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Cannibalism Was a Common Funerary Practice in Parts of Europe around 15,000 Years Ago
Recent studies shed new light on the practice of cannibalism in ancient Paleolithic populations. It is not a question of eating meat out of hunger, but a sort of “routine” that involved several generations of the same population.
Cannibalism is a taboo practice in our society, widespread only in small and isolated populations. But this practice, in the past, was widely spread and accepted because the consumption of meat, or part of it, had a function in certain rituals, mostly propitiatory, or to prevent the enemy or a person from “coming back to life”.
At least in the last few thousand years, meat has not been eaten out of hunger but for a series of reasons that to us, modern humans, are still unacceptable. Studies have uncovered remains showing signs of butchering, found in the fossil record, leading to the belief that this practice was a sort of routine, the oldest ever recorded to date. Thanks to conducted by the Natural History Museum in London, genetic and archaeological evidence has been found linking cannibalism to funerary practices. These studies have uncovered remains showing signs of butchering…
