Evidence of Early Human Cannibalism Unearthed at Atapuerca!
Archaeologists working at the Gran Dolina site in Spain’s Sierra de Atapuerca have uncovered a startling piece of prehistoric history: a cervical vertebra belonging to a child who lived around 850,000 years ago. The bone, believed to have come from a youngster aged between two and four, bears precise cut marks that experts say indicate deliberate decapitation and, by extension, cannibalistic practices among early humans.
Photo Credit: Maria D. Guillén / IPHES-CERCA
The find was made in level TD6 of the cave, an area already famous for revealing some of the oldest traces of human activity in Europe. Researchers from the IPHES-CERCA institute, who led the excavation, are confident this discovery shows that Homo antecessor, an early human species, not only hunted animals but also processed the bodies of their own kind, including children, for meat.
Dr Palmira Saladié, a taphonomy specialist and co-director of the dig, emphasised the significance of the discovery. According to her, the cuts on the vertebra are not random but carefully made at specific anatomical points, the very places needed to separate the head from the body. “The precision of these marks shows that the child was treated in the same systematic way as other prey,” she explained.
Photo Credit: Maria D. Guillén / IPHES-CERCA
This vertebra is one of ten human bones unearthed during the latest season. Some of the other remains also show intentional breaks and scraping marks, patterns that closely resemble those found on animal bones butchered for food at the site.
This isn’t the first time evidence of cannibalism has been found at Gran Dolina. Nearly thirty years ago, researchers identified the earliest confirmed signs of humans eating other humans in the very same layer. Saladié points out that the new discovery suggests this wasn’t an isolated incident: “We’re seeing continuity. This behaviour wasn’t exceptional; it happened repeatedly.”
Photo Credit: Maria D. Guillén / IPHES-CERCA
The reasons behind such practices are still debated. Survival in a harsh Ice Age landscape may have driven early humans to consume whatever resources were available, including members of their own group. Some archaeologists even argue that cannibalism might have served as a way to assert territorial dominance, not just to obtain food.
Interestingly, this season’s excavation also revealed a hyena latrine containing over 1,300 fossilised droppings just above the layer with human bones. This close vertical positioning hints at a time when humans and large predators were competing for the same caves, reinforcing the idea of a hostile environment where life and death were both precarious.
The team suspects there may be many more secrets buried deeper in TD6. “Every year we find something that forces us to rethink how these early humans lived, what they feared, and how they treated their dead,” Saladié said.