Cannibalism Among Our Human Ancestors (1.5 Million to 10,000 Years Ago) | Early European History And Religion

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CANNIBALISM PRACTICED BY MODERN HUMANS, NEANDERTHALS AND HOMO ANTECESSOR

New World cannibalism image from 1505

Based on probable human teeth marks found on prehistoric human bones, scientists Yolanda Fernandez-Jalvo and Peter Andrews suggest that prehistoric humans, Neanderthals and Homo antecessor all practiced “nutritional cannibalism” — cannibalism as a survival strategy — according to a study they published in the January 2010 issue of The Journal of Human Evolution. "Think that a member of your group dies," Fernandez-Jalvo told Discovery News. "The body can give one day off from hunting, which was always dangerous at that time, and what to do with the dead body that may attract other dangerous carnivores that may attack the group." "This could be a good solution," she added, reminding that cannibalism does not always mean the cannibal killed the consumed individual. [Source: Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News, December 13, 2010 /=/ ]

“Jennifer Viegas wrote in Discovery News: To determine what patterns humans leave behind when they chew or gnaw on bones, the researchers had four different groups of European people chew raw and cooked meat bones from various animals. The scientists also studied bones, now in a museum, which were chewed in the 1960's by the Koi people of Namibia. The Koi tended not to cook food as much as the Europeans did, so the researchers wanted to see what kind of damage they left behind on discarded bones. /=/

“The scientists also analyzed fossilized bone collections from ancient hominid sites in Spain, the U.K. and the Caucasus region. They determined that when humans chew and gnaw bones, a distinctive pattern is left behind. It includes bent ends of bones, puncture marks, superficial linear marks, peeling, crenulated ends and double arch punctures on the chewed edge. Not all of these features are unique to human chewing, but in combination, the researchers believe the features provide evidence for human eating. /=/

“Since bone chewing usually occurs when the consumer is trying to get at marrow and the last bit of meat, the marks can help to distinguish nutritional cannibalism from ritual de-fleshing. The findings can also reveal which animals prehistoric humans and human ancestors ate. "Indications of Homo habilis eating hedgehog and using tools to eat them" has already been identified, Fernandez-Jalvo said. She also said evidence suggests Neanderthals consumed marine mammals shortly after these animals gave birth, "chasing the youngest as an easy and clever strategy and avoiding the adults that were quite dangerous." /=/

“There is also evidence for an older man in China using stones to bang down on meat so it would be easier to chew. Charles Egeland, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, told Discovery News that "distinguishing human chewing damage from other agents (carnivores, non-human primates, non-biological processes) is extremely important." "One of the more interesting implications of this study — and there are many — is that we may now have a useful set of criteria to identify meat-eating among early, pre-stone tool-using, hominids," he said. "Somewhat ironically, this then raises the question of whether modern human chewing damage is actually the best analog for these early hominids," Egeland added. "Would chimpanzee chewing damage make a better analog?". /=/

Websites and Resources on Hominins and Human Origins: Smithsonian Human Origins Program humanorigins.si.edu ; Institute of Human Origins iho.asu.edu ; Becoming Human University of Arizona site becominghuman.org ; Hall of Human Origins American Museum of Natural History amnh.org/exhibitions ; The Bradshaw Foundation bradshawfoundation.com ; Britannica Human Evolution britannica.com ; Human Evolution handprint.com ; University of California Museum of Anthropology ucmp.berkeley.edu; John Hawks' Anthropology Weblog johnhawks.net/ ; New Scientist: Human Evolution newscientist.com/article-topic/human-evolution

Websites and Resources on Neanderthals: Wikipedia: Neanderthals Wikipedia ; Neanderthals Study Guide thoughtco.com ; Neandertals on Trial, from PBS pbs.org/wgbh/nova; The Neanderthal Museum neanderthal.de/en/ ; The Neanderthal Flute, by Bob Fink greenwych.ca. Websites and Resources on Prehistoric Art: Chauvet Cave Paintings archeologie.culture.fr/chauvet ; Cave of Lascaux archeologie.culture.fr/lascaux/en; Trust for African Rock Art (TARA) africanrockart.org; Bradshaw Foundation bradshawfoundation.com; Australian and Asian Palaeoanthropology, by Peter Brown peterbrown-palaeoanthropology.net

