Some clues :
Douglas P. Fry : Pacified Past
Azar Gat : Warfare as an Ancient Feature
Robert L. Carneiro : Complexity and State Formation
Was the 20th century one of the most violent in human history ? (with two world wars and numerous other conflicts) ?
i also like the documentary series : “The Ascent of man” from the BBC in 1973 by Jacob Bronowski.
But our weapons now can kill millions in an instant, and millions more subsequently. Missiles and such a regularly guided by Playstation controllers thousands of miles away.
Troy may have had a few thousand to massacre. We were more violent, but at least we actually had to face the violence we committed.
Edit: I did not mean this as an argument against what you shared. I can see why it might be read as such. I only meant to add another aspect to the conversation.
A good point, but I personally see it like this: a small percent of humans created weapons of extreme destruction, then the small percent of humans with access to them still did not kill as many as they did back then. The faceless violence sucks, but weapons development was set to outpace peace development before every living human was born. Pretty soon everyone with access to those weapons will have simply inherited it, making them more capable of war but not more warlike.