28 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

The oldest evidence of human cannibalism as a funerary practice in Europe

According to a new study, cannibalism was a common funerary practice in northern Europe around 15,000 years ago, with people eating their dead not out of necessity but rather as part of their culture.

Gough’s Cave is a well-known paleolithic site in south-eastern England. Nestled in the Cheddar Gorge, the cave is perhaps best known for the discovery of 15,000 years old human skulls shaped into what are believed to have been cups and bones that had been gnawed by other humans.

A study published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews suggests this was not an isolated incident. Their research focused on the Magdalenian period of the late Upper Paleolithic era. The Magdalenians lived some 11,000 to 17,000 years ago.

Experts at London’s National History Museum reviewed the literature to identify 59 Magdalenian sites that have human remains. Most were in France, with sites also in Germany, Spain, Russia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Portugal. They were able to interpret the funerary behaviors at 25 of the sites.

The ritualistic manipulation of human remains and its frequent occurrence at sites across northern and western Europe suggested cannibalism was a burial practice – rather than to supplement diet – widespread in Magdalenian culture, researchers said.

‘Instead of burying their dead, these people were eating them,’ explains Dr. Silvia Bello, an expert on the evolution of human behaviour working at the Natural History Museum. ‘We interpret the evidence that cannibalism was practiced on multiple occasions across north-western Europe over a short period of time, as this practice was part of a diffuse funerary behaviour among Magdalenian groups.’

‘That in itself is interesting, because it is the oldest evidence of cannibalism as a funerary practice.’

This cannibalistic behaviour was seemingly fairly common amongst Magdalenian people of north-western Europe, but it didn’t last particularly long. There was a shift towards people burying their dead, a behaviour seen widely across south-central Europe and attributed to a second distinct culture, known as the Epigravettian.

Human remains from across north-western Europe indicate that cannibalism was a funerary practice. ©The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
Human remains from across north-western Europe indicate that cannibalism was a funerary practice. ©The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London

This then raises the question of whether the eventual relative ubiquity of burial culture towards the end of the Palaeolithic was the result of Magdalenian people adopting primary burial as a funerary behaviour, or if their population was replaced.

Cannibalism as funerary behaviour

During the late Upper Palaeolithic, between around 23,000 and 14,000 years ago, there were two dominate cultures in western Europe, largely distinguished by the stone and bone tools the crafted.

The Epigravettian culture was mainly found living in south and eastern Europe, and buried their dead with graves goods in a way that we would perhaps consider more usual by modern standards. The Magdalenian culture from the north-west of Europe, however, were doing things differently. They were processing the bodies of their dead, removing the flesh from the corpse, eating it, and in some cases modifying the remaining bones to create new objects.

One of the main questions was whether or not this cannibalism was driven by necessity, when perhaps food was scarce or the winter long and so the people responsible were in survival mode, or whether it was a cultural behaviour.

Evidence from Gough’s Cave already suggests that the eating of the bodies there was of a more ritualistic form. This is because there is ample evidence that the people responsible were hunting and eating lots of other animals, such as deer and horses, while the careful preparation of some of the human remains like the skull cup and an engraved bone show that some was thought was being put into the cannibalism.

Dr. William Marsh is a researcher at the Natural History Museum who has been studying the human remains that have been found in Gough’s Cave for his Ph.D.

“To contextualize Gough’s Cave better, I reviewed of all the archaeological sites attributed to the Magdalenian and Epigravettian Upper Paleolithic culture,” explains William. He was able to find 59 sites across Europe from this time which had human remains, of which 13 showed evidence of cannibalism, 10 of burial and two that showed combined evidence of burial and cannibalism. What he realized was that the practice of eating the dead was fairly localized, being found at sites across western and central Europe and up into the U.K.

“The fact that we find cannibalism being practiced often on multiple occasions in over a short period of time, in a fairly localized area and solely by individuals attributed to the Magdalenian culture, means we believe this behavior was one that was performed widely by the Magdalenian, and was therefore a funerary behavior in itself,” says William.

In this context, the eating of the dead can be seen as different in practice, but perhaps not meaning, to cremations, burials or mummification.

Some of the human bones found at Gough's Cave show evidence of having been worked, implying that the cannibalism had a ritualistic function. ©The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
Some of the human bones found at Gough’s Cave show evidence of having been worked, implying that the cannibalism had a ritualistic function. ©The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London

Changing funerary practices

Building on this, William and Silvia were then able to look at whether any genetic analysis had been done on the human remains from these sites. This would enable the researchers to see if there were any links between who was practicing which funerary behaviors.

Remarkably, the genetic evidence seems to suggest that the two groups practicing different funerary behaviors were genetically distinct populations. All the sites from which evidence of cannibalism has been found show that the people were part of a genetic group known as “GoyetQ2,” while all of the more ordinary burials were of people who belonged to the “Villabruna” genetic group.

