Cannibalism was a common funerary practice in Europe about 15,000 years ago

This raises the question of whether the eventual relative spread of burial culture at the end of the Paleolithic was a result of the Magdalene people adopting incipient burial as funerary behaviour, or whether their population was replaced.

Cannibalism as funerary behavior

During the Late Upper Paleolithic, approximately 23,000 and 14,000 years ago, there were two dominant cultures in Western Europe, largely distinguishable by the stone and bone tools they made.

The Epigravettian culture is found mainly in southern and eastern Europe, where their dead were buried with funerary objects in a manner that we might consider more common by modern standards. On the other hand, the Magdalene culture of northwestern Europe did things differently. They processed the bodies of the deceased, removing the flesh from the corpse, consuming it, and in some cases, modifying the remaining bones to create new objects.

One of the key questions was whether this cannibalism was motivated by necessity, when food was scarce or winters were long, and the people involved were in survival mode, or whether it was a cultural behaviour.

Evidence from Gough Cave suggests that the consumption of corpses there took a more ritualistic form. This is because there is abundant evidence that the people responsible hunted and ate many other animals, such as deer and horses, while the careful preparation of some human remains, such as the skull cup and incised bone, indicates that some importance was given to cannibalism.

Studying these Magdalene funerary practices leads us to consider the complexity and diversity of human cultures in the past. Cannibalism as part of funeral rituals in Europe thousands of years ago, although surprising and confusing to us today, reminds us that the customs and beliefs of ancient societies were rich and diverse. As we continue to uncover the secrets of our past, it is essential that we keep an open mind and consider the many facets of the human experience over time.