Cannibalism is the practice of eating members of one’s own species. Among modern humans, cannibalism usually takes one of two forms: ritual cannibalism or subsistence cannibalism. While symbolic ritual cannibalism is common among humans today, actual cannibalism tends to be rare and in many cultures it is viewed as repugnant. But what about the past? Did ancient human ancestors engage in cannibalism?
In their book From Lucy to Language, Donald Johanson and Blake Edgar write:
“From our modern, culturally civilized perspective, we tend to view cannibalism as an inhuman—perhaps the most inhuman—of acts, repellent and repugnant. Yet, if there is evidence for cannibalism deep in our past, we need to ponder it objectively. It sheds a light, however, on one aspect of human nature.”
The ethnographic record suggests that ritual cannibalism is the most frequent and most accepted form of cannibalism. In many cultures, there is a belief that by eating the flesh of someone is a means of acquiring some of the traits of the person being eaten. Thus, consuming the remains of a beloved ancestor or leader is believed to be a way of preserving the strengths of that ancestor and passing them on to others. In modern, non-tribal cultures, this is done symbolically. In some Christian churches, for example, there is a cannibalism ceremony in which a special bread and wine are believed to become the actual flesh and blood of the religion’s mythical founder. Philip Wilkinson, in his book Religions, reports:
“Catholics believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation—that the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ when consecrated.”
Christian missionaries working in non-European cultures were sometimes surprised to find the potential converts were repulsed by this ceremony because their cultures view cannibalism as unthinkable.
Cannibalism can be ritually associated with war. When particularly brave enemy warriors were killed, they would be eaten to obtain their bravery. On the other hand, conquered people were sometimes eaten to show that they were inferior. In this case, cannibalism was a ritual of contempt.
Dietary or nutritional cannibalism appears to have been relatively rare. In cases where the people were facing starvation, cannibalism was used as a way of obtaining needed food and surviving. Dietary cannibalism seems to have been a necessary event rather than an ongoing subsistence strategy.
The archaeological evidence for cannibalism can be difficult to interpret. Since eating human flesh is similar to eating animal flesh, human bones which have the same butchering marks as animal bones might be one indication. Preparation of human meat, like animal meat, may involve cooking so burned bones may also provide a clue. Donald Johanson and Blake Edgar caution:
“Cut marks may indicate ritual defleshing, such as scalping, and broken or burned bones may be part of a mortuary practice.”
In other words, we know that in some cultures the bodies of the dead are processed by defleshing so that just the bones are buried or stored. In other cultures, cremation is the norm for dealing with dead bodies and hence there may be burned bones.
Location may also provide another clue. When human bones bearing cuts from butchering are found scattered among animal bones with the same type of cuts, this may be an indication of cannibalism rather than a funeral. However, there are many cases where the dead were buried in middens with other trash, but in these cases the bones were not usually scattered.
Briefly described below are some of the possible cases of cannibalism among ancient humans.
Homo antecessor
At the site of Sima del Eléfante in northern Spain, paleoanthropologists have uncovered the remains of Homo antecessor. There is some debate as to whether Homo antecessor is more closely related to Homo heidelbergensis or to Homo neanderthalensis or possibly to both. Most of the bones recovered have been immature. In one instance, dated to 780,000 years ago, there was clear evidence that the flesh had been removed from the bone. In his book The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack and Other Cautionary Tales from Human Evolution, Ian Tattersall writes:
“Found just inside an ancient cave entrance where early hominids made tools and prepared their meals, the hominid bones are broken in exactly the same manner as the mammal bones occurring alongside them. Further, they show cut marks and fracturing and pitting of the kind normally associated with butchery.”
The evidence seems to indicate that some form of cannibalism was practiced. The context does not appear to suggest ritual cannibalism and the findings from the site suggest that cannibalism was not a single event but rather it was a practice that had been sustained over a fairly long period of time. In spite of what seems to have been a fairly food-rich environment, cannibalism appears to have been a part of the subsistence strategy.
Homo heidelbergensis
Homo heidelbergensis flourished in Europe, Africa, and Asia from about 700,000 years ago until about 100,000 years ago.
At the site of Bodo in Ethiopia, there may be some evidence of Homo heidelbergensis cannibalism. Donald Johanson and Blake Edgar write:
“Around 600,000 years ago, this individual was intentionally defleshed, in the earliest incident known. But whether the butcher ate any of this flesh cannot be answered.”
Homo neanderthalensis
Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) were a distinct human species who lived in Europe and Western Asia from about 200,000 years ago until about 30,000 years ago. They were anatomically and behaviorally different from anatomically modern humans.
Some of the potential evidence for cannibalism among Neanderthals was found in Krapini, a limestone cave in Croatia. The site has been dated to 130,000 years ago. The excavations uncovered bones from about 80 individuals, most of whom died between 16 and 24 years of age. Stone tool cut marks indicate that some individuals may have been butchered and cannibalized. The bones show signs of having been processed for their nutrients. Donald Johanson and Blake Edgar write:
“The skeletons of several Neandertals were shattered and scattered throughout the site. Collected between 1895 and 1905, unfortunately without modern archaeological techniques, the 1,000 human bones and 1,000 tools tell a chilling story. Some 800 of the bones reveal cut marks and fractures made by hammerstones, while none show any carnivore gnawing.”
