Tierra arrasada

Rubble, ashes and bones, these are the remains that we often find when exploring an ancient battlefield or the ruins of a village, a scorched earth that hides thousands of stories, from the last breaths of a fallen soldier to the gasps of a family ravaged by war. Often the rapid succession of events that we understand as history has numbed us to these traumatic realities, disengaging us from the violence and suffering that encompasses and rarely shocks us. We tend to forget that behind the destruction and barbarism are people, their memories and hopes silenced by the edge of a sword; recurring human stories that make history something palpitating and tangible. Using archeology as a tool, Alfredo González-Ruibal helps us tune our ears, listen to these whispers and decipher their stories of violence and aggression, bringing us closer to reality without the opaque overtones of war or ideology. It is precisely these last remnants that speak most eloquently about our nature and its disturbing penchant for destruction. Together with him we explore the beginnings of human violence until today, embarking on a journey that spans centuries and continents, from the Neolithic races to the trenches of Verdun, in an exciting story that brims with humanity and erudition.