Human Bones Reveal Evidence of One Horrifying Cannibalistic Feast

Humans living on the Iberian Peninsula in the late Neolithic may have turned on their neighbours in a bleak, brutal act of social violence, according to newly presented evidence.

Cannibalism at El Mirador cave, Sierra de Atapuerca

Bone damage found in El Mirador cave in the Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain, indicates that at least 11 people - including children and adolescents - were skinned, stripped of flesh, taken apart at the joints, broken, cooked and eaten by other humans. The remains date to 5,709–5,573 years ago.

What makes the discovery particularly striking is the suggestion that the cannibalism happened at roughly the same time, as a single episode that may have been isolated. That pattern implies the community was not routinely practising cannibalism, but may have resorted to it under exceptional circumstances, such as conflict between nearby clans.

A new case from the Atapuerca sites

"In this study we are dealing with a new case of cannibalism at the Atapuerca sites," says paleoecologist Palmira Saladié of the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) in Spain.

"Cannibalism is one of the most complex behaviors to interpret, due to the inherent difficulty of understanding the act of humans consuming other humans. Moreover, in many cases we lack all the necessary evidence to associate it with a specific behavioral context. Finally, societal biases tend to interpret it invariably as an act of barbarism."

Across millennia, traces of cannibalism appear sporadically throughout humanity’s deep past, with multiple examples documented on the Iberian Peninsula alone.

Researchers have proposed a wide range of motives for why earlier societies might have practised cannibalism - from survival and sustenance, to the funerary rite of transumption, in which the dead are incorporated into the bodies of the living as a symbolic way of keeping them present.

What the bones show: deliberate post-mortem processing

Saladié and colleagues reported 650 separate fragments of human bone from El Mirador cave that display signs of “processing after death” - intentional modification.

Among the indicators is so-called pot-polishing, where bone ends become smoothed in a way consistent with movement in a cooking vessel. The assemblage also includes discolouration linked to cremation, and cut marks on 132 bones that, the researchers write, match "defleshing, skinning, disarticulation, dismembering, and evisceration,"

Some remains also show a modification known as peeling. Scientists still debate exactly how peeling occurs, but one suggested cause is biting that leaves tooth marks. In this collection, the researchers report that several bones bear fairly clear evidence of gnawing by human teeth.

Timing, origins, and what likely drove the violence

The case becomes more compelling with the dating results. Radiocarbon analysis indicates the eaten individuals died at around the same time and were butchered and consumed in a single event, potentially spread over several days. Strontium isotope ratios measured in the bones further suggest that all the consumed people were local.

"This was neither a funerary tradition nor a response to extreme famine," says IPHES evolutionary anthropologist and quaternary archaeologist Francesc Marginedas. "The evidence points to a violent episode, given how quickly it all took place – possibly the result of conflict between neighboring farming communities."

Although it is impossible to know with certainty what triggered the horrific meal at El Mirador roughly 5,700 years ago, the researchers argue the evidence fits an extreme display intended for social control.

"Conflict and the development of strategies to manage and prevent it are part of human nature," says archaeozoologist Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo of IPHES. "Ethnographic and archaeological records show that even in the less stratified and small-scale societies, violent episodes can occur in which the enemies could be consumed as a form of ultimate elimination."

A growing body of research increasingly points to widespread inter-group violence on the Iberian Peninsula during the Neolithic - likely fuelled by territorial disputes, competition for resources, and population pressure as migration into the region increased.

Within that wider setting, the butchered bones imply cannibalism was one element of the violent repertoire: an extreme method among others used to fully overpower opponents.

It also adds nuance to interpretations of cannibalism across human history.

"The recurrence of these practices at different moments in recent prehistory makes El Mirador a key site for understanding prehistoric human cannibalism and its relationship to death, as well as possible ritual or cultural interpretations of the human body within the worldview of those communities," Saladié says.

The research has been published in Scientific Reports.