Are we ready for some grisly revelations about our closest pre-human ancestors?
A new study of the remains of cannibal feasts consumed about one million years ago reveals these findings: first, the world’s first known cannibals ate each other to satisfy their nutritional needs; second, the cannibals belonged to the species Homo antecessor, related to both Neanderthals and modern humans; and third, Homo antecessor appears to have preyed on competing groups, treating victims like any other meat source.
As reported by Jennifer Viegas in the August 26, 2010 issue of
Discovery magazine, these are the conclusions of a study published in the latest issue of
Current Anthropology by a team of anthropologists led by Eudald Carbonell, a professor at the University of Rovira and Virgili in Catalonia, Spain. The team analyzed food remains, stone tools, and other finds associated with Homo antecessor at a cave site called Gran Dolina in the Sierra de tapuerca near Burgos, Spain.
“Cut marks, peeling, and percussion marks show that the corpses of these individuals were processed in keeping with the mimetic mode used with other mammal carcasses: skinning, defleshing, dismembering, evisceration, and periosteum (membrane that lines bones) and marrow extraction,” the researchers reported.
According to the team, Homo antecessor was “the last common ancestor between the African lineage that gave rise to our species, Homo sapiens, and the lineage leading to the European Neanderthals of the Upper Pleistocene.”
Read “First Cannibals Ate Each Other for Extra Nutrition” in News.Discovery.com now!
