Five set of bones show unmistakable signs of butchery. Some where hammered open to expose the marrow, while the others leave cut marks of knives to tear away flesh. Scientists later confirmed that the remains are from four adults and a child.
The remains which was mixed with the remains of horses and reindeer belong to Neanderthals living in what is now known as Belgium between 40,500 and 45,000 years ago. The scientists described it as an "unambiguous evidence" of Neanderthal cannibalism. The current findings were written in this week's journal Science Reports.
These are not the first discovered remains that shows signs of cannibalism. Other bones found in France, Portugal and Spain suggests that the prehistoric hominins ate their own kind. But the Belgian site is fathers north than anything else that's been discovered, and it dates to a time toward the very end of the Neanderthals' existence, just a few thousand years before their species went missing.
They found 96 bones and three teeth from five Neanderthal individuals, all lying in a cave with other animal remains near the town of Goyet, Belgium. The remains are composed of five human bodies -- four were teenagers or adults and the one clearly belongs to a child.
The bones bore cut marks where the flesh had been torn away while the rib cages showed signs of having been pried open.
The larger bones, femure and tibias, were notched and pitted, suggesting that someone tried to break them open to suck away the marrow. Some bones were "retouched" to be used for sharpening stone tools.
DNA analysis suggests that they were genetically similar to contemporary Neanderthal communities living in Germany, Spain and Croatia.
This also suggests that during that date, Neanderthal are close to extinction.
There are four other Neanderthal sites within about 150 miles of Goyet, all dated roughly the same time frame. Yet, none among them show evidence of cannibalism.
Perhaps this evidence show that Neanderthals lived in small groups and possible that some mourned their dead, while others ate them.
Source: The Washington Post
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