Hominins Eating Hominins 1.45 Million Years Ago

According to a study published in in the journal Scientific Reports, ancient human ancestors that lived almost 1.5 million years ago may have practiced cannibalism. The Telegraph reported: Cut marks seen on the shin bone of an individual indicate a large swathe of flesh, including the calf, was precisely sliced off by a prehistoric butcher wielding a stone knife. Scientists from the Smithsonian Institution found nine cut marks on a 1.45 million-year-old left tibia found in Kenya, which were most likely created by stone tools. The shin had another two gouges which are thought to be bite marks, likely a sabre-tooth cat. It was unknown if the lion-like creature ravaged the leg bone before the meat was precisely removed by an ancient human ancestor or afterwards. [Source: Joe Pinkstone, The Telegraph, June 27, 2023]

A mould of the bone grooves was taken using the same techniques and materials as used by dentists. The marks matched up well with those created experimentally by stone tools. Dr Briana Pobiner, the study’s lead author, said: “These cut marks look very similar to what I’ve seen on animal fossils that were being processed for consumption. It seems most likely that the meat from this leg was eaten and that it was eaten for nutrition as opposed to for a ritual.”

Cannibalism is defined by consumption of meat by the same species. But because the team does not know which ancient hominin the leg belongs to, it remains unknown if it is cannibalism, or a case of cousin species eating one another. It is possible it was the same species, the team said, and therefore cannibalism — but it can not be asserted with any authority either way. What is certain, the study claimed, is that 1.45 million years ago, a human relative was eaten by an individual also belonging to a human-like species. “The information we have tells us that hominins were likely eating other hominins at least 1.45 million years ago,” Dr Pobiner said.

“There are numerous other examples of species from the human evolutionary tree consuming each other for nutrition. But this fossil suggests that our species’ relatives were eating each other to survive further into the past than we recognised.”. Prof Chris Stringer, a research leader in human evolution at the Natural History Museum told The Telegraph that the evidence looked scientifically sound and “adds to the evidence for cannibalism in very early humans”.

There is also considerable evidence of the behaviour in later humans, he added, as cannibalism persisted throughout the history of the homo sapien family tree. He said: “It’s probably not the oldest known [evidence of human cannibalism] though, as cut marks were reported on the cheek bone of a hominin fossil from Sterkfontein, South Africa, which was about two million years old.” This specimen is hotly debated in scientific fields as to whether the date is reliable and whether marks on the cheek bone was caused by butchery or from rocks lying on the floor. Dr Pobiner is now hoping to reanalyse the South African fossil, which was first found in the Seventies, in order to determine if hominid cannibalism dates back two million years to South Africa or 1.45 million years to Kenya.

Cannibalism Not Just Driven by Hunger, Study Reveals

New World cannibalism image from 1557

A study published in 2017 found that humans are less nutritious than other forms of meat, suggesting that social reasons may have been behind our ancestors’ cannibalism not nutrition. Nicola Davis wrote in The Guardian: “Evidence of cannibalism, in the form of cut marks, tooth marks and tell-tale bone breakage has been found at a number of prehistoric sites, including in France, Spain and Belgium, revealing that our ancestors as well as other hominins such as Neanderthals and Homo antecessor at least occasionally ate each other. But how common cannibalism was and to what extent it was driven by the need for nutrition has been a matter of debate, with remains from some sites showing evidence of ritual treatment. [Source: Nicola Davis, The Guardian April 6, 2017 |=|]

“The latest study adds weight to the idea that cannibalism might have been driven by more than the necessity of hunger. otting up the nutritional value of the human body, James Cole, an expert in human evolution from the University of Brighton, reveals that an adult male of about 66kg contains roughly 144,000 calories, with skeletal muscle accounting for just over 32,000 calories, kidneys providing 376 calories and the spleen 128 calories. |=|

