Researchers found signs of cannibalization in human bones, including the femur of this baby, which has percussion marks for marrow extraction
Hundreds of pieces of bone dated 5700 years ago have evidence of being processed and eaten by other humans, reinforcing the idea that cannibalism was common in the neolithic period.
A study this Thursday in Scientific Reports He revealed the quartered human details in a cave in northern Spain.
All bones had signs that these individuals had been eaten by other humans.
Some had cutting marks, indicating that people’s skin had been cut with stone tools, while others were translucent with slightly rounded edges, suggesting that they had been cooked.
As details, some of the longest bones had been broken with stones, probably to extract and eat the marrow, while the smaller ones, such as metatarsal and ribs, had human teeth marks.
The study adds proof that cannibalism was more common of what was thought throughout the history of humanity.
The viewpoint – where the excavations occurred – is, at least, the fifth place with strong evidence of cannibalism in Spain in the neolithic period, when people passed the search for food for agriculture.
The reason why humans ate so much is less certain. In some places, the tests, including skull cups, suggest that cannibalism may have had a ceremonial objective. In others, it seems to have been a means of survival during periods of extreme hunger.
But the new study even points to the guerra.
The abundance of animal remains and the absence of signs of nutritional stress in humans indicate that this primitive agricultural community has not faced hunger, researchers say. In addition, they found no signs of ritual, with human remains mixed with animal bones.
Family of 11 decimated people
The age of individuals varied between 7 and over 50 years, suggesting that a Fwhole amilia had been decimated in a conflict.
Dating by radiocarbon revealed that 11 people were killed and eaten In a matter of days.
This period seems to have been increasingly marked by instability and violence, since communities came into conflict with neighbors and/or with the newly arrived settlers because of the territory.
Ethnographic studies of humans who ate each other in wars throughout history suggest that cannibalism was a form of “Final Elimination”.
“We think that the fact that one group kills the other group and then consuming it is a way of humiliating it”, Told New Scientist, the leader of the research, Francesc Marginedas, from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES), in Tarragona, Spain.
Cannibalism practices are much older than you think. A recent discovery – which was also carried out in Spain – shocked science by revealing that.
