From phys.org: The caves that prove Neanderthals were cannibals.
Deep in the caves of Goyet in Belgium researchers have found the grisly evidence that the Neanderthals did not just feast on horses or reindeer, but also on each other.
Human bones from a newborn, a child and four adults or teenagers who lived around 40,000 years ago show clear signs of cutting and of fractures to extract the marrow within, they say.
“It is irrefutable, cannibalism was practised here,” says Belgian archaeologist Christian Casseyas as he looks inside a cave halfway up a valley in this site in the Ardennes forest.
The bones in Goyet date from when Neanderthals were nearing the end of their time on earth before being replaced by Homo sapiens, with whom they also interbred. [continue]
Have you read William Golding’s novel The Inheritors, about early contact between Neanderthals and homo sapiens? I really liked it when I first read it. But it was one of those many books that I first read when I was too young. When I re-read them at intervals over the years I find that I have more context in which to absorb them, so that they are more and more enjoyable.
I haven’t read it. Perhaps I should add it to my ‘to read’ list. Thanks for mentioning that.