First Europeans were cannibals with taste for children
Submitted by coldrum on Friday, 26 June 2009 Page Views: 988
DiscoveriesEarly Europeans were cannibals with a particular taste for the flesh of children, archaeologists have claimed.The claim has come after bones of the ancestors of Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens who first settled in Europe around 800,000 years ago were unearthed in the Atapuerca caves in northern Spain.
A study of the prehistoric remains has revealed that human flesh formed part of the diet of early man and children and adolescents in particular were regularly killed and eaten.
Jose Maria Bermudez de Castro, one of the co-directors of the Atapuerca project, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, said: "It is the first well-documented case of cannibalism in the history of humanity."
The remains discovered in the caves "appeared scattered, broken, fragmented, mixed with other animals such as horses, deer, rhinoceroses, all kinds of animals caught in hunting" and eaten by humans, he explained.
"This gives us an idea of cannibalism as a type gastronomy, and not as a ritual," he said.
The remains are thought to belong to Homo antecessor, named after the Latin word for pioneer or explorer because they are the first humans who reached Europe after a long migration from Africa.
They spread through the Middle East, northern Italy and France before settling in the Atapuerca region in Spain, a fertile site at the confluence of two rivers which was heavily forested and provided an abundance of wild animals.
Scientists believe the abundance of good hunting meant the early Europeans did not need to resort to eating each other but did anyway.
"They did not practice cannibalism through a lack of food," explained Dr de Castro. "They killed their rivals and used the meat."
His team has determined that the practice continued through generations and that the majority of the victims were children or adolescents.
"We have also discovered two levels that contain cannibalised remains, which means that it was not a one-off thing, but continued through time," he said.
"Another interesting aspect ... is that most of the 11 individuals that we have identified were children or adolescents".
"We think that there are also two young adults including a female, which indicates that they killed the base of the demographic pyramid of the group."
telegraph.co.uk.
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