“But the nutritional value of a host of animal species whose remains – showing signs of butchery – were found at the sites, are higher. The skeletal muscle of a mammoth offered 3,600,000 calories, a horse 200,100 calories and a red deer 163,680 calories. Saiga antelope, however are on a par with humans, with their skeletal muscle containing 31,500 calories. “What this suggests is that we aren’t terribly nutritious,” said Cole, author of the research published in the journal Scientific Reports. “We are a fairly small animal really and we don’t have much flesh and meat or fat to us, and we certainly wouldn’t necessarily have done in the past either.” |=|

“Cole adds that while smaller animals such as birds and hares were eaten by early hominins despite their low calorie content, it would have been far more challenging to opt for cannibalism, as hominins can “fight, run and think their way out of the hunt”. How Neanderthals met a grisly fate: devoured by humans |=|

“Cole admits that the analysis is based on the nutritional value of a small group of modern male humans, while Neanderthals were more muscular. He says the research suggests cannibalism might have been driven by a complex range of motivations. “[The study] is not saying that no, we didn’t eat each other for nutritional reasons in the past, I think what it is suggesting is, is that the only explanation?” he said. “Maybe there is more of a social driver here, not ritual specifically, but social.” Among the possibilities, he suggests, is that cannibalism might have been opportunistic, with individuals being eaten when they died of natural causes, or that it might have been linked to territorial defence. |=|

“Paul Pettitt, professor of Palaeolithic archaeology at the University of Durham, welcomed the research, pointing out that primates including bonobos and chimpanzees also show evidence of cannibalism. “Such behaviours clearly form something like a behavioural ritual – an unconscious act that stemmed from common activities central to group behaviour like eating meat,” he said. “Somewhere along the line of human evolution this behaviour turned from behavioural rituals to ritualised behaviour, and as Coles shows very well, evidence does clearly reveal that eating human meat was not exclusively about survival.” |=|

“Silvia Bello of the Natural History Museum agrees with Cole that Palaeolithic cannibalism was probably more often practised as a choice rather than for survival, but adds that unpicking the motivations behind that choice is a tricky business. “Was cannibalism practiced as a funerary ritual, or was it just a way to eat whatever was available? I’m not sure the evidence can really help to pick one or the other,” she said. “We just need to keep looking for new methods of analyses and new sites to better understand this behaviour.’” |=|

Signs of Cannibals Sharing on 780,000-Year-Old Spanish Bones

According to Live Science; Around 900,000 years ago in what is now Spain, Homo antecessor, an ancient relative of humans, practiced cannibalism likely out of practicality, according to a study published in June 2019 in the Journal of Human Evolution. Fellow hominins were moderately nutritious and easy to catch, making them an excellent prey option. [Source: Kimberly Hickok, Live Science October 28, 2020]

Butchered human bones found in Spain's Gran Dolina cave suggest that “archaic” humans that lived there 780,000 years ago not only were cannibals but they least they also shared their food. Dan Vergano wrote in USA Today: “In the current Journal of Human Evolution, a team led by Spain’s Palmira Saladié of the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social in Tarragona, reports from Spain’s Gran Dolina cave. The cave was home to the early human species, Homo antecessor, a precursor to Europe’s Neanderthals. The study looks at bones in the cave to see what was for supper back then, and whether meals were shared. [Source: Dan Vergano, USA Today, September 6, 2011 -]

“Mostly deer was on the menu, followed by Homo antecessor, indicates 272 cut- marked bones. But from the size of the animals butchered in the cave, the study concludes, the ancient inhabitants must have trekked back home to share their meals. “Transporting the carcass to the home base and delaying consumption of at least some parts implies that the hunters shared part of this meat with other members of the group,” says the study. -

signs of cannibalism from Spain

“So, at least they weren’t selfish cannibals. When they weren’t eating each other, early humans apparently shared meals with their fellow cave inhabitants after team hunting outings. Conclude the authors, “we can deduce that several individuals participated in hunting parties and/or carcass transport. The potential variation in the number of participants is a complex issue, but it is nevertheless a clear sign of social cooperation within a group, food sharing and possible division of subsistence tasks, conceivably to ensure the group’s survival.”“ -

