28 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Prehistoric Cave Art Handprints With Missing Fingertips Point to Ritual Amputation

Researchers who examined prehistoric cave art in France and Spain, a new interpretation of Paleolithic cave art proposes that prehistoric people cut off their fingers for religious rituals.

Professor Mark Collard and PhD candidate Brea McCauley of Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) Department of Archaeology have considered over 200 hand images with one or more missing fingertips from caves in France and Spain attributed to the Gravettian people — an Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherer population that lived on the European landmass.

In some cases, only a segment of the finger is missing, while in others several fingers have been lost. For many years, this peculiarity has been the subject of intense debate. How did they get that way? Since we humans rely heavily on our hands, it seems like it would be exceptionally careless for so many individuals to lose so many fingers accidentally.

That’s why many archaeologists have concluded that the missing fingers are deliberate. But how, and why, has proven trickier to pin down. Some archaeologists argue that the artists merely folded their fingers down, painted over parts of the stencil, or resulted from medical issues such as frostbite.

Collard and McCauley have argued since 2018 that the lost phalanges were intentional body modifications by cross-referencing examples present in other cultures.

Because finger amputation was not an uncommon practice in certain cultures and societies, the researchers wondered if there was any link that could be made to explain the Upper Paleolithic hand images.

Additional examples of shortened fingertips in the stenciled negatives and pigmented prints of Gravettian hand images in the Cosquer Cave Photo: ©Grotte Cosquer Méditerranée
Additional examples of shortened fingertips in the stenciled negatives and pigmented prints of Gravettian hand images in the Cosquer Cave Photo: ©Grotte Cosquer Méditerranée

Looking into existing research of 10 documented motivations for finger amputation from a over 100 cultures across all continents, Collard and McCauley concluded that the presentation of shortened fingers in Gravettian hand images was most likely evidence of a religious sacrificial ritual to elicit help from a higher power, or a social survival ritual that strengthened bonds and loyalty within the group and fostered hostility toward outsiders.

In response to criticisms of their 2018 conclusion, particularly the “catastrophic” impact of amputations to the middle and ring fingers during the late Ice Age versus that of the little finger which is most commonly cut across cultures, the SFU researchers conducted further research to back their claim and presented additional evidence this year at a European Society for the Study of Human Evolution meeting.

The researchers reviewed many different historical texts including travel journals, expedition archives, and ethnographic documents to find evidence of societies that engaged in “phalangeal amputation” or the intentional removal of fingers and created a taxonomy of amputation practices around the world.

At Grotte de Gargas in Hautes-Pyrénées in France, 231 hand stencils have been recorded, made by around 45-50 individuals. Of these, 114 are missing one or more digits.

At Cosquer Cave, also in France, 28 of 49 hands are missing digits. And at Maltravieso in western Spain, 61 of 71 hand images are missing digits.

Negative hand stencils made by the stencil technique in Caves of Gargas. Photo: Commons
Negative hand stencils made by the stencil technique in Caves of Gargas. Photo: Commons

There’s also evidence to suggest that there were people with missing fingers making the art. At Grotte de Gargas, archaeologist C. Barrière reported in 1976, there are impressions of human limbs found in hardened mud – some of which are distinctly missing digits. These impressions are thought to be the same age as the hand stencils.

The reasons for finger amputation ranged from sacrificial, to a type of punishment, to a sign of mourning.

Collard told New Scientist that he and his team hypothesize that the Upper Paleolithic hand images were the result of a religious sacrifice or mourning.

“The idea that the hand images reflect sacrifice is consistent with the way that cave art has been interpreted by many researchers over the years,” said Collard. “Cave art is often in dark, hard-to-access parts of caves, which is consistent with them being part of some sort of dysphoric ritual.”

Cover Photo: Jean Clottes/McCauley et al./Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology

Related Articles

Roman-era chambers and clay offering vessels found in Antiocheia Ancient City, in southern Turkey

24 October 2022

24 October 2022

During excavations in southern Turkey’s ancient city of Antiocheia, archaeologists discovered late Roman-era chambers and clay offering vessels. Antakya, better...

Ruins of the 700-year-old wharf, possibly used by royalty, found in Oslo

6 March 2023

6 March 2023

An excavation by NIKU archaeologists in Oslo’s seaside neighborhood of Bjørvika has uncovered the remains of a long section of...

1,600-year-old fragment Of Enigmatic Roman Artifact Discovered In Belgium

17 February 2023

17 February 2023

A metal detectorist in Belgium discovered a piece of a mysterious bronze artifact known as a Roman dodecahedron, which is...

The Ancient City of Miletos’s “Sacred Cave” Opened to Visitors

2 October 2021

2 October 2021

In the ancient city of Miletos, which had an important place in the advancement of philosophy, art, and science in...

Intricate Design Revealed on 1100-Year-Old Gold-Inlaid Ritual Spear from Japan’s Island of the Gods

13 June 2025

13 June 2025

A recent archaeological breakthrough on Japan’s sacred Okinoshima Island has unveiled an ornately decorated iron spear from the late Kofun...

The Stonehenge road tunnel is illegal, according to the High Court

23 June 2021

23 June 2021

The transport secretary’s decision to allow a road tunnel to be built near Stonehenge was unlawful, according to the high...

Evidence of a 1500-year-old Byzantine church found on the beach of Ashdod, Israel

22 February 2022

22 February 2022

Recent rain in Israel has unearthed the remains of a marble pillar dating to around 1,500 years ago on a...

Archaeologists Uncover Extensive Ancient Irrigation Network in Eridu, the World’s First City

8 March 2025

8 March 2025

Recent research by a multidisciplinary team of archaeologists and geologists has revealed that the Eridu region of southern Mesopotamia, inhabited...

A 1,600-year-old church has been discovered in Turkey’s ancient city of Priene

19 October 2021

19 October 2021

A 1,600-year-old historical church was unearthed during the excavations in the Ancient City of Priene, located in the western province...

Archaeologists discover 1,300-year-old ski trapped in Norwegian ice

6 October 2021

6 October 2021

The melting of an ice sheet in Norway has uncovered a pair of remarkably well-preserved skis that had been undisturbed...

‘Holy Grail of shipwrecks’ worth $20 billion in treasure to be raised from seabed

10 November 2023

10 November 2023

A treasure ship described as the “holy grail of shipwrecks” will reportedly be lifted from the sea floor where it...

In Poland, a 45-meter-long mysterious tunnel found under the ruins of the Saxon Palace

9 September 2023

9 September 2023

A mysterious underground tunnel was found under the ruins of the Saski Palace in Pilsudski Square in Warsaw, the capital...

4500-year-old tiger-patterned ritual weapon uncover in east China

4 April 2023

4 April 2023

Archaeologists discovered an extremely rare stone relic, an axe-shaped weapon used for rituals in ancient China, engraved with a tiger...

The first Dutch Neanderthal’s ‘Krijn’ face was reconstructed

7 September 2021

7 September 2021

World-renowned “paleo-artists” Kennis brothers have reconstructed the face of the first Neanderthal in the Netherlands. After more than 50,000 years,...

Largest Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered in Britain illuminates ‘Dark Ages’

16 June 2022

16 June 2022

Archaeologists working on HS2 (the purpose-built high-speed railway line) have discovered a rich Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Wendover, Buckinghamshire, where almost...