Dining on the Dead: Potential Evidence of the Earliest Case of Cannibalism

Figure 1: Evidence of nine butchery marks on a fossilized tibia (Photo by Jennifer Clark)

 

In the 1970s Mary Leakey and her team discovered a hominid tibia.  They initially identified the tibia as belonging to the Paranthropus boisei species, although reanalysis of the tibia in 1990 determined it may belong to a Homo habilis individual.  This tibia remained in the Kenyan National Museum, where Briana Pobiner, an American paleoanthropologist based out of the Smithsonian, began to study it.  It was this analysis that led to an amazing discovery: the earliest definitive evidence of intentional butchery marks on hominid remains, as well as perhaps the earliest case of cannibalism.

 

Pobiner noted nine marks on the tibia where the calf muscle would have been present.  The marks were unique because they were unlike animal bite marks, leading her to take molds of the remains.  The molding technique she used is similar to that dentists use to model teeth.  The dental molds were sent to Michael Pante at the Colorado State University, and he, alongside Trevor Keevil of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. used 3-D modeling to study the marks.  They compared the marks on the fossilized tibia to almost 900 identified marks, including those created by stone tools, stone pounding implements, animal teeth, and animal hooves trampling the bones.  Pante and Keevil ultimately concluded that the marks on the fossilized tibia were caused by stone tools intentionally being used to cut the bone.

 

Pobiner, Pante, and Keevil published their conclusions in the journal Scientific Reports.  Their discovery marks the earliest case of intentional butchery on hominid remains, but the team did not stop there.  They also resolved that these marks may have been evidence of the earliest case of cannibalism.  They reached this conclusion as the cut marks were located where the calf muscle would have been, leading them to presume the cutter wanted to consume that specific cut of flesh.  It is unclear, however, if these cut marks were made by members of the same species, which would further support this as evidence of cannibalism, or if they were created by members of another species, which could mean they were caused by scavengers seeking to remove flesh.  This is not outside of the realm of possibilities since the fossilized tibia also had definitive bite marks from a large predator (most likely a feline, such as a saber tooth tiger).  The team believe, however, that they have the earliest case of cannibalism, although additional evidence is necessary to fully support this conclusion. 

 

Bibliography

Bower, B. (2023, June 26). Fossil marks suggest hominids butchered one another around 1.45 million years ago. Science News.

Domínguez, N. (2023, June 26). A fossil leg bone may reveal the oldest case of cannibalism, from 1.45 million years ago . El Pias.

Lavery, R., & Kremer, R. (2023, June 26). Humans’ Evolutionary Relatives Butchered One Another 1.45 Million Years Ago. Retrieved from Smithsonian Museum of Natural History: https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/humans-evolutionary-relatives-butchered-one-another-145-million-years-ago

Pobiner, B., Pante, M., & Keevil, T. (2023). Early Pleistocene cut marked hominin fossil from Koobi Fora, Kenya. Scientific Reports, 9896.