Making Sacrifices In Stone Age Societies

Science News ^ | 5-16-2006 | Bruce Bower

[blam]

Making sacrifices in Stone Age societies

Bruce Bower

From San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the Paleoanthropology Society and Society for American Archaeology meeting

Double and triple burials at 23,000-to-27,000-year-old sites in Europe and western Asia suggest prehistoric human sacrifices, says Vincenzo Formicola of the University of Pisa in Italy.

Of 30 known burials from that time period and area, 6 held more than one person. These graves contain two or three children, adolescents, or young adults apparently buried at the same time, positioned in curious ways, and accompanied by unusually valuable objects, Formicola says. Most of the multiple burials include at least one youngster with a deformity.

One of the graves, at Russia's 24,000-year-old Sunghir site, contains a boy and a girl buried head to head, dusted in red ocher, and ornamented with thousands of ivory beads, fox-teeth pendants, and pierced antlers. Spears carved out of mammoth tusks lay next to the children. The Stone Age girl displayed severely bowed legs that would have limited her mobility.

It would have taken months to produce all the items interred with the two youngsters, Formicola says. "Was the burial of these children foreseen long in advance?" he asks. "It raises the possibility of [prehistoric] human sacrifices."

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[blam]

GGG Ping.

[ConorMacNessa]

"Most of the multiple burials include at least one youngster with a deformity."

Human sacrifices or early attempts at eugenics?

[weegee]

The Stone Age girl displayed severely bowed legs that would have limited her mobility.

So it was a mercy killing. Her quality of life suffered... < /sarc >

[hsalaw]

Human sacrifices or early attempts at eugenics?

I saw a show on this on the Discovery Channel. Some theorize it was Stone Age birth control: if the tribe couldn't find enough food to support itself in hard times, the youngest (non-productive) ones were "eliminated."

[Dilbert San Diego]

Thank God we've evolved past human sacrifices and eugenics.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

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[Andonius_99]

Thank God we've evolved past human sacrifices and eugenics.

even though we're headed back toward it...

[S0122017]

Thank God we've evolved past human sacrifices and eugenics.

Riiiight, NOWADAYS we would NEVER sacrifice human lives for the sake of the group. *cough*war*cough*

We have truly evolved. Just look at how advanced our tools are! Instead of the primitives with their STONE knives, we use METAL knives! And instead of throwing little ROCKS, we cast little bits of METAL faster and further than ever! Real creative, truly awe inspiring.

I will sleep now. Wake me when we got warpdrive and teleporters.

[SunkenCiv]

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