Scientists Confirm Humans All Used To Be Cannibals?
Most of us remember tales of cannibalism from Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, but the truth is that cannibalism is much more common than people think. Male lions, hamsters, rabbits, pigs, and even chickens all resort to cannibalism under certain conditions. Even chimpanzees, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, are known to hunt and eat other chimpanzees. And now, according to ScienceAlert, scientists confirm that humans were once also cannibals
Recent findings indicate that the members of Magdalenian culture—people inhibiting Norther Europe some 15,000 years ago—were cannibals, and they widely practiced cannibalism as a funerary behavior.
A new analysis of Paleolithic human remains from across Northern Europe suggests that cannibalism was a normal cultural practice that was performed as a matter of course across a much larger geography than previously thought.
Namely, recent findings indicate that the members of Magdalenian culture—people inhibiting Norther Europe some 15,000 years ago—were cannibals, and they widely practiced cannibalism as a funerary behavior. In other words, instead of burying their dead, the Magdalenians were eating them. “Waste none” just got a whole new meaning.
This is the oldest evidence of humans practicing cannibalism as a funerary practice.
Now, it’s important to note that humans, both historically and anthropologically speaking, have practiced cannibalism in various cultures and circumstances, especially endocannibalism, where they consume the remains of their deceased as a form of respect and to keep their spirits within their respective tribes/groups.
However, despite our knowledge of human cannibals throughout history, there are two reasons that make this particular finding interesting to the scientific community. This is the oldest evidence of humans practicing cannibalism as a funerary practice.
Furthermore, the Magdalenian groups did a really good job of recording their history for future generations, and scholars have a pretty good understanding of their culture and technology—including stone and bone tools and artifacts—that were very well preserved throughout millennia. However, we didn’t have a particularly good understanding of their funerary practices, and these new findings suggest that humans were actually cannibals when it came to funerary practices.
The human cannibals left tooth marks on the bones of their deceased and even repurposed some of the bones as tools and even vessels—yes, they used parts of human skulls as cups.
Paleoanthropologists Silvia Bello and fellow archeologist William Marsh set a thorough examination of the topic of human cannibals among paleolithic groups across Europe, not limiting their research to Magdalenian groups alone. Published literature shows evidence of cannibalism, but also two distinct cultures that emerged during the Upper Paleolithic, including Magdalenian groups scattered across the northwest and Epigravettian groups scattered across the southeast regions of Europe.
The duo studied 59 sites, both Magdalenian and Epigravettian, looking for evidence of human cannibalism as funerary practices, and unsurprisingly, they also found evidence of funerary practices in 25 of those sites. At 10 of those sites, the dead seem to have been buried and left alone, but at 13 of them, the human bones showed signs of postmortem “processing.”
The human cannibals left tooth marks on the bones of their deceased and even repurposed some of the bones as tools and even vessels—yes, they used parts of human skulls as cups.
Interestingly enough, the sites that showed evidence of humans being cannibals feasting on their dead were all Magdalenian sites. Further genetic analysis also suggests that the two groups were genetically different and that Epigravettian culture ultimately replaced the Magdalenian, which led to burial becoming the dominant means of dealing with the dead.