800,000-Year-Old Cannibal Victims in Spain Were Children

About 800,000 years ago a Homo antecessor child was eaten in Gran Dolina cave, Spain, It was first thought the child was a boy but later it was determined the child was a girl. In 2021 scientists tested a new technique, using a type of dental analysis that had successfully identified males and females in other early human species. According to Live Science: They examined teeth from two Gran Dolina individuals: "H1" and "H3". H1, whose remains defined the H. antecessor species, was about 13 years old at the time of death and was long presumed to be male. The second individual, H3 — The Boy of Gran Dolina — died at the age of 11 years old and was also thought to be male. [Source: Mindy Weisberger, Live Science, April 16, 2021]

Microscopic analysis of the tooth structure for the new study revealed variations between H1's and H3's teeth that researchers identified as sexually dimorphic — differing in appearance between males and females. Based on comparisons with teeth from humans and other hominins, the scientists determined that H1 was male, but H3 was likely female.

Certain skeletal features, such as pelvis shape, size of the brow ridge and robustness of bone where muscles attach, can reveal clues about the sex of extinct human relatives. But these features only indicate the sex of adult skeletons, and about 75 percent of the Gran Dolina remains belong to pre-adolescent children. What's more, those cave skeletons were highly fragmented, likely because they were cannibalized.

The girl would have been between 9 and 11 years old when she was killed and eaten, according to the study. And she wasn't the only victim; the remains from 22 H. antecessor individuals in Gran Dolina displayed signs of being cannibalized, with bones showing cuts, fractures where they had been cracked open to expose the marrow, and even tooth marks, Live Science previously reported. One possible explanation for this ancient cannibalism is that humans were easier to catch and more nutritious than other animals, researchers wrote in 2019 in the Journal of Human Evolution. Compared with other types of prey, "a lot of food could be obtained from humans at low cost," CENIEH researcher Jesús Rodríguez, lead author of the 2019 study, said in a statement that year.

Neanderthal Cannibalism

There is strong evidence that Neanderthals practiced cannibalism. Neanderthal bones between 100,000 and 120,000 years old found at Baume Moula-Guercy cave on the Rhone rive in France have cut marks and gashes that indicate they were stripped of their flesh and broken apart and dismembered with a hammer stone and anvil. Marks also indicate the tendons were cut and joints were torn apart.The bones were intermingled with deer bones with similar cut marks. The discovery, reported by Alan Defleur of Marseilles Universitie de la Mediterranean in the October 1, 1999 edition of Science, are regarded as the most conclusive evidence of Neanderthal cannibalism.

Fine cut marks and unusual fractures, similar to those made on the bones of butchered animals were found on Neanderthal bones from Croatia suggesting that Neanderthal's practiced cannibalism there. Cut marks on the bones of all nine Neanderthal bones at El Sidron Spain have led scientists to believe they too were cannibalized, perhaps out of hunger, perhaps as rituals — or perhaps they were eaten by modern humans.

Croatian archaeologist Jakov Radovcic told National Geographic, "We simply don't know whether this represents ritualistic cannibalism or whether these people had a taste for their fellow men, so to speak. I think it was an honored way to treat the dead. The animal bones in their caves suggests there was plenty of game. Why would they have to each other?"

Berkeley's Tim White disagrees. "I think they wanted the meat and marrow," he told National Geographic. "If it were part of a ritual to break open the bones then all the bones would have been broken. But they smashed open only the large bones of the limbs — the ones with lots of marrow."

