Arciniaeoiogists Rediscover Cannibals At digs around the world, researchers have unearthed strong new evidence that people ate their own kind from the early days of human evolution through recent prehistory ‘Wher Arizona Stace University bioarchae- ologist Christy C. Turner Il first looked at the jumbled heap of bones from 30 humans in ‘Arizona in 1967, he was convinced that he was looking at the remains of a feast. The bones ofthese ancient American Indians had ccut marks and burns, just like animal bones that had been roasted and stripped of theie flesh. “It just struck me that here was a pile of food refuse,” says Tumer, who proposed in American Antiquity in 1970 that these people from Polacca Wash, Arizona, had been the victims of cannibalism, But his paper was met with “total disbe lief" says Turner. “In the 1960s, the new paradigm about Indians was that they were all peaceful and happy. So, to find something like this was the antithesis ofthe new way we were supposed tobe thinke ing about Indians”—particu- larly the Anaszzi, thought t0 be the ancestors of living Pueblo Indians. Not only did ‘Tumer’s proposal flyin the face of con- ventional wisdom about the Anastsi caleure, but ie was also at odds with an emerging consensus that earlier claims of cannibalism in the fosil record rested. ‘on shaky evidence. Where eatlier gen: erations of archaeologists had seen the ‘remains of cannibalistic feasts, current ‘researchers saw bones scatred by an- cient burial practices, war, weathering, orscavenging animals, ‘To Turner, however, the bones from Polacca Wash cold a more disturbing tale, and so he set about studying every prehistoric skeleton he could find in the Southwest and Mexico to see if it was fan isolated event. Now, 30 years and 15,000 skeletons later, Turners putting the final touches on a 1500-p beta year of my salary on i.” He isn't che only one now betting on can. ribalism in prehistory. In the past decade, ‘Tumer and other bioarchaeologists have put teria for die ‘inguishing the marks of cannibalism from ‘therkinds of scars. "The analytical rigor has together a set of clear-cut book to be published next year by the University of Urah press in which he says, “Cannibalism waspracticed intensively for almost fourcen- in the Four Comers region, The evi ence is 0 strong that Tuer says "I would increased across the board,” says paleo- anthropologist Tim D. White of the Univer- sity of California, Berkeley. Armed with the new criteria, archaeologist are finding what they say are strong signs of cannibalism throughout the fosil record. This summer, archaeologists are excavating several sites in Europe where the practice may have occurred among our ancestors, perhaps as early as 800,000 years ago. More recently, our braway cousins, the Neandertals, may have eaten cach other. And this behavior wasn limited tothe distant past—strong new evidence sug- ests that in addition to the Anasazi, the Az Cannibals’ house? Tho Pera Blanco great house at Cha ‘0 Canyon, New Mexico, whore some bones bear cut marks (upper of hers were smashed, perhaps to etract marrow. tecs of Mexico and the people of ij also ate theit own kind in the past 2500 yeas, These claimsimply a disturbing new view of human history, say Turner and others. Al though cannibalism is stil relatively rate in the fossil record, it is frequent enough 10 imply chat extreme hunger was not the only Ariving force. Instead ofbeing an aberration, practiced only by a few prehistorie Donner Parties, killing people for food may have been standard human behavior ~a means of social control, Turmer suspects, ora mob res of sponse to stess, ot a form of infanticide to of al www.sciencemayorg SCIENCE * VOL.277 + | AUGUST 1997 hhard to stomach: "These pe plored all the alternatives," says archaeolo- gist Paul Bahn, author ofthe Cambridge En- ‘yelopedia entry on cannibalism. "Thete’s no question, for example, chat all kinds of weird stuff is done to human remains in moray practice’—and in warfare. But even the ‘most prominent skeptic of earlier claims of cannibalism, cultural anthropologist Wil- liam Arens of the State University of New York, Stony Brook, now admits the care is stronger:"Ithinkthe proceduresare sounder, cannibalistic feasts Zhoukoudian in China, Krapina cave in “roatia, and elsewhere, the evidence was thin the ranks of neighboring populations. ‘Not surprisingly, some find these claims le haven't ex and there is more evidence for cannibalism than before, White leamed how weak ‘most earlier scholarship on ‘cannibalism wasin 1981, when he first came across what he thought might be a relic of the ppractice—a massive skull of an early human ancestor from a site called Bodo in Ethiopia, When he got his first look at this 600,000-year-old skull on a mu- scum table, White noticed that it had a series of