tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post7431289864479808837..comments2024-03-28T00:11:33.489-04:00Comments on bensozia: Cannibalism at Herxheim, or, Events in the Distant PastJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-38044388722798932402015-03-14T14:30:10.694-04:002015-03-14T14:30:10.694-04:00I very much appreciate the additional info and cit...I very much appreciate the additional info and citation!<br /><br />That said, I'm still not sure anything truly definitive has been established. I've kept dogs, and if you throw them a pre-split bone, they chew at the point of the break, not at "more or less random" spots. Unsplit bones? Sure, they bite all over because they're trying to find the weak spots to break them.<br /><br />But if so far no one can rule out "the actions of carnivores, especially dogs", then it still seems just as likely to me that they tossed broken bones to their dogs as it is they ate the marrow themselves. Especially with only sixteen cases of bite marks, which my admittedly amateur intuition would suggest is an awfully low number given hundreds of corpses.<br /><br />Either way, it's fascinating, if perhaps a bit macabre!G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-33641218296722683042015-03-14T11:31:20.392-04:002015-03-14T11:31:20.392-04:00Moreover, direct proof of this could be provided b...Moreover, direct proof of this could be provided by the existence of chewing marks. From a morphological point of view, they are perfectly compatible with a human origin, but their characteristics do not allow us to exclude the actions of carnivores, especially dogs (Landt 2004). On the other hand, their distinctive distribution (10 cases out of 16 are situated near the broken ends of metatarsals, metacarpals and phalanges of the hands, and 3 on the olecranon process of the ulna) speaks strongly in favour of human choice rather than more or less random action by carnivores.<br /><br />--Boulestin et al. 2009:977<br /><br />If you're on academia.edu you can get the whole article.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-1830106688273811322015-03-14T09:13:11.107-04:002015-03-14T09:13:11.107-04:00To be fair, a butchered corpse doesn't necessa...To be fair, a butchered corpse doesn't <i>necessarily</i> indicate the flesh was consumed - at least not specifically by people.<br /><br />After all, there are today extant rituals where corpses are cut apart to be fed to vultures and other carrion birds. In the absence of further evidence - such as bite marks on bones, or perhaps depictions of human consumption of the flesh on pottery - is it not just as plausible that the butchered individuals were put to other uses?<br /><br />Perhaps the sacrificed were fed to sacred animals, or to the gods or spirits themselves in any number of forms? Offerings of butchered flesh could be made to the land for fertility. Or the butchering might have been a form of insult or obliteration, seeking to devalue and dehumanize the sacrificed by treating them as lesser beings, subjecting them to practices associated with mere animals. The fact that they employed "typical butchery techniques" might even reinforce that very notion - especially when combined with the degree of violence displayed to the corpses in other aspects, such as the brutally smashed facial bones. I could easily imagine a situation such as a surrendered army being slaughtered, butchered, and their flesh delivered back to their loved ones one trays as a horrible mockery. Or perhaps just fed to the dogs, in the style of the Old Testament?<br /><br />Of course, none of this is to say that there's much evidence <i>against</i> cannibalism here. I just feel that it is premature to <i>absolutely</i> conclude it was cannibalism based purely on <i>butchering alone</i>. As I said above, a gnawed bone or some form of depiction of consumption would clinch it for me.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.com