In 2010, researchers reported the discovery of the skeletons of a family of Neanderthals — three adult females, three adult males, three teenagers, two kids and an infant — in a cave in Spain. Their bones bore marks that some scientists suggest were signs of cannibalism. Some speculate the family may have been a meal for another group of Neanderthals. There is other evidence of Neanderthal cannibalism, archaeologists said. It seems that when times were rough and no other food was available Neanderthals ate their own kind. [Source: Stephanie Pappas, Live Science, April 08, 2011]

Neanderthal bones with evidence of cannibalism

Evidence of Cannibalism in Belgium

There is also evidence of Neanderthal cannibalism in caves in El Sidrón, Spain and in Belgium. Neaderthals also made tools from the bones of their own kind. [Source: Kimberly Hickok, Live Science October 28, 2020

Neanderthal bones found in a Belgium cave bear show unmistakable signs of butchery, and some scientists say this is first evidence of Neanderthal cannibalism in northern Europe. Kacey Deamer wrote in Live Science: “Archaeologists pieced together 99 bone fragments to identify five distinct Neanderthals, four adults and a child, who lived between 40,500 and 45,500 years ago. Markings on the bones included indentations from hammering (likely to remove bone marrow), and cut marks from carving the flesh away from the bone. Also in the cave were the remains of horses and reindeer, which had been similarly butchered. "Similarities in anthropogenic [human-created] marks observed on the Neanderthal, horse and reindeer bones … suggest similar processing and consumption patterns for all three species," the scientists wrote in their research, published July 6, 2016 in the journal Scientific Reports. [Source: Kacey Deamer, Live Science, July 12, 2016 /*]

“The Neanderthal remains provide "unambiguous evidence" of cannibalism, the researchers said. Other Neanderthal bones have also shown signs of cannibalism, but the Belgian site is the farthest north to do so — showing regional variability of Neanderthal mortuary behavior. The other discoveries were in France, Portugal and Spain, where scientists found a group of Neanderthals, including an infant, who may have been cannibalized by another group of Neanderthals. /*\

“Beyond cannibalism, it appears that the Neanderthals also used their peers' remains as tools. A few of the bones bore markings that suggested they'd been used to help sharpen stone tools. "The big differences in the behavior of these people on the one hand, and the close genetic relationship between late European Neanderthals on the other, raise many questions about the social lives and exchange between various groups," Hervé Bocherens, one of the lead researchers, told CBS News. /*\

“An analysis of DNA within the Neanderthal mitochondria (energy-making organelles in cells that carry their own DNA) suggested that the Belgian Neanderthals were genetically similar to other Neanderthal communities living in Germany, Spain and Croatia. This suggests the Neanderthal population in Europe at the time was small, as there was "only modest genetic variation despite large geographic distances when compared to modern humans," the scientists wrote.” /*\

In Fontbrégoua cave in southeastern France, researchers found a 6,000-year-old human collarbone with human teeth markings and tool cuts that indicated the meat had been stripped off in the same way meat had been stripped off animal bones. Some scholars believe this is evidence of cannibalism. [Source: Gina Kolata, Smithsonian magazine, March 1987]

Cannibalism Common in Late Ice Age Northwest Europe

Cannibalism was common in northwest Europe between 14,000 and 19,000 years ago, when a population of prehistoric people known as the Magdalenians used it in their rituals to dispose of the dead, according to a study published in the November 2023 issue of the journal Quaternary Science Reviews. But cannibalism appears to have ended when the Magdalenians were supplanted by another group of prehistoric people known as the Epigravettians, who instead buried their dead. [Source: Tom Metcalfe, Live Science, October 17, 2023]

Tom Metcalfe wrote in Live Science; The researchers examined evidence of Magdalenian cannibalism in human remains unearthed at Gough's Cave in western England dating to about 15,000 years ago. The remains show clear cut marks and indentations made by human teeth. Some of the largest bones have been broken, presumably to scoop out their marrow, and several skull fragments found there have been shaped into cups or bowls, which were probably used for drinking. "The question has always been, is this cannibalistic behavior exclusive to Gough's Cave?" study co-author Silvia Bello, an archaeologist and anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London, told Live Science. "Was it something strange that happened during a very bad winter, or was it something more?"

