Archaeologists have claimed that early Europeans were cannibals, with a particular taste for children. I felt my skin crawl as I typed that, I'm a firm believer in experiencing everything at least once and I can say with absolute cetainty that I take that back and no longer believe it to be true. My initial thoughts, when I read about this, were that maybe they had no other choice? food was scarce, but then I couldnt understand why they would eat children. Isn't it women and children to safety first? Clearly not. So I read a little more....
This claim comes from the discovery of bones and remains of the ancestors of Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens who first settled in Europe around 800 000 years ago in the Atapuerca caves in Northern Spain. A study has revealed that human flesh was on the daily menu and children and adolescents were the unfortunate target. But this brings me back to my original question, was there a food shortage? Nope. It wasnt even ritualistic, it was just a preferred diet. Scientists believe that children and adolescents were eaten because of their place on the demographic pyramid of the group, talk about respecting your elders, respecting them enough not to eat them.
This is the first well documented case of cannibalism in the history of humanity and as fascinating as this is, I cant help but fight the urge not to bring up my lunch, which for interests sake wasn't a relative or friend of mine. There are some aspects of history I will never understand or comprehend but I'm glad that we can learn and discover these ancient ways of life, maybe it will prevent us from travelling down that dark road again. But I can't help but wonder, was it a dark road or just an accepted way of life? I'm not in any way condoning cannibalism but I look at the world we live in today and the atrocities taking place right now and I wonder if cannibalism is the worst thing our kind could have done?
