This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Cannibalism was sometimes on the Neolithic menu, as numerous archaeological discoveries have revealed. But while ancient human bones show the practice took place, far less evidence exists about the forms it may have taken or why people occasionally consumed one another.
Was it to stave off hunger during times of desperation? Did different tribes eat their defeated enemies? Or was cannibalism part of complex rituals?
Answers to some of these questions may lie inside three caves near Granada, southern Spain. In a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, an international team of scientists led by Dr. Palmira Saladié at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA) examined nearly 1,000 human bones and teeth previously excavated from these sites.
The findings reveal that different communities in the Iberian Peninsula practiced cannibalism in different ways thousands of years ago. "Human cannibalism is a behavior with diverse social and symbolic meanings," the researchers wrote in their paper. To learn what stories the ancient remains could tell, the researchers studied bone surfaces under a stereomicroscope.
They were looking for cut marks, fractures, cooking traces and human bite marks. The team also checked teeth and developing bones to determine each person's age. Then they dated a small sample of the bones using direct radiocarbon dating.
The results revealed different patterns of Neolithic cannibalism across the region. At Malalmuerzo Cave, which dates to the Early Neolithic between 5300–4950 B.C., there may have been a single violent episode involving at least 36 people of different ages. More than half of the remains showed signs of boiling, and there was evidence of blunt-force trauma on two skulls.
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