Bello and William Marsh, a postdoctoral researcher at the Natural History Museum, investigated this question by reviewing human remains from this time. They found widespread evidence of cannibalism throughout northwest Europe at this time, which is known as the Upper Paleolithic period. But they also found a curious cultural link: Genetic research suggests cannibalism was widespread among Magdalenian groups in northern and western Europe but not among Epigravettian groups, who occupied eastern and southern Europe, Bello said. Bello noted that the conclusions hinge on a small genetic sample — the ancestry of just eight individuals could be reliably determined from their remains. The researchers also found signs that Epigravettian groups later moved into areas once populated by Magdalenian groups, leading to a dramatic decline in funerary cannibalism.

The Magdalenians were hunter-gatherers who occupied much of northwest Europe between 17,000 and 12,000 years ago, when the climate was much cooler than it is today. They are named after a rock shelter in the Dordogne region of southwest France where thousands of their artifacts have been found, including a famous engraved antler that shows a bison licking an insect bite. Early archaeologists identified the Magdalenians as "reindeer hunters," although their sites show they also hunted horses, bison and other large mammals. Roughly at the time the Magdalenians lived in northern and western Europe, the Epigravettians lived in southern and eastern Europe. They are named after the much earlier Gravettian culture of Europe from which they're thought to have descended.

Archaeologist James Cole, an expert on cannibalism at the University of Brighton in the U.K., told Live Science that the new study gave a "fine-grained look" at the two populations co-existing in the region. But he said the data can only hint that Epigravettian burial culture ultimately replaced the cannibalistic Magdalenian one, because the genetic sample was so small. Michael Pante, a paleoanthropologist at Colorado State University who also wasn't involved in the study, agreed. "The statistical power of what they're saying is very weak," he told Live Science. "Whether it's true or not, they need more data to say it."

Engraved Bones “Evidence of Cannibalistic Rituals”

skull with potential cannibal marks from Gough's Cave

Fifteen-thousand-year-old engraved human bones found in a Somerset cave with have been linked to human cannibalism. An analysis of the markings suggests symbolic meaning and says the bones may have been part of an elaborate post-death ritual carried climaxed with the deceased being eaten. Hannah Devlin wrote in The Guardian: “The latest analysis of the bones, which were first discovered in the 1980s in Gough’s Cave in the Cheddar Gorge, show signs of having been filleted using sophisticated butchery techniques, decorated and gnawed by fellow humans around 15,000 years ago. Previous investigations of the remains, belonging to a three-year-old child, two adolescents and at least two adults, already pointed to the grisly possibility that the individuals had been eaten by fellow early modern humans. “Until now, though, it was unclear what form this extreme act had taken. Some suggested the individuals had been consumed not for nutrition, but as a homage to the spirits of the dead. Others floated the possibility of “crisis cannibalism”, where fellow humans were eaten in the throes of hunger and desperation during a harsh winter. [Source: Hannah Devlin, The Guardian, August 9, 2017 |=|]

“The latest analysis, focusing on a single radius bone, partially resolves this question by suggesting that there was at least some element of ritual in the gory proceedings. he study describes for the first time decorative zigzag incisions on the bone that appear to have been carried out between the butchering process and consumption. Chris Stringer, head of human origins research at the Natural History Museum in London, who was involved in the original excavation and also the latest research, said: “This wasn’t just a case of someone dies and then they’re eaten. The process is interrupted halfway through. They’ve cleaned off the flesh, then someone sits down and very carefully carves this design and only afterwards do they break open the bone to get the marrow out.” |=|

“Microscopic imaging and comparisons with other incisions suggest that the patterns were purely decorative and not carried out for the purposes of butchery. This is the first time this kind of pattern has been seen on a human bone from this time period,” said Stringer. “We’re confident that this is not functional, but it’s specially done with some symbolic meaning.” The latest work, published in the journal Plos One, follows previous work describing a series of polished “skull cups” found at the cave, which could have also formed part of an elaborate death ritual. The scientists are not sure whether the skulls – which appear to have been turned into drinking vessels – and the butchered bones belonged to the same individuals, but hope to answer this question in the future through DNA testing. |=|

“The cave-dwelling cannibals were among the first humans to recolonise Britain after the last ice age. After the ice age ended around 14,700 years ago, tribes of hunter-gatherers moved into Britain from Spain and France across a land bridge that is now submerged. The dates of remains at Gough Cave suggest the cavern was populated for more than 100 years during this period, and that the early humans would have hunted deer, boar, horses and hare.

