A Recent Analysis Of Ancient Human Remains From Northern Europe Suggests That Cannablism Was Once A More Common Funerary Practice Than We Previously Realized
The way we say goodbye to those who’ve passed on has changed throughout history and across different cultures. Yet, a certain burial custom we believed was quite uncommon may have been more popular than we realized.
A recent study of ancient human remains found all over Northern Europe revealed that cannibalism might have been a standard ritual, regularly performed over a broader area than we once assumed.
During this era in Europe, about 15,000 years ago, the Magdalenian culture thrived, and the latest discoveries suggest that cannibalism was a common funerary practice among them.
“Instead of burying their dead, these people were eating them,” said Silvia Bello, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London.
“We interpret the evidence that cannibalism was practiced on multiple occasions across northwestern Europe over a short period of time as this practice was part of a diffuse funerary behavior among Magdalenian groups. That in itself is interesting because it is the oldest evidence of cannibalism as a funerary practice.”
Despite the toll that time has taken on much of human history, the Magdalenian culture has left us with a relatively abundant legacy of their art and technology. The stone and bone tools they used and created to enhance their daily lives have stood the test of time. Additionally, we’ve been able to recover many of their skeletal remains, which have been preserved over thousands of years.
What remains elusive is a detailed grasp of their burial customs. Archaeologists have gathered clues suggesting that these customs could have diverged significantly from modern practices. For instance, bones found in Gough’s Cave, situated in Cheddar Gorge — the very place associated with the well-known Cheddar Man — indicated signs of cannibalism.
Cannibalism is generally seen as an uncommon practice among humans. Yet, according to archaeologists Silvia Bello and her colleague William Marsh from the Natural History Museum, other Magdalenian sites also exhibit potential evidence of this practice, implying that Gough’s Cave might not be an exceptional case.
Bello and Marsh embarked on an in-depth investigation into this subject, conducting a comprehensive review of existing scholarly articles to trace indications of cannibalism throughout Europe. Their scope extended beyond the Magdalenians, encompassing the broader tapestry of Upper Paleolithic Europe, which hosted two unique cultures: the Magdalenians were spread across the northwest, while the Epigravettians occupied the southeast.
mrks_v – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
During their study, Bello and Marsh examined 59 sites attributed to both Magdalenian and Epigravettian cultures.
They discovered signs of burial customs at 25 of these sites. Interestingly, at 10 sites, there appeared to be a practice of burying the dead and then leaving them undisturbed.
However, at 13 of the locations, human bones displayed traces of having been altered after death— showing scoring and bite marks consistent with the processes of dismemberment, consumption, and the subsequent repurposing of the bones into tools and containers, including skull cups or bowls.
At the final two sites, there was evidence indicating a combination of both cannibalistic and burial practices.
What stood out to the team was that all signs of cannibalism were uncovered at sites associated with the Magdalenian culture.
“The fact that we find cannibalism being practiced often on multiple occasions over a short period of time, in a fairly localized area and solely by individuals attributed to the Magdalenian culture, means we believe this behavior was one that was performed widely by the Magdalenian and was, therefore, a funerary behavior in itself,” Marsh said.
The researchers also conducted genetic tests on bones linked with these burial customs. They determined that the group who practiced burial, the Epigravettians, had a different genetic makeup from the group that engaged in cannibalism, the Magdalenians.
The findings also indicate that the Epigravettian culture endured for several thousand years longer than the Magdalenian culture did, and over time, burial became the prevailing method for managing the deceased.
This evidence implies that instead of the two cultures blending and adopting a shared set of cultural practices, the Epigravettians may have actually just replaced the Magdalenians.
“At this time, during the terminal period of the Paleolithic, you actually see a turnover in both genetic ancestry and funerary behavior. The Magdalenian-associated ancestry and funerary behavior are replaced by Epigravettian-associated ancestry and funerary behavior, indicative of population replacement as Epigravettian groups migrated into northwestern Europe,” Marsh detailed.
“We believe that rather than being an example of transcultural diffusion, the change in funerary behavior identified is an example of demic diffusion where essentially one population comes in and replaces the other population.”
Still, Marsh and Bello noted that further research is necessary to fully comprehend this burial ritual.
To read the researchers’ complete findings, which have since been published in Quaternary Science Reviews, visit the link here.
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