Gruesome evidence of mayhem, murder, and even cannibalism sometimes appear amidst the clay pots and stone tools unearthed by archaeologists. For 11 Neolithic humans living in what is now Spain, cannibalism may have been a form of social control and was an attempt at “ultimate elimination,” according to a study published August 7 in the journal Scientific Reports.
Some of the roughly 5,700-year-old human bones uncovered at El Mirador cave in northern Spain show cannibalism’s tell tale signs: cremation, human tooth marks, or butchery, that was likely processed posthumously. And not because someone was hungry.
“We believe this is a case of wartime cannibalism, in which one group attacked and consumed members of another, possibly as a way to assert control and reinforce social dominance,” Francesc Marginedas, a study co-author and archeologist tells Popular Science.
From livestock to cannibalism
The individuals in this study lived on the Ibreain Peninsula during the Late Neolithic (about 6,500 to 5,000 years ago). The people settling here were in for some major changes from formerly nomadic lifestyles. Communities began to farm and raise animals and live in more permanent or semi-permanent settlements. Collective burials also started to become common and the signs of social differences between groups began to appear.
These major lifestyle shifts are visible at the El Mirador Cave where the remains were found during the early 2000s. The site was used as an enclosure for livestock, but according to study co-author and archeologist Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo, this changed dramatically.
“The striking episode of cannibalism, seems to signal the end of the cave’s use for herding and the beginning of its role as a collective burial place,” Rodríguez-Hidalgo tells Popular Science. “It reflects how life, death, and ritual were deeply connected during this period.”
To reach this conclusion, the team from Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) in Tarragona analyzed 650 individual fragments of human remains with signs of modifications after death. The team believes that children, adolescents, and adults are all thought to be among the remains and isotope analysis indicates that they were all local to the area.
Of the remains, 222 had color changes that are associated with cremation, while 69 of those bones had signs of butchery likely performed after death. Additionally, 132 remains also had exhibited cut marks including slicing, scraping, and chopping. These markings may be associated with skinning and flesh removal, and some of the remains show possible signs of human tooth marks.
Not a burial or a famine
The team believes that this indicates wartime cannibalism, which was used as a means of control over a rival population. Cannibalism is one of the most complex behaviors for archeologists to interpret. The necessary evidence often disappears over thousands of years and it is difficult to understand the act of humans consuming humans. Our modern predispositions also make it easy to interpret it as a barbaric act, according to the team.
Marginedas also says that evidence of similar incidents in the region during this point in time has yet to be discovered. This means it is unlikely that this was a case of funerary cannibalism or a Neolithic burial right.
“Likewise, there’s no indication of a resource crisis that would suggest this was an act of survival cannibalism,” he explains.
Additionally, the trauma on the bones does not appear to have occurred before death. This pattern of alterations appears to be most consistent with butchering and not injuries sustained during fighting or a victor removing a body part as a trophy.
“The evidence points to a violent episode, given how quickly it all took place—possibly the result of conflict between neighboring farming communities,” Marginedas said in a press release accompanying the study’s publication.
Two of a kind
This research builds on earlier discoveries at El Mirador cave. A separate and more recent case example of cannibalism (during the Bronze Age, between 4,600 and 4,100 years ago) was documented there and these new findings indicate that this practice had already been in place 1,500 years earlier.
“What is most striking is that we are dealing with two completely independent events: one from the Neolithic period and another from the Bronze Age,” Rodríguez-Hidalgo adds. “They differ in a very singular feature: in the Bronze Age event, alongside the evidence of cannibalism, we documented the manufacture of ‘skull cups’ — human skulls shaped into bowl-like forms, probably for ritual or ceremonial use during the consumption of human remains.”
Both incidents show that two separate cannibalistic traditions must have existed in this one area, separated by centuries and how the bodies were treated. According to Marginedas, “this leads us to think that cannibalism may have been more common in the past than we previously thought.”
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