“The analysis shows the zigzag marks were engraved intentionally, which the researchers suggest may have been part of an elaborate ritual carried out after death that culminated in the deceased being eaten. Silvia Bello, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London and the study’s first author, said: “It’s something that we find horrifying, but … that was their tradition. Like we incinerate bodies or put them in the ground. It was their way of disposing of bodies, like it or not.” An analysis of the bones show that almost 40 percent of them feature human bite marks and 60 percent of the remains showed some signs of butchery. “It implies that they were maybe really hungry,” said Bello. “There’s no bites on any of the skull remains, but the feet and hands are very much chewed.” However, there are no signs of the remains having been directly burned, suggesting that if they were cooked at all, they were probably boiled. |=|

14,700-Year-Old Skull Cups Found in British Cave

skull cup from Gough's Cave

In 2012, British archaeologists said they had found 14,700-year-old skull cup in a cave in southwest England. Gregory Katz of Associated Press wrote: “Ice age Britons drank from human skulls and may even have eaten flesh and bone marrow, but they were far from barbarians. The bowls look almost like works of art, ritual items laced with meaning. Look more closely, however, and it becomes clear they are made from human skulls. Scientists say they are the oldest known carbon-dated skull cups, said by experts to be about 14,700 years old. [Source: By Gregory Katz, Associated Press, February 28, 2011]

“British scientists writing in the Public Library of Science journal maintain the cups were fashioned in such a meticulous way that they only credible explanation for their manufacture is that they were used as bowls to hold liquid. If the hunters and gatherers simply wanted to eat the deceased person’s brains, there would have been far easier ways to get at them, scientists said. Experts believe the rare cups — two made from adults skulls, one from a child thought to be about three years-old — were used in some sort of ritual, as was common in many parts of the world. “It is likely that this was part of some symbolic ritual and not mere necessity,” said Sylvia Bello, lead author of the study. She said that the artifacts demonstrate how skilled early humans were at the manipulation of human bodies.

“The practice of using human skulls as cups or bowls has been well documented in many cultures, and in some cases skull cups have been elaborately decorated and used to adorn temples and in religious ceremonies. The practice was documented by the Greek historian Herodotus in the fifth century B.C.. But the three skull cups found in an English cave are the only known examples from the British Isles, scientists said. The three skulls aren’t the first historic clues to early man found in Gough’s Cave in Somerset. In 1903, the complete skeleton of a man dated to about 10,000 years ago was found at the same site. Explorations of the site, which in human and animal remains, began even earlier.

“Although the team found indications that some of the flesh and bone marrow from the skulls was eaten, they concluded that cannibalism was unlikely to have been the main purpose of the modifications. It is impossible to say the flesh was consumed,” Bello said. “They could have de-fleshed to have a clean skull to work with, but then did they consume part of the brain or the soft tissue? We can’t prove it. I don’t know if they then consumed the brain, but that wasn’t the first purpose.” She did say the bone marrow seems to have been consumed.

“The use of skulls as cups or bowls in northern Europe is thought to have been fairly common during that time frame, but it is very rare to find actual examples that can be accurately dated by modern techniques, said Rick Schulting, an archaeology professor at the University of Oxford. “These finds are important because there are so few finds from this period,” he said. “These are fully modern humans like us but we have very little insight into what they thought about themselves and their world. We know they had some burials, we know they cared about their dead. This adds complexity to their world.”

