Friday, October 1, 1999 Published at 14:23 GMT 15:23 UK
Neanderthals were cannibals
This Neanderthal thigh bone was smashed open for its marrow
Gory evidence uncovered in France reveals that the early humans in the region ate one another.
Cheek muscles from children were filleted out, tendons were sliced and skulls were cracked to remove brains.
Excavations at the cave at Moula-Guercy, Ardeche, yielded 78 Neanderthal bones, from at least six individuals who lived 100,000 years ago. Remnants of two adults, two 15 or 16 year-olds, and two six or seven year-olds were dug up as well as nearly 400 pieces of animal bone.
"If we conclude that the animal remains are the leftovers from a meal, we're obliged to expand that conclusion to include humans," said the research team leader Alban Defleur, at the University of the Mediterranean Marseille.
There have been hints of Neanderthal cannibalism at other sites before but this is the by far the clearest evidence and the first in Europe.
No signs of gnawing were found on the bones, ruling out the possibility that the Neanderthals were eaten by wild animals. There were no signs of charring either suggesting the flesh was either eaten raw or cooked off the bone.
However, the archaeologists have also found no evidence that the bones were cut and broken as part of a burial ritual - the early human bones were thrown on to the cave floor alongside deer bones.
The new evidence might appear to be at odds with records of careful Neanderthal burials in which bodies were laid in the foetal position in semi-circular graves. But Professor Tim White, another team member from the University of California Berkeley believes that the variable treatment reveals a cultural complexity.
"When you see some Neanderthals practising intentional burial and others practising cannibalism, that is a clear indication of behaviour that is multidimensional - a pattern that mirrors the behaviour of more modern people," he said.