Cannibal Britons?

**Lallans** · 16th February 11, 01:59 PM

Thankfully, I guess, this came out after the film "The Eagle" was released, so portrayal of the human skull drinking cups will have to wait for a sequel:

Cannibal Britons drank from skulls

By Richard Alleyne, The Daily TelegraphFebruary 16, 2011 3:02 PM

A gruesome discovery in the Cheddar Gorge suggests ancient Britons indulged in cannibalism and drank from the skulls of their victims.

Scientists have analysed the remains of three humans - including a child of three - who appear to have been killed for food, butchered, and eaten. The bones showed evidence of precision cuts to extract the maximum amount of meat and the skulls were carved into cups and bowls.

The fragments, which are 14,700 years old, are thought to be the oldest examples in the world of skull cups and represent the first evidence of ritual killing found in Britain. At the time, humans knew how to bury their dead, meaning the remains are most likely the result of premeditated cannibalism.

"At the time, life was very tough," said Prof Chris Stringer, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum, who helped excavate the cups from Gough's Cave, in Somerset. "Cannibalism would have been a good way of removing groups competing with you and getting food for yourself.

"There was also a feeling that if you ate your enemy you gained some of his power."

"What is more sinister is that these were quite sophisticated hunter-gatherers - very like us," he added. "They could make tools and painted cave art. They also had quite complex burials for the people they were not eating, treating the dead with reverence."

© Copyright (c) The Daily Telegraph

**Burly Brute** · 16th February 11, 02:12 PM

How do they know FOR SURE the skull cups werent crafted after the people died of "natural" causes?

**Lallans** · 16th February 11, 02:46 PM

I too want to know more, particularly about the cannibal angle. Knife marks on the bones would show they were defleshed, but more than one culture has done that for ceremonial rather than dining purposes. So, are there human gnaw marks on them as well? Were the long bones broken open and the marrow scooped out? Was a "How To Cook Your Kin" paleo-cookbook found nearby?

**Chas** · 16th February 11, 03:12 PM

I do not doubt for a minute that some ancient Britons were cannibals, but all the same there is some sloppy reporting here.

"Cannibalism would have been a good way of removing groups competing with you and getting food for yourself.

Just killing them would have been a good way of removing competing groups.

"There was also a feeling that if you ate your enemy you gained some of his power."

Just where did they write that down? Or did they put a tweet on twitter?

"What is more sinister is that these were quite sophisticated hunter-gatherers - very like us," he added. "They could make tools and painted cave art. They also had quite complex burials for the people they were not eating, treating the dead with reverence."

"for the people they were not eating" - makes it sound like rule to eat people - contrary to all the evidence so far. I think Prof Chris Stringer and The Daily Telegraph can do better.

Regards

Chas

**Dall_Piobaire** · 16th February 11, 04:03 PM

Too much inferred from far too little information and, at best, assumption.

Sounds more sensationalism at work here, news aint what it used to be.

I could be wrong, I an not an Anthropologist, but it seems that any culture we have evidence of, say New Guinea for example, used cannabalism and heading purely ceremonially, I believe the Kelts were head hunters as well, but again to capture the percieved spiritual power of the foe.

**Bugbear** · 16th February 11, 11:31 PM

Originally Posted by Canuck of NI

I too want to know more, particularly about the cannibal angle. Knife marks on the bones would show they were defleshed, but more than one culture has done that for ceremonial rather than dining purposes. So, are there human gnaw marks on them as well? Were the long bones broken open and the marrow scooped out? Was a "How To Cook Your Kin" paleo-cookbook found nearby?

I don't mean to get involved with the discussion, Canuck of NI, but here is a link to the journal source article that the news articles are attempting to summarize. I decided to post it rather than PM it to you.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:...l.pone.0017026
And I am going to copy and paste the citation provided.

Bello SM, Parfitt SA, Stringer CB (2011) Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups. PLoS ONE 6(2): e17026. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0017026Editor: Michael Petraglia, University of Oxford, United KingdomReceived: October 22, 2010; Accepted: January 19, 2011; Published: February 16, 2011Copyright: © 2011 Bello et al.
It would be interesting to see what beloitpiper has to say about the research.

Hope that helps.

**auld argonian** · 17th February 11, 06:33 AM

Look up some of those great Robert E. Howard stories about Bran Mak Morn and Cormac Mac Art...I heartily recommend "The Worms Of The Earth".

Fiction but pretty damn good...Crom!

Best

AA

**Lallans** · 17th February 11, 07:07 AM

Originally Posted by Bugbear

I don't mean to get involved with the discussion, Canuck of NI, but here is a link to the journal source article that the news articles are attempting to summarize. I decided to post it rather than PM it to you.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:...l.pone.0017026
And I am going to copy and paste the citation provided.

Bello SM, Parfitt SA, Stringer CB (2011) Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups. PLoS ONE 6(2): e17026. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0017026Editor: Michael Petraglia, University of Oxford, United KingdomReceived: October 22, 2010; Accepted: January 19, 2011; Published: February 16, 2011Copyright: © 2011 Bello et al.
It would be interesting to see what beloitpiper has to say about the research.

Hope that helps.

OK having read the introduction only at this point, I can see that the long bones of the people in question were indeed split for their marrow, which is pretty convincing evidence. The ice age was raging then and anyone who doesn't think cannibalism is common amongst people who are up against it for food are probably kidding themselves. It'll take more to convince me there was such a cult however.

**Father Bill** · 17th February 11, 07:11 AM

Originally Posted by Burly Brute

How do they know FOR SURE the skull cups werent crafted after the people died of "natural" causes?

Natural causes, like perhaps heart failure caused by a knife through the middle of it.

My favourite grace: "For food and friends, and the ability to tell the difference, we give thee thanks, O Lord."

**bigdad1** · 16th February 11, 03:59 PM

The Norse toast "Skoal" is generally accepted to refer to the drinking cup the Viking warriors were using. Just where they got that cup from is another story.

The idea that one would gather strength from the flesh of ones enemies is common around the world to the various cannibal tribes and has been noted since the first civilized contacts with those tribes by both written and oral histories. Just as our Native Americans felt they gained strength by counting coup.