fine, deep cut marks.on its cheekbone and inside its eye socket, as ifithad been defleshed. To confirm his suspicions, White wanted to compare the marks with'a “type collection” for cannibalism—a carefully studied as- semblage of bones showing how the signature of cannibalism differs from damage by animal gnawing, trampling, or excavation, “We were naive at the time,” says ‘White, who was working with archae- ologist Nicholas Toth of Indiana Uni- versity in Bloomington. They learned that although the anthropological lit- ‘erature was full of fantastic tales of nong early humans at ak—or lost Indeed, the weakness ofthe evidence had eady opened the way toa backlash, which was led by Arens. He had deconstructed the fossil and historical record for cannibalism in ‘book called The Man-Eating Myth: Anthro pology and Anhropophagy (Oxford, 1979) Except for extremely are cases of starvation insanity, Arens said, none of the accounts cannibalism stood up to scrutiny—not aesmear NAAR even claims that i¢ took place among living tribes in Papua New Guinea (including the Fore, where cannibalism is thought to ex- plain the spread of the degenerative brain fisease ura). There were no reliable eye wit- nesses fr claims of cannibalism, and the ar chaeological evidence was circumstantial. 1 didn’t deny the existence of cannibalism," he now says, "but | found thar there was 0 good ‘evidence for it, Ie was bad science.” Physical anthropolo- gists contributed t0 the backlash when they raised doubts about what little archaeological evidence there was (Science, 20 June 1986, p.1497). Mary Russell, then at Case Western Reserve Uni versity in Cleveland, ar sued, for example, that ‘cut markson the bones of 20 Neandertals at Kra- pina Cave could have been left by Neandertal morticians who were cleaning the bones for secondary burial, and the bones could have been smashed when the roof eavedin, for example. In his 1992 review in the Cambridge Encyclopedia, Bahn cor cluded that cannibalism’s "very existence in prehistory ishand to swallow.” Rising from the ashes Buteven assome anthropologists gavethe ax to Krapina and other notoriouseases, anew, more rigorous case for cannibalism in prehistory was emerging, starting in the American Southwest. ‘Tamer and his lace wife, Jacqueline Turner, ‘had been systematically studying tray after ray of prehistoric bones in museums and private collections in the United States andl Mexico. They had identified a pattern of bone process ing in several hundred specimens that showed litte rexpect for the dead. "There's no known mortuary practice inthe Southwest where the body is dismembered, the head is toasted and damped into a pit unceremoniously, and other pieces get lef all over the floog” sys Tumer, describing part ofthe pattern. ‘White, meanwhile, was identifying other telltale signs. To fill the gap he discovered when he Looked for specimens to compare with the Bodo skull, he decided to study in Aepth one of the bone asemblages the Turn- tersand others had cited. He chose Mancos,a ‘small. Anasazi pueblo on the Colorado Pla teau from A.D. 1150, where archaeologists hhad recovered the scattered and broken ce mains of at least 29 individuals. The project evolved into a landmatk book, Prehistoric Cannibalism at Mancos (Princeton, 1992). While White still doesn't know why the Bodo skull was defleshed—"it'sa black box,” 636 Unkind cuts. A Neandertal bone from Vindja Cave, Croatia. SCIENCE * VOL. 277 © 1 AUGUST hhesays—he extended the blueprint foriden tifying cannibalism, In his book, White describes how he painstakingly sifted through 2106 bone frag- ments, often usingan electron microscope to identify cut marks, burn traces, percussion and envil damage, disarticulations and break- tyes. Hereviewed how todistinguish markslefe by butchering from those lft by animal gnaw ing, trampling, or other wear and tea. He aso "proposed @ new category fof bone damage, which he called "pot polish’ — shiny abrasions on bone tips thae come from be: ing stirred in pots (an othe test by string deer bones in a replica of fan Anasaci pot). And he outlined how (0 com pare the remains of sus- pected victims with those of ordinary game ani- mals a other sites to see if they were processed the same way. ‘When he applied thesecriteriatothe Man- cos remains, he concluded that they were the Teavings of a feast in which 17 adults and 12 children had theis heads cut of, coasted, and broken open on rock anvils. Thee long bones ‘were broken-—he believes for matrow—and their vertebral bodies were missing, perhaps crushed and boiled for ofl. Finally, their bones were duimped, like animal bones. Tn their forthcoming book, the Turners deseibe a remarkably similar pattem df Lone processing in 300 individuals from 40 df. ft hone assemblages in the Four Comers ‘tea ofthe Southwest, dating