Possible Mesolithic Cannibalism Detected in Spain

VALENCIA, SPAIN—Ars Technica reports that evidence of cannibalism has been found in a cave near Spain’s southeastern coast. Anthropologist Juan V. Morales-Pérez of the University of Valencia and his colleagues found some thirty human bones in the cave, including pieces of three skulls, buried in the cave with the bones of ibex, deer, boar, fox, and rabbit. All of the 10,000-year-old bones had butchery marks, and had been burned, and some of them had human gnaw marks. The researchers think the “anthropophagic practices” may reflect the occasional scarcity of other food products, since the human bones appear to have been lightly cooked, butchered, and thrown in a pile with other animal bones. But it is possible that the perceived cannibalism had been part of a ritual, perhaps to honor the dead, and that the remains were given a ceremonial burial. All of the bones could have been washed to the back of the cave over a period of thousands of years. For more, go to “Colonial Cannibalism.”