Some human bones dating back to 15,000-18,000 years ago found in the Maszycka cavein Poland, would provide evidence of the consumption of human flesh, that is, that in thePrehistoric Europe it was practiced cannibalism. To confirm it a study published in the magazine Nature carried out by a research group ofIphesthe Catalan Institute of Paleoecology and social evolution of Tarragona, which has identified the presence of traces of the bones from the analysis of the bones slaughter And food consumption.
The remains studied (different bones belonging to 10 different individuals, 6 adults and 4 subcutors), presented numerous traces of intentional manipulationlike cuts and abrasions, but also functional slaughter to the consumption of meatcomplete with Fire exposure (cooking). In the case of long bones, these have been intentionally broken to reach the marrow. Furthermore, unlike the other coeval contexts, in which the bones subjected to manipulations came treated with respectin the Maszycka cave, the human remains studied by the Catalan researchers were found together with other bones of slaughtered and consumed animals.
Considering the age of the 10 individuals who belonged to the bones studied, scholars even proposed that a The only family groupwith adults and children, endless And cannibalized in the context of the tensions between different groups of central Europe hunters-rackets in the Superior Paleolithicrather common. This case of study is a stimulus to review under a different key the Post-Morthem manipulated bones In other European Paleolithic contexts, to date considered examples only of funerary practices.
At the companies of hunters-cacogliers of Magdalenian period (so archaeologists call the human cultures of the last part of the superior Paleolithic in Western Europelived Between 18,000 and 10,000 years ago) the handling Cadavers post-Morthem was quite common, probably because of certain religious and funeral practices. In particular, given that these practices are certified with great frequency on cranial bonesit is thought that they were linked to cult of ancestors. Often the bones of the deceased were used for the realization of tools of various kinds, but their study has made it possible to identify the evidence of the consumption of human flesh In some cases.
