Posted on 06/26/2009 7:16:24 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A study of the remains revealed that they turned to cannibalism to feed themselves and not as part of a ritual, that they ate their rivals after killing them, mostly children and adolescents. "It is the first well-documented case of cannibalism in the history of humanity, which does not mean that it is the oldest," he said. The remains discovered in the caves "appeared scattered, broken, fragmented, mixed with other animals such as horses, deer, rhinoceroses, all kinds of animals caught in hunting" and eaten by humans, he said. "This gives us an idea of cannibalism as a type gastronomy, and not as a ritual." The Atapuerca caves were first discovered in the late 19th century... The first excavations did not take place until 1978, then "in 1984, we found 150 human remains. In 1992, they found a complete intact skeleton, and two years later, they discovered remains dating back more than 800,000 years. Those remains probably correspond to the first humans who reached Europe, known as Homo antecessor, after the Latin word for pioneer or explorer. Homo antecessor, who lived before Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens, probably came to the caves of Atapuerca after a long migration from Africa and through the Middle East, northern Italy and France... "Another interesting aspect ... is that most of the 11 individuals that we have identified" as victims "were children or adolescents. We think that there are also two young adults including a female, which indicates that they killed the base of the demographic pyramid of the group."
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofmalta.com ...
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Wow — those Spanish archaeologists are really coming up with groundbreaking discoveries </sarc/>
Homo antecessor eats people...imagine that.
Tasted like chicken. Serve with a wedge of lime.
The first Spanish were archaeologists, European cannibals say.
Cannibalism? Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
They were the easiest large prey to bring down. Makes sense.
From what I’ve read, tastes like pork; serve with apple..
No, they were homo-carniverous.
Barney Rubble’s middle name was Frank?
The South Sea Islanders didn’t call it “long pig” for nothing.
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