Violence among the first horticulturists in the atacama desert (1000 BCE – 600 CE)

•First horticulturalists in the Atacama Desert (600 BCE – CE 600) were strongly affected by violence.•Neolithic socio-cultural changes was one of the causes for increase in interpersonal violence.•Ecological constraints was an additional trigger for violent behavior.•Half of adult individuals affected by trauma (n = 20) died due to violent causes.•Foreign people were not related to violence increase strontium isotopes show.