from A-D. 900 to AD. 1700, The strongest case, he says, ‘comes from bones unearthed at the Pefasco Blanco great house at Chaco Canyon in New “Mexico, which was the highest center ofthe ‘Anasaci cultute and, he argues, the home of, ‘cannibals who tercorled victims within 100 miles of Chaco Canyon, where most of the traumatized bones have been excavated. “Whatever drove the Anasaitocat people, it happened at Chaco,” says Turner. The case for cannibalisin among the Anasazi that Tusner and White have put together hasn'tswayed al the titics. “These folks have nice package, but Idon't think it proves cannibalism,” says Museum of New Mexico archaeologist Peter Bullock. “I's sell just a theory." But even critics like Bullock acknowl- edge that Turner and White's studies, along with work by the University of Colorado, Boulders, Paolo Villa and colleagues at an- other recent site, Fontbrégous Cave in south- eastern France (Science, 25 July 1986, p.431), Ihave raised the seandards for how to invest EASTHAM an igite a case of cannibalism, In fact, Whites book has become the unofficial guidebook for the field, says physical anthropologist Carmen Dijoan at the Museum of Anthropology in. Mexico City, who has done a systematic re: view of sites in Mexico where human bones were defleshed, In a forthcoming book. chap- ter, she singles out tee sites where she ap- plied diagnostic criteria outlined by Turner White, and Villa to bones from Aztec and. othe early cultures and concludes that all "Uhtee sites, spread over 2000 years of Mext- can prehistory, show a pattern of violence, Cannibalism, and sacrifice through time.” ‘White'sbook “is my bible," agrees paleon. tologist Yolanda Femander Jalvo of the Mu: ‘eum of Natural History in Madrid, who is analyzing bones that may be the oldest ex- fmple of cannibalism in the fossil record — the remains of at least six individuals who died 800,000 years ago in an ancient cave at “Atapuerca in northern Spain. ‘Age-old practices The Spanish fossils have caused considerable excitement because they may represent a ‘new species of human ancestor (Science, 30 ‘May, pp. 1331 and 1392). But they alsoshow ‘ pattern familiar from the more recent sites: ‘The bones are highly fragmented and are scored with cut marks, which Femandes: Jalvo thinks were made when the bodies were decapitated and the bones defleshed. (A large femur was also smashed open, per hhaps for marrow, says Fernande2-Jalvo, and the whole assemblage had been. dumped, Tike garbage. The tearment was no difer- cent fom that accorded animal bones at the site. The pattern, says Peter Andrews, a paleoanthropologise at The Natural History ‘Museum, London, is “prety strong evidence forcannibalism, a8 opposed to ritual deflesh- ing.” He and others note, however, that che small number of individuals atthe site anc the absence of other sites of similar anti: uty to whieh the bones could be compared Teave room for doubt "Acstronger ease is emergingat Neandertal sites in Europe, 45,000 to morte than 130,000 yeats old, The new criteria for recognizing Cannibalism have not completely vindicated the eatlier claims about Krapina Cave, partly because few animal bones are left from the cexcavation of the site in 1899 to compare with the Neandertal remains. But nearby Vindija Cave, excavated in the 1970s, did yield both anitnal and human remains. When White and Toth examined the bones te cently, they found that both sets showed cut marks, breakage, and disarticulation, and hhad been dumped on the cave floor. Its the same pattem seen at Krapina, and remark ably similar to that at Mancos, says White, ‘who will publish his conclusions in a forth ‘coming book with Toth. Marseilles prehisto 197 + www-sclencemag.ongeee setae CONSORT cons sian Alban DeFleur is finding that Ne deta may also have feasted on thet ind in the Moula-Guerey Cave inthe Adeche region of France, whete ani mnaland Neandertal bones show similar processing Taken together, ays White, ‘ihe evidence from Krapina, Vindia, and Moulais song.” 'Not everyone is convinced, how- ever, “White does tesifc analysis, bt te hasn't proved this is eannibalisa,.” says Bahn "Frankly, don't ee how he Cannes youfinda pice of human gut fovith human bone or rss i ith.” No tnatter how close the resemblance to butchered animals, he says, the cut marks and other bone processing could stil be the result of mortuary practices. Bullock adds that warfare, not cannibalism, could ex: plain the damage to the bones White, however, says such criticism re- sembles President Clinton's famous clin about marijuana: “Some falthough no all of the Anastl and Neandenals procesed dit celles. They skinned them casted the, ‘an act ofeannlbalisn? cut their muscles of severed thei joints, broke theielong bones on anvils with bammerstones, crushed their spongy bones, and put the