While both groups were living in Europe at the same time, individuals showing GoyetQ2 ancestry are associated with the region spanning the French-Spanish border, while Villabruna ancestry was carried by individuals who inhabited the Italian-Balkan region. This implies that when the practice of eating the dead ended and more conventional burials became common place in north-western Europe, it wasn’t through a spreading of ideas but rather Epigravettian people replacing the Magdalenian.

“At this time, during the terminal period of the Paleolithic, you actually see a turnover in both genetic ancestry and funerary behavior,” explains William. “The Magdalenian associated ancestry and funerary behavior is replaced by Epigravettian associated ancestry and funerary behavior, indicative of population replacement as Epigravettian groups migrated into north-western Europe.”

“We believe that rather than being an example of transcultural diffusion, the change in funerary behavior identified is an example of demic diffusion where essentially one population comes in and replaces the other population.”

Interestingly, this mirrors how researchers believe farming arrived in the U.K. some 6,000 years later.

DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108309 

Cover Photo: A human skull from Gough’s Cave was deliberately shaped into a cup after having its flesh removed. ©The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London

Related Articles

In Pontefract, archaeologists have discovered Neolithic remains

18 June 2021

18 June 2021

Archaeologists working on the site of the former Carleton Furniture factory at Mill Dam Lane in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England,...

700-Year-Old Lord Vishnu’s Sculpture Washes Ashore on Pedda Rushikonda Beach

23 March 2025

23 March 2025

On a serene Friday evening, the tranquil shores of Pedda Rushikonda beach were disrupted by an extraordinary sight: a centuries-old...

3500-year-old grape seed remains found in western Anatolia

12 September 2023

12 September 2023

Archaeologists at the Aşağıseyit Höyük (Aşağıseyit Mound) site in western Anatolia’s Denizli have uncovered a 3,500-year-old grape seed. Aşağıseyi Höyük...

From Ancient Scripts to Digital Insights: TLHdig 0.2 Breathes New Life into Hittite Cuneiform Tablets

27 March 2025

27 March 2025

The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Boğazköy-Hattuša, once the capital of the Hittite Empire during the late Bronze Age (circa...

Unique finds unearthed in the ancient city of Olba in southern Türkiye

16 August 2023

16 August 2023

In the excavations carried out in the ancient city of Olba, located in the Silifke district of Mersin, in the...

4,500-Year-Old Harappan Settlement Unearthed in Rajasthan’s Thar Desert

31 July 2025

31 July 2025

Archaeologists uncover the first-ever Harappan site in Rajasthan’s Thar Desert near the Pakistan border, expanding the known geographical reach of...

A 3800-year-old cylinder seal was discovered at Turkey’s Tepebag Mound excavations

8 July 2022

8 July 2022

In the 2022 excavations of Tepebag Mound, located around Taşköprü, the center of Adana province in Turkey’s Mediterranean Region, a...

Archaeologists have found seven pairs of Anglo-Saxon brooches in seven graves during an excavation in Gloucestershire

5 April 2022

5 April 2022

Archaeologists have found seven pairs of Anglo-Saxon saucer brooches, one pair in each of seven burials unearthed in an excavation...

“Oracle Bone Inscriptions”, the world’s oldest writing system that has not disappeared in history

5 June 2023

5 June 2023

“Jiaguwen,” or the oracle bone inscriptions, are thought to be the earliest fully-developed characters as well as the source of...

4,000-Year-Old Lion Jaw Bone Unearthed in Kültepe

14 September 2021

14 September 2021

Excavations continue in Kültepe, the starting point of Anatolian written history. During the excavations, a 4,000-year-old lion jawbone was unearthed....

Archaeologists found three large shipwrecks, 139 Viking Graves, and a ship-shaped mound in Sweden

21 October 2024

21 October 2024

Exciting discoveries in Sweden! Archaeologists were preparing to investigate a Stone Age settlement outside Varberg. But they came across a...

Horse cemetery in Westminster revealed as likely resting place for elite imported animals

25 March 2024

25 March 2024

Archaeological analysis of a medieval horse cemetery discovered in London nearly 30 years ago has revealed the international scale of...

World-first recreation of ancient Egyptian garden open

20 May 2022

20 May 2022

Have you ever wondered what an ancient Egyptian garden was like?  This is your opportunity to find out! The first...

3.300-year-old Hittite Inscription was Used in Gate Construction

10 May 2021

10 May 2021

Our cultural assets become victims of ignorance one by one. The works that will illuminate the darkness of history continue...

Unique Ancient Bronze Miniature Portrait Of Alexander The Great Found In Ringsted On The Island Of Zealand, Denmark

12 April 2024

12 April 2024

Two amateur archaeologists have made a unique find near Ringsted in the Danish island of Zealand. A sign that one...