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Oldest evidence of human cannibalism as a funerary practice
Across northern Europe, the remains of human bones covered in cutmarks, breaks and human chewing marks have been found.
New research shows that some human groups living around 15,000 years ago were eating their dead not out of necessity, but as part of their culture.
While most people will either bury or cremate their dead in the modern day, some of our ancestors did things a little differently.
Gough’s Cave is a well-known archaeological site in south-eastern England. Nestled in the Cheddar Gorge, the cave is perhaps best known for the discovery of 15,000-year-old human skulls believed to have been used as cups, as well as bones that had been gnawed by other humans.
But were the people living in Gough’s Cave a gruesome outlier, or where they actually part of a wider cannibalistic culture? A new paper now suggests that they were not alone.
Human remains dating to the same time period in the late Upper Palaeolithic (between 23,500 and 13,500 years ago) from across northern and western Europe also show evidence of being cannabilised. These bones are also from the same culture, known as the Magdalenian, which suggests that the eating of the dead was a shared behaviour at this time.
Dr Silvia Bello is an expert on the evolution of human behaviour working at the Natural History Museum and was part of this latest study published in Quaternary Science Reviews.
‘Instead of burying their dead, these people were eating them,’ explains Silvia. ‘We interpret the evidence that cannibalism was practiced on multiple occasions across north-western Europe over a short period of time, as this practice was part of a diffuse funerary behaviour among Magdalenian groups.’
‘That in itself is interesting, because it is the oldest evidence of cannibalism as a funerary practice.’
A human skull from Gough's Cave was deliberately shaped into a cup after having its flesh removed. ©The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
This cannibalistic behaviour was seemingly fairly common amongst Magdalenian people in north-western Europe, but it didn’t last particularly long.
Instead, there was a shift towards people burying their dead towards the end of the Palaeolithic. This behaviour is seen widely across south central Europe and has been attributed to a second distinct culture known as the Epigravettian. Eventually, cannibalistic burials seem to have all but died out.
But was this a result of Magdalenian people adopting primary burial as a funerary behaviour, or was it because their population was replaced?
Cannibalism as funerary behaviour
The two dominant cultures in western Europe during the late Upper Palaeolithic were largely distinguished by the stone and bone tools they crafted.
Evidence of Epigravettian culture is mainly found in south and eastern Europe, with the dead buried with grave goods in a way that we would perhaps consider more usual by modern standards.
The Magdalenian culture from the north-west of Europe, meanwhile, were doing things differently. They were processing the bodies of their dead by removing the flesh from the corpse, eating it, and in some cases modifying the remaining bones to create new objects.
A long-standing question about this cannibalism was whether or not it was driven by necessity, taking place only when times were tough, or whether it was a cultural behaviour.
Evidence from Gough’s Cave already suggests that the eating of the bodies there was of a more ritualistic form. Human remains like the skull cup and an engraved bone show that some thought was being put into the cannibalism.
Meanwhile, there is ample evidence that the people responsible were hunting and eating lots of other animals, such as deer and horses.
Some of the human bones found at Gough's Cave show evidence of having been worked, implying that the cannibalism had a ritualistic function. ©The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
Dr William Marsh is a researcher at the Natural History Museum who has been studying the human remains that have been found in Gough’s Cave for his PhD.
‘To contextualise Gough’s Cave better, I reviewed of all the archaeological sites attributed to the Magdalenian and Epigravettian Upper Palaeolithic culture,’ explains William.
He was able to find 59 sites across Europe from this time which had human remains, of which 13 showed evidence of cannibalism, 10 of burial and two that showed signs of both. What he realised was that the practice of eating the dead was fairly localised, being found at sites across western and central Europe and up into the UK.
‘The fact that we find cannibalism being practiced over a short period of time, in a fairly localised area and solely by individuals attributed to the Magdalenian culture means we believe this behaviour was one that was performed widely by them, and was therefore a funerary behaviour in itself,’ says William.
In this context, the eating of the dead can be seen as different in practice, but perhaps not in meaning, to cremations, burials or mummification.
Changing funerary practices
Building on this, William and Silvia were then able to look at whether any genetic analysis had been done on the human remains from these sites. This would enable the researchers to see if there were any links between who was practicing which funerary behaviours.
Remarkably, the genetic evidence seems to suggest that the two groups practicing different funerary behaviours were genetically distinct populations. All the sites from which evidence of cannibalism has been found show that the people were part of a genetic group known as ‘GoyetQ2’, while all of the more ordinary burials were of people who belonged to the ‘Villabruna’ genetic group.
The research found that evidence for human cannibalism was fairly localised across north-western Europe during the Upper Palaeolithic. ©William Marsh
While both groups were living in Europe at the same time, they lived in different places. Individuals showing GoyetQ2 ancestry are associated with the region spanning the French-Spanish border, whilst Villabruna ancestry was carried by individuals who inhabited the Italian-Balkan region.
This implies that when more conventional burials became commonplace in north-western Europe, it wasn’t through a spreading of ideas but rather Epigravettian people replacing the Magdalenian.
‘At this time, during the terminal period of the Palaeolithic, you actually see a turnover in both genetic ancestry and funerary behaviour,’ explains William.
‘Magdalenian-associated ancestry and funerary behaviour is replaced by Epigravettian-associated ancestry and funerary behaviour, which is indicative of population replacement as Epigravettian groups migrated into north-western Europe.’
‘We believe that rather than being an example of transcultural diffusion, the change in funerary behaviour is an example of demic diffusion where, essentially, one population comes in and replaces the other.’
Interestingly, this mirrors how researchers believe farming arrived in the UK some 6,000 years later.
Questions still remain about the funerary practices of these ancient humans. For example, William and his colleagues are now trying to figure out whether these cannibalised humans were related to one another, or whether they were eating people from outside their immediate groups.
