Neanderthal remains radiocarbon-dated to 40,500 to 45,500 years ago and unearthed by archaeologists in the Goyet caves in Belgium revealed the first evidence of Neanderthal cannibalism in northern Europe. The researchers completely sequenced the remains’ mitochondrial DNA, doubling the database for Neanderthals, who went extinct about 30,000 years ago.
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This is the first evidence of cannibalism in northern Europe.
German researchers have uncovered “grisly evidence” which suggests pre-human tribes carved up unfortunate victims, chowed down on their flesh and then used the remaining bones as tools.
Various categories of human action upon the Neandertal bones of Goyet: Femur I (left) shows pits and a notch caused by striking, and femur II shows scratches indicative of butchering. This appears to have been done thoroughly; the remains indicate processes of skinning, cutting up, and extraction of the bone marrow.
An exhibit shows the life of a neanderthal family in a Neanderthal Museum. The researchers said that markings like cuts and notches on the bone fragments indicated that the bodies had been butchered by human hands. Bocherens mentioned that the leftovers of horses and reindeer in Goyet were also butchered the same way.
Researchers said it was impossible to know whether the Neanderthal remains were used exclusively as food or whether they were processed as part of symbolic or ritual actions.
“Neanderthals met a violent end at our hands, and in some cases we ate them”, Fernando Rozzi, an anthropologist at National Center of Scientific Research in Paris, told Time. Before this discovery, there was evidence of ancient cannibalism at El Sidrón and Zafarraya in Spain, and at the French sites Moula-Guercy and Les Pradelles.
The researchers said Neanderthals in Europe were closely related but differed significantly in their behaviors. A thigh bone and three shinbones were used to help shape stone tools used by the Neanderthal group at the Belgian site.
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Some of the excavated communities revealed signs of burials, while other digs yielded sophisticated arsenals of stone tools. According to a press release from the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, they have found that Neanderthals butchered and used their peers’ bones as tools. Although no-one can fully explain the reason for the cavemen’s demise, it has been suggested they were wiped out by homo sapiens, our own species, or destroyed by climate change.
