http://english.pravda.ru/science/tech/25-08-2006/84089-cannibalism-0
Modern cannibalism originates from prehistoric times, study says
25.08.2006
Heidelberg man who populated Europe some 700 thousand to 500 thousand
years ago was a cannibal. The vault of a skull damaged by external action is
the most irrefutable evidence of cannibalism.
Cannibalism existed in all ages
The lyrics of one of the songs by the famous Russian songwriter Vladimir
Vysotsky - One Scientific Mystery or Why the Aborigines Ate Captain Cook - seem
to be perfectly appropriate to the debate about the spread of cannibalism among
the ancestors of modern people: "From dusk till dawn they sat in the shade of
azaleas,/ eating one another greedily,/ those wicked savages,/ in the sunlit
Australia."
Looks like the gory story really took place. More importantly,
cannibalism was a widespread phenomenon not only in Australia, but in an area
presently known as Spain.
The findings of a recent research conducted in the caves of Atapuerca in
the northern part of the Pyrenean Peninsula show that the "Heidelberg man," who
used to inhabit the region, was a cannibal. The findings were made public by
means of a report published by Spanish anthropologists. The Heidelberg man is
thought to be a direct ancestor of both Neanderthal man and modern man.
Scientists had previously believed that the "holes full of bones"
discovered in 1994 in Atapuerca contained the remains of humans who were the
victims of either an epidemic or intertribal clashes. But things happened to be
more complex than they looked at first sight.
"The remains of the people found in Atapuerca bear evidence of
cannibalism. In other words, those people were eaten by other people," says
Professor Eudald Carbonel, head of the excavation party in Atapuerca. "The
cutters of a special kind were used for paring meat off the bones which belong
to ten representatives of the prehistoric man," adds he.
On the whole, it is quite difficult to draw the line between an accident
and a case of cannibalism. The vault of the skull damaged by external action is
the most irrefutable sign of cannibalism. The damage indicates that the skull
was broken by somebody who aimed to take the brain out if it.
Maria Mednikova, doctor of historical sciences, senior researcher at the
Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, makes a list of
signs that will enable a researchers to tell injuries from end results of
specific manipulations involving human mortal remains. "The latter include the
signs of cuts, scraping, pits and shallow depressions on the bones,
irregularities on the surface of joints and in locations where the muscles are
attached to the bones, damage of the vault of a skull, fragmentation of a skull
or postcranial skeleton, and the polishing of bone fragments' edges," says
Mednikova.
Conducting the above analysis would be difficult task even using
state-of-the-art equipment of today's forensic medicine. Suffice it to say that
100% of evidence pertaining to all known hominids of Lower Paleolithic era
(about 2 million years ago), 94.3% of Homo erectus, 76% of Neanderthal man, and
73% of evidence relating to man of Upper Paleolithic age (about 10 thousand
years ago) is represented by individual bones, or by a single bone in most
cases.
A detail that came to light during the study of the "feast of the
cannibals" looks like a real tearjerker. "The tribe of cannibals most likely
ate the people of other tribes for ritual purposes. Hunger was not their
motivation when they ate their neighbors. The young species of both sexes were
the main course of choice," says the report prepared by Prof. Carbonel's team.
By one way or another, the tradition of cannibalism started by the
Heidelberg man became quite popular among the representatives of later ages.
All the subsequent hominids practiced cannibalism. Evidence found in the ground
where the cliff of Crapina overhangs nearby the present-day city of Zagred,
Croatia, is arguably the most mysterious cannibalistic case.
Aside from the bones and skulls of more than 20 Neanderthals of different
ages found on location, researchers also dug out numerous animal bones
pertaining to Merck's rhinoceros, a wild bull, a cave bear, a boar, and a deer.
The human and animal bones alike had clear signs of the "specific
manipulations" e.g. the bones were split into many pieces, some of them were
scorched; several skull vaults were perforated and so on. Judging by the skulls
found near the cliff, not only the typical Neanderthals inhabited in Crapina.
Some skulls belong to human beings who have a great deal of resemblance between
them and modern humans.
According to one of the theories, Crapina is thought to be the site of a
"battlefield" between the Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnon. If the theory holds
water, either the former or the latter would have been eaten after losing the
battle. But the fractured skull remains indicate that representatives of both
populations fell victims to cannibalism. The question is: Who ate those poor
fellows? Not to mention the rhinoceroses and bears.
Perhaps a third party was involved in the Crapina mystery. The third
party may have represented some new genus of intelligent species, apart from
the Neanderthal man and homo sapience. So where are you, the third one? It
takes three to crack a bottle or so the saying goes.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Translated by Guerman Grachev
Pravda.Ru
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