Archaeologists are exploring new possibilities for ancient cannibalism in Britain. Specifically, recent research has discovered the possibility of ritual anthropophagy.
The latest analysis of the bones, which were first discovered in the 1980s in Gough’s Cave in the Cheddar Gorge, show signs of having been filleted using sophisticated butchery techniques, decorated and gnawed by fellow humans around 15,000 years ago.
The likelihood of cannibalism in this instance has already been established. What's new are the implications of designs apparently carved on human bones:
The analysis shows the zigzag marks were engraved intentionally, which the researchers suggest may have been part of an elaborate ritual carried out after death that culminated in the deceased being eaten.
Like so:
One researcher lays out more Gothic-friendly details:
Chris Stringer, head of human origins research at the Natural History Museum in London, who was involved in the original excavation and also the latest research, said: “This wasn’t just a case of someone dies and then they’re eaten. The process is interrupted halfway through. They’ve cleaned off the flesh, then someone sits down and very carefully carves this design and only afterwards do they break open the bone to get the marrow out.”
From the paper's abstract:
Human remains at Gough’s Cave (UK) have been modified as part of a Magdalenian mortuary ritual that combined the intensive processing of entire corpses to extract edible tissues and the modification of skulls to produce skull-cups. A human radius from Gough’s Cave shows evidence of cut marks, percussion damage and human tooth marks, indicative of cannibalism, as well as a set of unusual zig-zagging incisions on the lateral side of the diaphysis.
(thanks to Steven Kaye)
Comments