14 DAY TRIAL // Recent fossil evidence suggests that Neanderthals, a genus of hominids that were widespread in Europe some 200,000 to 40,000 years back, were cannibals, researchers write in a new paper in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
Thus, it appears that several Neanderthals bones discovered at a 57,000-year-old site in France between 1967 and 1980 show signs of cutting, fracturing and beating, all done post-mortem.
As explained by study lead author María Dolores Garralda and fellow researchers, it is possible that the Neanderthal bones were subjected to this treatment not for rituals purposes or anything of the sorts, but because somebody wanted to strip them off their meat and eat it.
A young child seems to have also been among the victims
In the report detailing their work, scientist María Dolores Garralda and her team explain that, of the bone fragments they studied, one was once part and parcel of the right femur of a child that died when merely 9 or 10 years old.
The Neanderthal femur fragment in question, pictured below, displays a couple of cut marks about 0.5 centimeters (roughly 0.2 inches) apart. Besides, one of its ends shows signs that, while this fresh, the bone was purposely fractured in order to be separated into halves.
“It may be that the body of this child was manipulated shortly after death. The right leg received a series of blows that fractured the femur, and the cut marks identified are anthropic [made by humans] in nature,” explained scientist María Dolores Garralda.
As for the other bones, a fibula and a radius fragment, it looks like they belonged to adults. Like the child's femur, these other bone fragments also appear to have been cut and fractured while still fresh and, dare we say it, edible.
Possible explanations for cannibalism among Neanderthals
For the time being, researcher María Dolores Garralda and colleagues cannot explain why Neanderthals might have turned to cannibalism. One possibility is that this extreme diet was practiced as part of ancient rituals.
Then again, a more reasonable explanation is that these hominids ended up eating each other when game and other food sources were difficult to come by. Otherwise put, they probably turned to cannibalism merely in a desperate attempt to survive.
“They might have been rituals - still in the 21st century these continue in certain parts of the world - or for food-gastronomic cannibalism or due to need,” María Dolores Garralda said in a statement, as cited by Science Daily.