pieces into pots.” Borrowinga line romareview ofhis book, White says "To ay they didn't eat thers is the archaeological equivalent of saying (Clinton lit up and dt inhale.” ‘White's graduate student David DeGusta adds that he has compared human bones at Dural sites in Fiji and ata nearby trash mid BIOPHYSICS. Feeling a Protein’s Motion Ther'sanew way to watch proteins shimmy and dance as they cary out thei biologics! tanks, Researchers traditionally follow these shape changes spectroscopially, deducing them from changes inthe molecules aily 0 absorb particular wavelengths of ight, But in the 2 July Proeetingsof he National Academy of Science, a group in Israel report taking 2 more ditect approach: planing the tip of an ultafine gs fiber ontop ofthe rote and actualy feeling ie move Thetechniqu givesresearchersstdy ing the rates and extent of conforms tional changes in proteins @ new tol sensitive to motions hat spectroscopy cannot detec, says Motdechai Sheses of the Welumann Institute for Science in Rehovot, fael, a member ofthe group. 3 Other researchers are intrigued, but sty Behey want confirming evidence from other groups that the method realy de Bets only protein motion 9 The reearchereAaton Lewis, Mi E chael Ottolenghi, Sheves, and their col Bleapoes at Hebrew University in Jeu lemand the Weinmann Ititutereroed inom bscteiehodopin (BR), » protein found the membranes of certain baci ere responds light by changing shape and pumping protons across the tmembrane. Inordet'fel” these motions, the soup ted a variant of atomic force micro opy,atechnigue in which an ultrafine probes Scanned ucros a uric, sensing its atom scale bumps and depressions to make an image wwwrsciencemag.org * SCIENCE * VOL. 277 + | AUGUST 1997, For their experiment, however, Lewis and his colleagues kept the ultrafine probe in one place, poised atop a thin film of bR-filled membranes. In response to pulses of laser light, the proteins changed shape and then relaxed again ina matter of milliseconds. At the same time, another laser sensed 2 minus- cule dsplaceanent ofthe probe tip. To show that the motion wasn'ecaused by Detector S277 Cantilever sample scilozcope Fine touch. Monitored by a laser, a probe senses shape changes in a fy othe proton bacterarhad opsin right) when struck by pulses from other lasers, laser-induced heating, the group used a well documented property of bR—that another, appropriately delayed laser pulse ofthe right ‘wavelength can reverse the photoreaction, stopping the protein mideycle and sending it ARCH N 5 den from the last 2000 years, The intention E ally buried bones were less fragmentary and had no bite marks, burns, percussion pits, or other signs of food processing, The hu: man bones in the teash midden, however, * were processed like those of pigs. "This site really challenges the claim that these as semblages of bones are the resul of mort ary ritual,” says DeGusta. ‘After 30 years of esearch, Tamer saysitis ‘modern bia to isis that cannibalism isn’t parcof human nature. Many other species eat their own, and our ancestors may have bad their own “good” reasons—whether to te rorize subject peoples, limit their neighbors! offspring, or for religious or medicinal pur posts. "Today, the only people who eat other people outside of starving are the craic” says Turner. "We're dealing with a world ‘view that says this is bad and alwayshas been bad. ... But in the past, that view wasn't necessarily the group view. Cannibalism could have been an adaptive strategy. It has to be entertained” Ann Gibbons back to its initial state, The second pulse sent the tip back toward the sample, as ex- pected; heating would have displaced the probe further outwacd. Because the group's apparatus wasequipped with an unusually stiff probe thar is able to respond at high frequencies, they could track. the protein motions on time scales of micro- seconds—unprecedented resolution foratomic force microscopy. Thettime 5 course ofthe probe motion 5 doesn't quite match the data obtained speetroscop: 2 ically, but some of their time constansare in rough rreement, According to § Sheves, the group also de- 3 tected stages of the pro- teins shape change that re searchers have never re: ported before. These ‘spec troseopicaly silent" motions, says Sheves, point Coa new model forthe inital responses ‘of the protein ro light. Sheves expects the technique to deliver similar insights into the contortions of other tolecules It gives youa new direct probe Took at conformational changes in proteins says Sheves, Robert Glaeser of the Univer sity of California, Berkeley, is intrigued by the new model for BR's reaction to light, ‘which hecalls" the work still needssome archers know the tip cone thing, while che moved, they didn't convert the laser signa into an actual distance. David Bhrenstein ea ae