00:00Cannibalism is one of those dark sides of humanity, a cultural practice that has all
00:08but disappeared in modern times, and for good reason. However, despite being an act that can
00:12turn the stomach in an instant, paleoanthropologists are now saying that it may have been a much
00:17larger part of humanity's history than once believed. New research into the cultural
00:21practices in paleolithic northern Europe has revealed that rather than burying their dead,
00:25they ate them instead. This was around 15,000 years ago, several millennia before humankind
00:31moved from hunter-gatherer to an agricultural society. This was predominantly done by the
00:35Magdalenian peoples that lived in the area, with the researchers finding evidence of post-mortem
00:40body manipulation. This included saw and tooth marks on bones and other signs of butchering after
00:45death. The researchers say the evidence they discovered showed that cannibalism was practiced
00:49by a genetically distinct group from others in the area, all part of some prehistoric funerary
00:54practices, with the researchers writing that this is the oldest evidence of cannibalism as
00:58a funerary practice. So why did it disappear? The researchers say that the other preeminent
01:03ancestry in the region took over, with their cultural practices replacing those of the cannibalistic
01:08lineage.
