Study suggests that group of prehistoric humans practiced cannibalism

At Gouch Cave, a limestone cave in Cheddar Gorge, United Kingdom, remains of at least six individuals were found by archaeologists. The data was shared in the study “Upper Paleolithic ritualistic cannibalism in Gouch Cave”.

According to the information, many of the bones were broken intentionally and the fragments are covered with cut marks, as a result of the use of tools to separate them and remove the flesh. Going further, 42% of the bone fragments also show marks from human teeth.

The research, then, suggests that people who lived there 14,700 years ago did, in fact, practiced cannibalism .

Cannibalism as a ritual tribute to the dead

Although considered a taboo topic in modern society, cannibalism, as research points out, thousands of years ago was a behavior that was part of a ritual in tribute to the dead .

At the time, according to researchers, there was a combination of intensive processing of entire corpses to extract edible tissue and the modification of skulls to produce cups. The results of the study show that, in certain aspects, the skull and post-cranium were subjected to different modes of treatment.

Identifying the motivation and social context of cannibalism in past societies poses additional problems. The practice can be divided into two broad categories depending on whether consumption by individuals occurred within a group or involved consumption by individuals outside the group.

Thus, several types of cannibalism have been defined. Among them, nutritional, gastronomic or pleasure cannibalism, self-cannibalism, survival cannibalism, war cannibalism and mortuary cannibalism – according to the motivations and circumstances in which it was practiced.

Finally, it is worth saying that the distinction between these possibilities depends on the identification of signatures of the different cases of cannibalism and can be determined based on the context in which the human bodies were massacred.