Researchers have found that Neanderthals from Poitou-Charentes in France mutilated the bodies of their dead by cutting, beating and fracturing bones, as indicated by fossil remains.
Since the site in Marillac was discovered, fossil remains of animals and humans, as well as Mousterian tools, have been unearthed, leading researchers to believe that the site was a hunting camp for Neanderthals. There are a lot of bone remains in the site, and many of them have not been analyzed, but those that have been examined show manipulations made shortly after their owner's death. Mousterian tools are flint style of predominantly flint tools associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis and dating to the middle part of the Old Stone Age.
Writing in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Maria Dolores Garralda, Bernard Vandermeersch and Bruno Maureille detailed their analysis of bone fragments discovered from 1967 to 1980. Dating back to about 57,600 years ago, the bones appear to belong to two adults and a child.
One of the fragments, from a femur, appears to belong to a child who met their death at age 9 or 10. It showed two large cuts, with researchers suggesting the bone was fractured while still fresh in an effort to separate the lower and upper portions of the femur.
The bones from the adults show similar markings, with fragments featuring fine, small cuts inflicted by flint tools. Again, the events leading to the marks forming occurred while the bones were still in a fresh condition.
One of the bone fragments from adult Neanderthals shows fractures at both extremes while being stained by manganese, a mineral abundant in caves which cause bones to turn black. The level of staining may point to the length of time the bone was around the mineral.
Mutilation has also been observed in other sites but researchers are still not sure as to why Neanderthals did such things to their dead. Still, they are leaning toward the marks being part of rituals because unique traditions have persisted all over the world. Not to mention that there were a lot of animal bones at the Marillac site, meaning there was more than enough food to go around at the time. Starvation was not a threat so there was no need to feed on a fellow Neanderthal.
Garralda added that while mutilations were also observed in other sites across Europe, it has never been shown that human meat was consumed by Neanderthals. If human meat was consumed, the only evidence of such points to gnawing marks by animals.
"These markings and deformations are clearly distinguishable from those studied in the three Neanderthal diaphysis," she said.
Photo: Erich Ferdinand | Flickr
