Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups [ 14,700 BP ]

Public Library of Science ^ | February 16, 2011 | Silvia M. Bello, Simon A. Parfitt, Chris B. Stringer

[SunkenCiv]

Abstract

Background

The use of human braincases as drinking cups and containers has extensive historic and ethnographic documentation, but archaeological examples are extremely rare. In the Upper Palaeolithic of western Europe, cut-marked and broken human bones are widespread in the Magdalenian (~15 to 12,000 years BP) and skull-cup preparation is an element of this tradition.

Principal Findings

Here we describe the post-mortem processing of human heads at the Upper Palaeolithic site of Gough's Cave (Somerset, England) and identify a range of modifications associated with the production of skull-cups. New analyses of human remains from Gough's Cave demonstrate the skilled post-mortem manipulation of human bodies. Results of the research suggest the processing of cadavers for the consumption of body tissues (bone marrow), accompanied by meticulous shaping of cranial vaults. The distribution of cut-marks and percussion features indicates that the skulls were scrupulously 'cleaned' of any soft tissues, and subsequently modified by controlled removal of the facial region and breakage of the cranial base along a sub-horizontal plane. The vaults were also 'retouched', possibly to make the broken edges more regular. This manipulation suggests the shaping of skulls to produce skull-cups.

Conclusions

Three skull-cups have been identified amongst the human bones from Gough's Cave. New ultrafiltered radiocarbon determinations provide direct dates of about 14,700 cal BP, making these the oldest directly dated skull-cups and the only examples known from the British Isles.

[Jonty30]

Cannibalism represents what man is capable of. The fact that Civilization represents what man is capable of becoming.

[mikrofon]

Leading to the original variation- “I’d rather have a frontal lobotomy when a bottle’s in front of me...”

[Vehmgericht]

The purpose of writing is to communicate ideas. BP, BCE, ETC. AD and BC have been accepted for well over a thousand years. They are almost universally recognized. Why do they need to be improved upon? Of course the answer is that people are occasionally offended. I am offended by Arabic numerals therefore I will only use Roman ones. How do you think my banking is working out? Well that how things go in the year 3 ABW (that’s After Butt Wipe.)

[SunkenCiv]

They use the standardized BP because it’s a radiocarbon date.

[Domestic Church]

“British nobility practiced cannibalism”

Would you please expound on this and enlighten this Irish heathen.

[Jonty30]

Sunkenciv actually posted an article on it sometime ago.

But you can google it easily enough.

[Domestic Church]

This is what I found on google:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3592794/British-royalty-consumed-human-body-parts-to-treat-illness-a-book-reveals.html

[Jonty30]

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/863911-british-royals-used-to-be-cannibals-dining-on-human-flesh

There’s this, filling out a bit more information on it. I think that the so-called medicinal purpose represented a dying practice of what used to be wide-spread.

[ckilmer]

You do realize, of course, the parallels between Christianity, cannibalism, and human sacrifice?

Cannibalism is barely covered by a thin veneer of “civilization”.
.........
yes yes of course. the whole point of Jesus being the Son of God and therefor God himself—was that he is finally a sufficient sacrifice. God himself is a sufficient sacrifice in a way that no mortal man or critter could ever be.

That was why Jesus was so successfully able to address the ancient sacrificial system all over the world. he put an end to it because he himself—being God— was a sufficient sacrifice.

A human sacrifice in the end is no better than a chicken or pig for atonement of sins—that is, it does no good at all.
Everyone all over the world involved with the ancient system—when they came into contact with chritianity — understood that.

But there is a catch. Fall away from Christianity and the old rules apply—why? because chritianity is contra natura

It is no coincidence that the great atheist systems of the 20th century were the greatest killers.
///////////
here is a dissenting opinion in an epistemological way:
Contrary to Nature

The proverbial man in the street may think that a miracle (like jesus) is “contrary” to nature; Augustine was more savvy: a miracle, he said, is an event contra quam est nota natura, i.e. contrary not to nature as such but to what is known of nature. Many (contemporary)scientists themselves, humbled before the inexplicable thereness and counter-intuitive bizareness of the world, and the incomplete and provisional nature of their knowledge of it, are happy with this definition and no longer dismiss miracles tout court as “impossible”...

[ckilmer]

contra natura= contrary to nature