“He said they were probably used in the ritual consumption of human remains, but said details cannot be known. “It’s not some barbaric bloodthirsty example,” said Schulting, who was not involved in the project. “It’s always a ritualistic setting where you eat the remains of the dead, but we can’t know in this case whether you’re eating your own revered ancestors, to keep in contact, or eating the outsider, the enemy, as a way of insulting them and imbibing their power and their spirit.” He said it was not unusual in that time period for people to consume the brain, which is seen as the seat of an individual’s identity, but it is not clear because of the lack of evidence whether this was done as an act of respect or contempt. The distribution of cut marks seen on the skulls indicates that they were scrupulously “cleaned” of any soft tissues, and subsequently modified by the removal of the facial region. The skulls were then meticulously shaped into cups by retouching the broken edges, Bello said. “All in all it was a very painstaking process given the tools available,” she said.

Paleolithic Skull Treatments

Rick J. Schulting of the University of Oxford wrote: “As with later periods, there is the need for an element of caution in recognising evidence for special treatment of the human skull in the Palaeolithic. To a large extent this relates to the circumstances and early date of recovery, often in the nineteenth or early twentieth century. The elements of the human skull are both relatively robust and easily recognised, as well as having been highly sought after by the fledgling science of physical anthropology. One might argue that in the prehistoric past as well as when recovered archaeologically, human skulls embody identity in a particularly powerful and compelling form. For the living individual, of course, facial features provide the most immediately accessible means of inter-personal recognition. When combined with skin, hair and eye colour, hair styles and the use of ornamentation the head can become a marker of group affiliation (artificial cranial modification and dental ablation might also be mentioned in this context). Ironically, when recovered archaeologically, the main concern of physical anthropologists was (and to an extent remains) similarly the identification of different racial groups and populations through craniometrics. Cranial remains in particular were thus more likely to be recovered, retained and described in publications. In the case of disturbed skeletal remains – which feature strongly in the archaeo logical record of the Palaeolithic – it is not always clear whether or not postcranial remains were present. [Source: Mesolithic 'skull cults' by Rick J. Schulting, University of Oxford, Conference Paper at the conference “Ancient Death Ways II. Proceedings of the workshop on archaeology and mortuary practices” at Uppsala, Sweden May 2013 ~]

“With this caveat in mind, there is still clear evidence for a special interest in heads in the Upper Palaeolithic, particularly in the Magdalenian. Jörg Orschiedt has provided a recent survey of the evidence, noting a dominance of cranial and mandibular remains, many exhibiting cutmarks, that can only be explained by deliberate selection. At Brillenhöhle (BadenWürttemberg, Germany), for example, there is evidence for careful defleshing of crania as well as postcrania, including cutmarks in positions indicating decapitation and scalping. This is interpreted by Orschiedt as occurring in the context of a complex mortuary treatment rather than as evidence of violence or anthropophagy (cannibalism). Secondary burial is indicated for the well-preserved cranium (sans mandible) of an adult male at Rond-duBarry (Auvergne, France), reportedly found within a setting of stones. No cutmarks are reported, so this might have involved the intentional retrieval of the cranium from a burial, with concomitant implications for marking or remembering grave locations. A striking but unfortunately poorly documented example of post-mortem modification involves the isolated cranium of a young female from Mas d’Azil (Ariège, France), into the orbits of which had been placed bone discs carved from deer vertebrae. These have unfortunately been lost. ~

“A well-known aspect of manipulation of the dead in the Magdalenian involves the preparation of so-called ‘skull cups’. These are modified human crania, exhibiting cutmarks indicative of defleshing, and the removal of the facial area and basicranium through repeated blows, leaving a crudely shaped ‘cup’, though there is no evidence for their use in this capacity. Orschiedt (2002a) does suggest, however, that the example from Brillenhöhle was used to carry the small number of postcranial remains – many also bearing cutmarks – found at the site, as they all fit into the modified calotte. There are multiple examples from the sites of La Placard (Charente, France), Isturitz (Gironde, France) and Gough’s Cave (Somerset, England). ~

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons except Spanish cannibalism bones, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, and Neanderthal bones, Livescience

Text Sources: National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Nature, Scientific American. Live Science, Discover magazine, Discovery News, Ancient Foods ancientfoods.wordpress.com ; Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated May 2024