Our foodie fore bearers needed helmets, apparently. Their heads were split open fairly frequently, according to a study published in the February issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
"Linda Fibiger, an archaeologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and her colleagues focused on the late Stone Age, when European hunter-gatherers had transitioned into farming or herding animals.
The team assessed 478 skulls from collections throughout Sweden and Denmark from between 3900 B.C. and 1700 B.C.
...these ancient herders routinely experienced violence, likely due to raids, family feuds, or other daily skirmishes with competing groups, Fibiger said."
This 21st c. UK farmer was trampled by a 400 pound bull, and survived to tell a tale.