Grisly Evidence Of Neanderthal Cannibalism Uncovered In A Belgian Cave
Remains found in Belgium cave are clear-cut evidence of Neanderthal cannibalism
First evidence of Neanderthal cannibalism in northern Europe has been found by archaeologist while they were excavating the Goyet caves in Belgium. The remains found from the caves have unveiled that the Neanderthals were involved into butchering and used the bones of their peers as tools.
Through radiocarbon dating it has been found that the remains date around 40,500 to 45,500 years old. Along with radiocarbon dating, mitochondrial DNA analysis was also carried out that suggested that Neanderthals were similar to the Neanderthal communities living in Germany, Spain and Croatia. It suggests that the Neanderthal population was small at that time.
The remains have been found in what is now Belgium. The research paper published in the journal Scientific Reports has unveiled that the team has identified 99 bone fragments and three teeth belonging to the Neanderthals.
The fragments were found along animal remains in the two of Goyet. When assembled, the remains were of five human bodies- four were teenagers or adults and the last was a child. Almost a third of the bones were having cut marks. In fact, their rib cages were being found open.
The larger bones, femurs and tibias were cut and pitted, which suggests that they have been broken apart so as to take out the marrow. The researchers have also found other animal bones, including of reindeer and wild horses that showed similar treatment.
Markings like cuts and notches were found on the bone fragments which indicate that the bodies were butchered by humans’ hands. The researchers said that the bodies were cut up and bone marrows were removed.
One of the study researchers, Hervé Bocherens from Tübingen's Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment said that the finds have helped them assume that Neanderthals used to practice cannibalism. For now, the researchers could not be aware of the fact that whether this behavior was carried out owing to any ceremony or it was regular for them.
The researchers said that it was the first evidence of cannibalistic behavior being shown by Neanderthals to be found in northern Europe. Earlier, the researchers have found the evidence of cannibalism by Neanderthals at El Sidrón and Zafarraya in Spain and at French sites Moula-Guercy and Les Pradelles. The findings are all the more important as the Belgian site is farther north than anything else discovered
It is suspected that the human remains were used in the same way as other animals. Thigh bone and shinbones were used to shape tools used by the Neanderthal community.
The researchers said, “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”.
The findings would help open new windows of understanding as to how this ancient species used to live and interact. For past so many years, it was considered by paleoanthropologists that Neanderthals used to have funeral ceremony. But the remains buried for tens of thousands of years have shown a complete new side of Neanderthals.
The researchers said that Neanderthals mortuary practices could shed light on the social systems of the fossil human group.
The study paper published in the scientific journal Phys News informed...
"These remains display a large proportion of cut marks caused by stone tools when the meat was cut, and the bones display fractures as a result of having been broken to extract the marrow. Some bones were also used as tools for shaping stone tools. The Ikerbasque researcher Asier Gómez-Olivencia, who is currently working at the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country, has collaborated in this work."
"The Neanderthals displayed great variability in their behaviour, including in their relationship with the dead. There is evidence on different sites (e.g. Chapelle-aux-Saints in France, and Sima de las Palomas on the Iberian Peninsula) that the Neanderthals buried the dead. Other sites show that the Neanderthals ate the meat and broke the bones of their fellow Neanderthals for food."
"A third of the Neanderthal remains at this site display cut marks, and many bear percussion marks caused when the bones were crushed to extract the marrow. The comparison of the Neanderthal remains with other remains of fauna recovered on the site (horses and reindeer) suggests that the three species were consumed in a similar way. This discovery expands the range of known Neanderthal behaviour in Northern Europe with respect to the dead."
"It is also possible to date this collection of Neanderthal remains. The researchers determined that these Neanderthals lived between 40,500 and 45,500 years ago. The exceptional preservation of the collection has also enabled the mitochondrial DNA of these remains to be recovered. Compared with DNA from other Neanderthals, it reveals that genetically, the Neanderthals at Goyet resembled those of Feldhofer (Germany), Vindija (Croatia) and El Sidrón (Asturias, Spain). This great genetic uniformity, notwithstanding the geographical distances, indicates that the Neanderthal population that inhabited Europe was small."
"Where does the cannibalism come into play? The researchers said that markings like cuts and notches on the bone fragments indicated that the bodies had been butchered by human hands. These bodies were skinned and cut up, with the bone marrow removed, the researchers said," according to a news report published by CBS News.
"These indications allow us to assume that Neanderthals practiced cannibalism," said Hervé Bocherens, one of the lead researchers from Tübingen's Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment. It is unclear whether the killings were part of some sort of ceremonial ritual. Bocherens noted that the remains of horses and reindeer in Goyet were also butchered in the same way.
According to a story published on the topic by Seeker News, "Bone fragments from a Belgian cave have yielded the first evidence of cannibalism among Neanderthals living in northern Europe between 40,500 and 45,500 years ago, says a new study into Neanderthal skeletal material. Coming from the third cavern of the Goyet caves in Belgium, which was excavated nearly 150 years ago, the bone fragments reveal that this group of late Neanderthals gnawed on the flesh of their kind and then used the remaining bones as tools."
Four bones -- one thigh bone and three shinbones -- clearly showed that Neanderthals used their deceased relatives' bones to fashion stone tools. While this is the first evidence of Neanderthal cannibalistic behavior in northern Europe, other examples have been documented at the sites of El Sidrón and Zafarraya in Spain and two French sites, Moula-Guercy and Les Pradelles.
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