sub marine barrages are known. The implication of the various types of fortifications for our understanding of the Pre-Roman Iron Age in Northern Europe is finally discussed.

War in prehistoric times: facts and fiction.

Similar to numerous other scientific disciplines Prehistoric Archaeology is concerned with the description and historical allocation of human violence and war. Moreover, this field of study also contemplates pre-state periods, and it tracks developments over longer timespans. Although models that are oriented toward states of Antiquity, the Medieval period and the modern times, play a dominant role in the interpretation
of prehistoric find contexts, giving the impression that human society has always been marked by violence and war, as it is today. Distinctions between forms of violence are seldom made; trauma is generally the testimony of war, and the grounds for wars seem similar to those of today – such as natural resources, territory and possession. A study of ethnological sources shows that this image cannot be correct, and that a closer analysis of archaeological and anthropological contexts reveals significant differences between times and regions, which are difficult to explain following current models. This set of problems is illustrated with examples.

Die Prähistorische Archäologie ist neben zahlreichen anderen Wissenschaftsdisziplinen damit befasst, menschliche Gewalt und Krieg zu beschreiben und historisch einzuordnen. Sie ist darüber hinaus in der Lage, einen Blick in vorstaatliche Zeiten zu werfen und Entwicklungen über lange Zeiträume zu
verfolgen. Gleichwohl spielen Modellvorstellungen, die sich an Staaten der Antike, des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit orientieren, bei der Deutung prähistorischer Befunde eine dominante Rolle – so entsteht der Eindruck, dass Gewalt und Krieg die menschlichen Gesellschaften schon immer in ähnlicher Weise prägten, wie sie es bis heute tun. Dabei wird selten zwischen Gewaltformen unterschieden, Traumata gelten
generell als Belege für Krieg, und auch die Gründe für die Kriege scheinen den heutigen zu gleichen – genannt seien Ressourcen, Territorien und Besitz. Schon ein kleiner Blick in ethnologische Quellen zeigt, dass dieses Bild nicht stimmen kann, und eine genauere Analyse archäologischer und anthropologischer Befunde ergibt erhebliche Unterschiede zwischen Zeiten und Regionen, die mit den gängigen Modellen
nur schwer erklärbar sind. Diese Problematik wird anhand einiger Beispiele verdeutlicht.

En primer lugar senalamos que la caracterizacion del conflicto belico no puede separarse de las contradicciones sociales (sobre todo internas) que caracterizan el desarrollo de las sociedades jerarquicas, aun cuando tanto la identificacion de estas, como del propio conflicto sea, a veces, dificil en los contextos europeos prehistoricos para los que se carece de otros datos. En segundo lugar, el analisis de algunos de los indicadores habitualmente utilizados para hablar de “conflicto” belico, a partir de datos arqueologicos, nos permite senalar que la minusvaloracion de este por parte de algunos investigadores responde a proyecciones ideologicas actuales y, en ningun caso, a ausencia de indicios en el registro arqueologico. Evidentemente ello no quiere decir que el conflicto fuese siempre abierto.

R. Risch/H. Meller, Kampf und Tod – Felsbildkunst in der Sahara und am westlichen Mittelmeer. In: H. Meller/M. Schefzik (Hrsg.), Krieg – eine archäologische Spurensuche. Begleitband zur Sonderausstellung im Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale) 6. November 2015 bis 22. Mai 2016 (Halle [Saale] 2015) 119-125.

This study examines the spatial patterning of shield iconography at late Pueblo III sites (A.D. 1250-1300) in the Tsegi Canyon system, as an indicator of shared group identity. In the mid-13th century, the Tsegi Canyon region of northeastern Arizona followed a greater regional trend of communities coalescing into defensive high canyon alcoves, accompanied by the adoption of shield iconography, likely influenced by Freemont traditions to the north. These images are variously interpreted to represent clan symbols, warning signs to enemies, or magically imbued protective icons. In the Tsegi area, this motif followed a strict spatial pattern of placing large, usually white, shield imagery on the right side of cliff dwellings. By comparing the spatial placement of shield imagery on Pueblo III sites throughout the Northern Southwest, it is evident that the communities of the Tsegi Canyon system may be differentiated through their commitment to the placement of these iconic, highly visible pictographs on the right side of cliff dwellings. Rather than the imagery adorning the shields, group affiliation among Tsegi populations is best demonstrated by this formalized placement of the motif on defensive sites.

