Neanderthals, who lived in northern Europe, actively practiced cannibalism – BBC

Whether Neanderthals were cannibals or they disdain relatives to dinner? This question is not one decade excites scientists all over the world. And now a team of anthropologists from the University of Tübingen conducted a study and found out: our relatives, who lived in present-day Northern Europe, not just eating each other, but also made of bone eaten comrades tools. With text work can be found in the journal Scientific Reports

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in the study, researchers worked with 99 Neanderthal bone fragments found in the group of caves of Goyet in Belgium. This monument, archaeologists unearthed from the XIX century, when excavation techniques were still imperfect. Perhaps this cave was inhabited at different times and Neanderthals and modern humans, so the researchers from the University of Tübingen have to make an effort to identify the remains of Neanderthals is. Total in the cave found 283 bone fragments, including 96 bone fragments and a tooth 3 anthropologists identified as Neanderthal

Because of the fragments was able to collect the entire bone -. Those bones turned 64.

ten of them have been directly dated by radiocarbon analysis was conducted for the 15 isotope analysis and another of ten isolated DNA. According to a set of attributes (bone structure, its integrity, mitochondrial DNA), scientists have determined that the bones belong to five individuals (four adults and one child Neanderthals), who lived about 40,5-45,5 thousand. Years ago.

Anthropologists have found a third of the bone remains of processing traces showing that Neanderthals ate the flesh of their fellow tribesmen. During processing Neanderthals flayed from dead comrades, their bone marrow was extracted and removed the pectoral muscles. “All this suggests that the Neanderthals practiced cannibalism active, – says Herve Boherens, lead author of the study from the University of Tübingen. – Many of the remains of horses and deer found in Goya, are treated in exactly the same way. By the way, this is the first evidence that Neanderthals, who lived in Northern Europe, ate their fellow »

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Indeed, while Neanderthals are often portrayed as cannibals, really evidence that our distant relatives were eating each other very little. Previously, scientists have shown that cannibalism was common only among the Neanderthals, who lived in France and Spain. So, in the cave of El Sidron in Spain remains of 12 Neanderthal eaten congeners were found. With a Neanderthal child tribesmen even scalped.

In this case, scientists believe that Neanderthals could carve the body of their comrades, not only for lunch but also for ritual purposes.

The study by anthropologists still came to the same conclusion: our relatives turned the bones of the fallen comrades tools. Thus, three tibias and femur alone were used for stone. Usually Stone processing Neanderthals used animal bones – particularly deer, cave bears and horses. “The use of bones as the relatives of tools – an extremely rare phenomenon for the Neanderthals – said Herve Boherens. – And in Belgium, it seems, was greatly extended »

Earlier, a team of scientists from Oxford expressed the hypothesis that Neanderthals could destroy a habit to feast on brains of their relatives,. infected with a rare disease, an analog of mad cow disease. According to the study authors, this disease permanently weakened and reduced population numbers – and finally the Neanderthals disappeared from the face of the earth in just a couple of hundred years

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