It shows many of the marks on the fossil human bones to be consistent with marks on animal bones that had been cut up and consumed, researchers say.
"The location and frequency of the cut marks and intentional fracturing in the skeleton clearly show a nutritional exploitation of the bodies, ruling out the hypothesis of a funeral treatment without consumption,” study co-author Francesc Marginedas from the University of Rovira i Virgili said.
Fossils unearthed from a Polish cave suggest early Europeans engaged in cannibalism, sometimes even eating the brains of their enemies, during a time of war about 18,000 years ago.
The latest study shows evidence of cannibalism on dozens of bones taken from the Maszycka cave near Krakow during a series of digs through the 19th and 20th centuries until the 1960s.
Early Europeans celebrated victory in war by eating their enemies’ brains, cave fossils show Demographic expansion after Last Glacial Maximum may have led to conflicts.