Taking the outset in two finds of bone points in Norway, the distribution and use of the artefact type is discussed. Points of bone and antler are frequent¬ly found at settlements and in wetlands in Northern Europe. However, the exact distribution of the artefact type is hard to determine because its modest design makes it easy to overlook. This is also the reason why it is usually looked upon as a sign of poverty and as second rate. It seems the artefact type had more than one area of use; as a tool, as an implement for fishing and hunting, and as a combat weapon. Concerning the latter, it is argued that the points of bone and antler were valued and efficient weapons that more likely served as spears rather than javelins. This is confirmed by ancient written sources.

The effect of warfare on hunter-gatherers is a question that has recently come to be a focus of conflict archaeology. One subject that is of particular interest is the identification of weaponry in Southern California. Numerous accounts have been given of club-type weapons and bows used for offense and defense. However, the archaeological evidence remains sparse because of the fragility and multiple uses of these artifacts. This research will analyze the role and impact of these weapons on conflict of Southern California societies. To analyze weaponry, a detailed examination of clubs from previously excavated collections is undertaken in conjunction with an experiment to observe trauma inflicted by the weapons. The experiment consists of wielding clubs on and shooting arrows in a pig carcass, both armored and unarmored, to see the amount of trauma inflicted on the tissue and bone. The clubs and armor are replicas of artifacts represented in primary accounts and museums. A comparison to similar weapons from other cultures (Europeans, Eastern Woodland tribes, and Polynesia) is included for analogy. The hypotheses of this experiment are: If a war club is effective, then the damage to the tissue and bone will be significant, and if armor is effective, then most damage will be dispersed. From the data, a detail of the impact of weapons and the tactics of these societies is determined.

The Chief and his Sword? – Comments Regarding the Social Position of the Sword-bearing Man in the Early Nordic Bronze Age

In Northern Europe as elsewhere, Bronze Age swords are interpreted as weapons and status symbols of a male elite often referred to as “chiefs”. According to technical and use-wear analyses, it is likely to assume that the function and meaning of swords contained practical, social and symbolic aspects. Find contexts show that swords served as important symbols regarding the definition of the role and identity of the buried individuals, while the often mentioned differences in the burial equipments cannot be generalised. Model-based assumptions on the number of sword-bearers, varying between 10 % and 20 % of the total number of adult men, lead to the assumption that they were not only a small elite but rather a broader social class of free men. This social class was further segmented as demonstrated by the differences in quality of objects and sizes of houses and burial mounds. Altogether, the society of the Nordic Bronze Age consisted of a complex and instable network, lacking a centralised power in which social groups competed by different means. In this context sword-bearers can be perceived as men of a certain status but not necessarily as chiefs.

Practice and Prestige: An Exploration of Neolithic Warfare, Bell Beaker Archery, and Social Stratification from an Anthropological Perspective investigates the appearance of the ‘archer’s package’ in select Bell Beaker burials raising questions of daily life, warfare, and social stratification during the Neolithic period. It draws on a recent study by the author that applied an anthropological methodology to assess the bone morphology of these skeletons for signs of specialised archery activity. These analyses revealed results at both a population as well as an individual level. In order to contextualise these osteological findings, the book explores the evidence for warfare and archery throughout the Neolithic period in general and the Bell Beaker period in particular. This perspective considers warfare to be a primary function of archery, thereby associating ‘archer’ burials with concepts of warfare and the warrior. A second perspective delves into prehistoric concepts of specialisation and social hierarchy in order to situate archers, archery, and warfare within potentially stratified populations. These two perspectives allow for the contextualisation of the anthropological results within a broad archaeological framework in which archers and archery were prominent parts of a complex Bell Beaker society.

Abstract - The Rio Abajo region of central New Mexico has for centuries been a natural route for trade and the exchange of ideas along the Rio Grande.  The natural corridor for travel has also historically been a route for advancing and retreating armies, notably during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and during the American Civil War.  It can be reasoned that the area benefitted and suffered from similar trade prehistorically.
    Using Marshall and Walt's 1984 study as a guide in this study, over forty prehistoric sites were visited to verify their locations.  GIS viewshed analysis of fourteen Late Elmendorf phase sites (A.D. 1100-1300) and twenty-nine Glaze A sites (A.D. 1315-1425) in the area indicates that while partially a byproduct of the natural geography of the area, line-of-sight communication between the pueblos of each phase may have been a concern.  The defensive positioning of some sites in the area indicates that warfare may have been a concern in both periods, and the strategic locations of "citadels" during both periods may point toward a planned regional defense by the prehistoric inhabitants of the region spanning both time periods.

