Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History(26)
As evidence, Tattersall cites the fact that in many places in the Middle East and Mediterranean Basin, Neanderthals and modern humans coexisted as morphologically distinct populations “for something like 50,000 years . . . so the idea of a gigantic, late-Pleistocene love-in among morphologically differentiated hominids simply defies every criterion of plausibility.”
Supporting this stance are recent morphological and mitochondrial DNA studies that indicate a clear distinction between modern humans and Neanderthals. Further support came from Swiss researchers Mathias Currat and Laurent Excoffier. In 2011, they used admixture/competition models to calculate the amount of inbreeding that would have occurred when previously separated populations of Neanderthals and Paleolithic humans begin encountering each other. Modeling results showed that low levels of Neanderthal ancestry in Eurasians (2 to 3 percent of the genome) were compatible with an extremely low incidence of interbreeding, with successful couplings between Neanderthals and Paleolithic humans estimated to take place only once every 23 to 50 years.
But whatever hypothesis anthropologists choose to support concerning interactions between Neanderthals and modern humans, and the ultimate demise of the former, Neanderthals are no longer depicted as knuckle-dragging brutes. Instead, studies have shown that they were highly intelligent, with some specimens exhibiting a cranial capacity (i.e., brain volume) 100 to 150 milliliters greater than the 1,500-milliliter capacity of modern humans! Researchers have also learned that Neanderthals used fire, wore clothing, and constructed an array of stone tools, including knives, spearheads, and hand axes.
The possibility that Neanderthals practiced cannibalism was briefly argued in 1866 and again in the 1920s, after a fossil skull discovered in Italy was observed to have a gaping hole above and behind the right eye. The wound was initially interpreted as evidence that the skull had been broken open by another Neanderthal intent on extracting the brain for food, but researchers now believe that a hyena caused the damage.
More recent and significantly stronger evidence for Neanderthal cannibalism came from multiple sites in northern Spain, southeastern France, and Croatia. In each instance, Neanderthal bones exhibited at least some of the characteristics interpreted by anthropologists as “patterns of processing.” This term refers to the telltale damage found on the bones of animals that have been consumed by humans. This Neanderthal-inflicted damage includes some combination of cut marks, which result when a blade is used to remove edible tissue like muscle; signs of gnawing or peeling; percussion hammering (abrasions or pits that result from the bone being hammered against some form of anvil); burning; and the fracturing of long bones, presumably to access the nutrient-rich marrow cavity.
But even when these patterns of processing are observed, researchers must proceed with caution before making claims about the occurrence of cannibalism. While these forms of bone damage can be strong indicators of human activity, they can also result from human behavior or phenomena completely unrelated to cannibalism. According to anthropologist Tim White, “Bodies may be buried, burned, placed on scaffolding, set adrift, put in tree trunks or fed to scavengers. Bones may be disinterred, washed, painted, buried in bundles or scattered on stones.” In what is known as secondary burial, bodies that have already been buried or left to decompose are disinterred and subjected to additional handling. For the ancient Jews this involved placing the bones into stone boxes called ossuaries. For some Australian aboriginal groups and perhaps the ancient Minoans, secondary burial practices included the removal of flesh and cutting of bones. Rituals like these make it extremely difficult to distinguish between funerary rites and cannibalism, especially if the group in question no longer exists or if the rites are no longer practiced.
Cut marks on bones may be the result of violent acts related to war or murder. If you can imagine someone unearthing the skeleton of a soldier killed by a bayonet or sword, they might misinterpret the cut marks on the bones as evidence of cannibalism.
Clearly, then, blade marks and other damage inflicted on Neanderthals by conspecifics and other ancient human groups may have been caused by a variety of actions. Archaeologists now consider this type of osteological damage to be strong evidence for cannibalistic behavior only when it can be matched to similar damage found on the bones of game animals uncovered at the same site. The implication is that if animal and human bodies were processed in the same manner, and if the remains were discarded together, it is reasonably certain that cannibalism took place.
This appears to have been precisely what happened at a Neanderthal cave site known as Moula-Guercy in southeastern France. An excavation begun there in 1991 revealed the remains of six Neanderthals and at least five red deer (Cervus elaphus) dating to approximately 100,000 years before the present. The bones were distributed together and butchered in a similar fashion. The long bones and skulls were smashed, and telltale cut marks on the sides of the skulls indicated that the large jaw closure muscles had been filleted. There were also characteristic patterns of modification on the lower jaws, providing evidence that the tongues had been removed. Both Neanderthal and deer bones also exhibited peeling and percussion pits. Lastly, there were distinctive patterns of cuts indicating that bodies from both species had been disarticulated at the shoulder, a process that would have made carrying and handling them easier. According to Tim White, “The circumstantial forensic evidence [for cannibalism at Moula-Guercy] is excellent.”
Of course there is always the possibility that this type of damage to the animal bones took place during butchery, but that the same types of stone tools were also used to deflesh and disarticulate human remains during non-cannibalistic mortuary practices. Echoing what Mark Norell would have considered “the smoking gun” for dinosaur cannibalism, anthropology writer Paul Bahn wrote that, “The only definitive evidence for prehistoric cannibalism would be the discovery of human remains inside fossil faeces or inside a human stomach.”