At the Neandertal cave site of Vindija, skulls were found smashed in and upper arm bones bear cut marks.
At El Sidrón in northern Spain, there is an extensive system of limestone caves from which archaeologists have recovered 1,800 hominin skeletal fragments and 400 stone tools. The site had been dated to 49,000 years ago. In his book Humans: From the Beginning, Christopher Seddon writes:
“The human remains represent twelve Neanderthal individuals, including three adult males, three adult females, three male adolescents, two juveniles, and an infant of an unknown sex. They are thought to be part of a single group, all of whom died at around the same time.”
Christopher Seddon goes on to report:
“Many of the bones have been cut with stone tools or smashed open for their marrow—in other words, cannibalism. We shall never know exactly what happened, but it is likely that the El Sidrón Neanderthals were killed and eaten by members of a neighbouring group who were themselves on the brink of starvation.”
Homo sapiens
From about 120,000 years ago until about 90,000 years ago, anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) occupied a site at the Klasies River Cave in South Africa. Evidence of cannibalism is found at the site. In an entry in The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, H.T. Deacon reports:
“The human bones show cut marks and burning and occur with other food waste. They are not from conscious burials. Although the evidence is consistent with the practice of cannibalism, dietary cannibalism is not necessarily implied. In South Africa, medicine murders, which are ritualized cannibalism, still occur and may have a long history. The human bones are mostly cranial pieces of very dimorphic robust male and gracile female individuals.”
More recently there are indications of cannibalism at Gough’s Cave in England’s Cheddar Gorge. This was occupied about 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age. The majority of human bones found at the site come from the head and about a quarter of these show signs of discrete incisions which can be attributed to human activity. Concerning the human bones uncovered at the site, Archaeologist Francis Pryor, in his book Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland before the Romans, writes:
“There was absolutely no indication of healing, so the marks had been made post mortem, but probably not very long after death. They had been made by flint knives wielded by a person, or persons, who knew what they were doing and what they meant to achieve.”
This appears to indicate cannibalism, yet the people were not starving as the animal remains show that there was plenty to eat. The possibility of nutritional cannibalism comes from the human chew marks on some of the bones. People had chewed human toes and at least one rib.
With regard to the heads, Silvia Bello, Simon Parfitt, and Chris Stringer, in their report on Gough’s Cave in British Archaeology, write:
“People had removed heads and jaws shortly after death, and cut the skin and flesh away from the skulls.”
There are indications of ritual elements in the processing of the skulls which included the careful removal of soft tissues by controlled percussion, followed by the removal of the major skull muscles, the tongue, lips, ears, nose, and scalp. The skulls appear to have been made into skull-cups.
In Southeastern Anatolia, at the site of Domuztepe, archaeologists uncovered a feature which they call the Death Pit. At this Neolithic site, dated to 5800-5450 BCE, the remains of at least 35 humans and a number of animals have been found. The evidence from this site suggests a ritual communal feast which included cannibalism. The evidence of cannibalism includes postmortem culinary processing (cut-marks on the bones showing systematic butchery) which is usually associated with cannibalism. In their chapter in Bioarchaeology and Behavior: The People of the Ancient Near East, Suellen Gauld et al report:
“Evidence of consumption is documented by small shallow tooth marks and depressed fractures that co-occur on a variety of elements, particularly the delicate matacarpals and metatarsals. This pattern of damage, which is distinct from the tooth damages created by nonhuman carnivores, is preserved in several well-accepted hominin cannibalism assemblages…”
Suellen Gauld et al conclude:
“In sum, when the entire complex of damages and behaviors documented in the Death Pit assemblage is considered, not only do the data meet all the criteria to infer cannibalism in the archaeological record, they also cannot be explained by reference to other previously described Late Neolithic mortuary patterns.”
The cannibalism was not due to nutritional needs. It may have been an empowerment feast in which one group established or enhanced power over another. Suellen Gauld et al report:
“Participation in the feasting activities would not only authenticate this leadership but also bind neighbors and kin groups together in a remarkable expression of community solidarity.”
Suellen Gauld et al also go on to conclude:
“We suggest the Death Pit data also conform to a model of agonistic cannibalism, where ritualized sacrifice and feasting may serve as a visible and symbolic affirmation of both established hierarchy and community integration.”
Most of the victims, 26 of the 31 whose skulls were found, were killed by blows to the head and most were between the ages of 11 and 40. It has been suggested that the sacrifice and ritual cannibalism of the victims may have been a way to deny them an afterlife and to honor, appease, or gain favor with the gods.
Human Origins
More from this series:
Human Origins: The Large Brain
Human Origins: The Human Hand
Human Origins: Cultural Evolution
Human Origins: Bipedalism
Human Origins: The Mind
Human Origins: The Great Chain of Being
Human Origins: Menopause