Bison Or Brian? From A Calorie Perspective, Cannibalism Didn't Pay For Paleo Humans
Archaeological records show ancient humans sometimes ate each other. A new study suggests that hunting and eating other humans cost too much effort to be a regular thing. So why'd they do it?
The meat on an adult human's bones could feed another person for over two weeks, or maybe a whole Stone Age tribe for a couple of days, according to a new report on the practice of Paleolithic cannibalism. No wonder, then, that evidence of cannibalism in ancient humans pops up in the archaeological record from time to time.
When the human bones look like they've been eaten without ceremony or ritual, showing gnaw marks on the bones or gashes where the tendons would have been, archaeologists have chalked, an archaeologist at the University of Brighton. But that story just doesn't add up when you look at the calories in human meat when compared to other large prey, Cole says.