How violent was life in Neolithic society, and was there anything resembling organised warfare? Recent research has largely overturned ideas of peaceful farming societies.
Spanish Levantine rock art offers a unique insight into conflict in Neolithic society, with images of violence, real or imagined, being acted out in scenes preserved in rock shelters. Combining this body of data with evidence from the archaeological record, a new way of understanding the imagery in rock art is here proposed. Ethnographic and anthropological
methodologies allow the author to show howsocio-cultural behaviours and individual social roles can be read from rock art.

JEUNESSE C. (2011) Masses perforées et haches de combat. La question des sépultures « armées » dans le Néolithique centre-européen, in : Baray L., Honegger M. et Dias-Meirinho M.-H., dir., L’armement et l’image du guerrier dans les sociétés anciennes, Actes de la table ronde internationale de Sens, juin 2009, Editions Universitaires de Dijon, Dijon 2011, 43-70.

The great weapons or booty sacrifices of the Roman Iron Age in Northern Europe point to the existence of hierarchically organized armed forces. These indicate a social hierarchy which is also reflected in settlement structure and burial patterns. The weapons offering of Hjortspring is, although significantly older in date, often seen as the beginning of a long-lasting tradition of war booty sacrifices, thus implicating a continuity of the social organization from the pre-Roman to the Roman Iron Age. However, as regards the combination of objects Hjortspring is much different from the later sacrifices and therefore embedded in a differing context of meaning. For the pre-Roman Iron Age it is possible to reconstruct patterns of power which were based on kinship relations. Hierarchy and rulership can, however, be ascertained only for the advanced Roman Iron Age, and in this development the influence of Rome played a significant role.

Violence and Society: Sedentarization, "State Formation" and the Various Dimensions of Violence --
Violence can occur in many different types which can hardly be differentiated archaeologically, if leaving traces at all. This includes not only different domains of war and violent conflicts between groups, but also domestic violence, corporal punishment and violence within rituals. Natural disasters and accidents can leave traces on skeletal remains as well, hardly being distinguishable from mutilations and traumata resulting from anthropogenic causes. All of these aspects do not seem to be adequately investigated, traumata of any kind are more or less generally considered to be evidence of military conflicts and violence. Ecological and economical factors are predominantly taken into account as possible causes while social and political reasons are hardly ever contemplated. Reflexions regarding different forms of violence and their linking to social structures are poorly investigated. Not everywhere and at any time the killing of enemies was intended, not every society has warrior societies or a standing army, distinct command structures or executive power cannot be assumed generally. Conflict resolutions do not necessarily have to take place on violent levels and not every crisis leads to violent conflicts. Two basic social revolutions causing profound changes within the forms of violence occur – the transition to segmental kinship structures being associated with a sedentary life and the transition to states characteristically having a separation of policy and kinship structures.

In diesem Artikel sollte die Funktion und Bedeutung von älterbronzezeitlichen Schwertern, vor allem am Beispiel niedersächsischer Funde, beleuchtet werden. Auch wenn es durch die Eigenschaften materieller Kultur gewisse Probleme mit der genauen Bestimmung von Funktion und Bedeutung gibt, konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Schwerter in ihrer praktischen Funktion aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach vorrangig Waffen zum Kampf gegen andere Menschen waren. Dies sagt aber noch nichts über die Häufigkeit derartiger Kämpfe aus. In ihrer sozialen Funktion deutet
vieles darauf hin, dass es sich um männliche Statussymbole handelte, auch wenn noch etwas im Dunkeln bleibt wie die so gekennzeichnete soziale Gruppe näher zu charakterisieren ist. Man darf vermuten, dass die Schwerter insgesamt häufiger in ihrer sozialen als in ihrer praktischen Funktion gebraucht wurden, es sich bei ihnen also nur mit Einschränkungen um „Dinge des täglichen Gebrauchs“ handelte. Die symbolische Bedeutung wiederum ging wohl über diese Funktionen hinaus und berührt die Sphäre des Übernatürlichen und martialischer Werte. Die enge Verbindung aller drei hier getrennt behandelten Sphären und ihre inhaltliche Verschränkung demonstriert aber deutlich die Tatsache, dass keine der Funktionen und Bedeutungen älterbronzezeitlicher Schwerter für sich allein steht.

This paper aims to offer a critical approach to interpretations of ditches located at southern Iberian Peninsula Late Prehistory sites as drainage and irrigation infrastructures or as expressions, sometimes symbolic ones, of population aggregation processes. On the contrary the lines of evidence presented against this hypothesis (course, depth, associations, delimited area, local and general chronological context), can connect them to other boundary systems which were sometimes contemporary. These features let us to define these ditch systems as defensive-dissuasive ones developed with full sedentism and consolidation of conflict among communities and raised with the first permanent social differences.