Humans with penetrating wounds to the torso don't fight much longer. Such wounds can be created with sharpened sticks (as well as a variety of slightly more adv

Humans with penetrating wounds to the torso don't fight much longer. Such wounds can be created with sharpened sticks (as well as a variety of slightly more advanced weapons), while preventing such wounds requires armor of complicated manufacture. Humans with concussive damage to the head tend to stop defending themselves, which also means they don't fight much longer. Such wounds can be created by anything dense, such as rocks or big sticks (as well as a variety of slightly more advanced weapons), while preventing such wounds requires very modern high-quality helmets. Once steel and higher-quality swords and polearms came along, a variety of new types of wounds became more likely, many of which also quickly led to cessation of fighting on their victims' part. Even unarmed fights are usually shorter than portrayed in popular fiction. If ancient battles lasted days, that's because they were organized to move combatants around and avoid actual combat until advantage could be taken. Melee between two groups of armed humans could be over in less than a minute. Note that the most common way for melee to cease would be for the losing side to retreat (perhaps without those of their number who had already succumbed), which is viable when ranged weapons aren't used.