According to a study, cannibalistic Europeans probably ate their dead at funerals 15,000 years ago rather than burying them

 According to a study, cannibalistic Europeans probably ate their dead at funerals 15,000 years ago rather than burying them

15,000 years ago, Europeans most likely ate their deceased loved ones rather than burying them.

A recent study found that eating the dead was not necessary but rather a ritual.

According to a new study, cannibalistic Europeans probably feasted on their departed loved ones at funerals rather than burying them.

According to a study published in Quaternary Science Reviews, researchers now believe that cannibalism was common among the Magdalenian Upper Palaeolithic humans who inhabited Europe between 11,000 and 17,000 years ago.

In 25 Magdalenian grave sites located in France, Germany, Spain, Russia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Portugal, researchers examined funerary customs. The investigation discovered proof that these early humans utilized their dead people's skulls as cups, left chew marks on their bones, and harvested bone marrow for food from their bodies.

According to the study, there are several instances where it appears that early humans mixed human and animal remains together.

Cannibalism among this population had been documented in the past, such as at Gough's Cave, where human bones and skull cups were discovered, but until today, the extent of the practice's prevalence was unknown.

The prevalence of cannibalistic occurrences among Magdalenian sites "undeniably exceeds any incidence of this behavior among earlier or later hominin groups, and suggests that mortuary cannibalism was a method used by Magdalenian people to dispose of their deceased," the researchers concluded.

In a news release, co-author of the study and paleoanthropologist Dr. Silvia Bello stated that cannibalism was "not simply practiced out of necessity," but rather as a "funerary practice."

Dr. William Marsh, the co-author of the study, noted that their conclusions provided a context for Gough's Cave.

According to Marsh's statement in the press release, "you actually see a turnover in both genetic ancestry and funerary behavior during the terminal time period of the Palaeolithic, indicative of population substitution as Epigravettian groups migrated northward." "We think that the change in funerary behavior identified here is an example of demic diffusion, where basically one population comes in and replaces another population and that causes a change in behavior."

The study's authors did not soon respond to an insider's for comment.