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We can't lose sight of the fact that our aversion to cannibalism is more cultural than anything else. Back in prehistory there were no supermarkets or even farms where you could obtain fresh meat. So when human meat was available, it was eaten, simple as that. We cannot observe history from our place in time and want to put our morals and norms on those people. Our picture would undoubtedly be skewed. I am sure cannibalism was widely practiced in all primitive societies.
Where there are large centers of human activaties, shouldn't there be copperlite pits or trash pits? Copperlites would have evidence of cannibalism within them.
One of the things I most admire about you and your channel, is that you freely admit it when you don't know. This has become all too rare these days. It is so nice to have evidence presented, ideas considered and possible conclusions speculated upon... without a predetermined conclusion being forced down one's throat and all alternative thoughts being derided. Thank you!
You would probably also appreciate the work of Stefan Milo. His videos are very well researched, he presents evidence and theories objectively, and very often finishes off with saying ‘we just don’t know.’ Highly recommend.
Dude, if my descendants drank from my skull on my birthday I'd be a pretty honored ghost. Just so long as it's the good stuff. None of that bottom shelf trash.
Just found this channel and binged everything on it. Top tier history channel. Love how thorough and informative your videos are about sometimes obscure topics, and I can tell you're an author just by how you articulate yourself and infuse the videos with an imaginative aspect.
Around twenty years ago, my father rediscovered the grave of my great-great-grandfather. The grave was about to be abandoned because our family cemetery is now elsewhere. But we were able to save the two-meter-high, 600 kg gravestone (donated by his eight children). Since then, it has been placed in a quiet corner of our garden and is a nice surprise for visitors.
@@poopbone666 Ha ha. On my fathers side, the graves were distroyed by a surface mining operation. On my mothers side, I know where (most of them) are. Cant touch them, though. It would be a fellony ;)
I was just thinking of using cannibalism in my current novel. I want to avoid making it an act of evil but I do want it to be a source of conflict among various belief groups. The idea is very fresh so, who knows what will come up when I read more on it. Great content, sir.
I'm doing something similar for my "vampire" race called the Vampir, which are basically nocturnal humans. Long story short, the Vampir had a complex night themed pantheon of gods and one of them is known only as the Blood Bat. The Vampir once considered cannibalism an honorable act for warriors especially because it both signifies their victory and helps feed the Blood Bat at the same time. One day, unfortunately, a fringe cult of warriors who worshipped the Blood Bat as their patron began murdering and devouring whole villages across the land in an attempt to sate the Bat's blood lust. The Blood Bat exploited said warriors inexplicably altered neurology to make them addicted to the slaughter. The warriors were eventually dealt with, and the Blood Bat was renounced from the Vampir religion, but the horror snd shame still lingers over them.
Consuming the remains of a member of the own society could be a sign to have them become part of you. Meat goes in, but it isn't meat that comes out. So something from the ancestors has to stay. That way the forefathers never really leave, a piece of them will keep going on throughout the lineage, and each person adds something. Consuming a fallen enemy could be a sign of respect or of disrespect. It might convey the message that those other guys are nothing but cattle, but it might also be a a method to honour their bravery and absorb their strength an power. A great warrior might have the force of many men, because each one he fell gave a bit to the mighty hero, metaphorically but also physically. And one group might have beliefs that the remains that are interred have to be clean, so they cook the meat off the bones. Perhaps they have a festival where the ancestors visit their descendants, and that requires bringing the bones back from their resting place into the house so that the ancestor has a place to inhabit while visiting. They might also arrange the bones in ossuaries, so that their temple is a place where the ancestors can quite literally watch over them and listen to their prayers. That could've even started when they opened graves and found only bones. The flesh went away, but the bones stayed. So clearly the bones sticking around has to be important. From there they might clean the bones, because that is the part of the body that will stay in the funeral place after all. After battles in faraway places they might only send the bones back, for similar reasons.
What people tend to forget is what is taboo to us is quit normal to other societies and our ancestors. Some commentors found this gross or off putting. I found it incredibly entertaining and informative. Thank you.
That doesn't justify it though, I'm not sure if that's what you're trying to argue, but either way the idea that all societal practices are valid is wrong. Any form of ritual cannibalism is barbarism done by savages
@@chico9805 Funny enough, you only proved him right. You only talk about "barbarism" and "savages" because you're indoctrinated in a society where it is such a strong taboo. There is no universal definition of what is barbaric and what is civilized, it's only defined by cultural norms.
@@kored8688 Yes, there is. It's not about "indoctrination", nature itself tells us that cannibalism is barbaric and counterintuitive to the survival of our species. You can try excusing the behaviour of savages all you want, but they're still savages
If you believe in transsubstantiation, then every time a Christian takes communion he’s performing a cannibal rite. “This is my body. This is my blood.” It’s pretty grisly.
I received my BA in Anthropology in '81. I remember that a couple of topics inspired almost violent disputes among the Professors. One was cannibalism. Another was Humans pooping in the house. Go figure.
The other issue that Anthropologists had was with primitive warfare. There was/is this imaginary idea that our ancestors were peaceful and that warfare was due to civilization and empire. Remains found in Neolithic sites and earlier indicate that warfare was common. Many skulls show severe cranial damage from finishing blows with blunt objects like a club or mace--and we're not talking about trepanation wounds. These wounds were most likely finishing blows from an enemy incapacitated from other injuries like arrows in their bodies or a spear thrust. While they didn't practice large scale warfare, warfare was more on the order of ambushing and opportunistic killing of a few enemies here and there. Kind of like the Hatfields and McCoys feud or modern gang slayings. The other thing is that the male skull is well designed to mitigate some damage from blunt force trauma to the skull. it's clearly evolutionary. Male hominids have been clubbing one another over the head for a good million+ years. For instance, the frontal skull is sloped. Even though the male skull is a tad bit thinner than the female skull, the sloping makes it thicker depending on the angle of the club. Modern tanks utilize this geometry by angling frontal armor. The female skull tends to be flat in the front which would lead to more traumatic damage from the same bludgeoning.
@@asimian8500 Fascinating. Men are T-34s and Women are Tigers I. I would think that warfare or killing would be less common due to there being few humans around making DNA very valuable. Better to make love not war so to speak.
@@jamessnee7171 @James Snee Wonderful analogy of WW2 tank design. I love it. The Gombe Chimp War in 1974 changed everything about chimps, hominids, and warfare. It's a fascinating case study which shows that even though the warfare was low-intensity, it nevertheless ended up in one side being annihilated over the course of years. Hominid through Neolithic humans probably practiced similar low-intensity warfare of annihilation. It might have happened between different species of hominids like Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo Erectus, and Homo Sapiens.
In a way we do the second still these days. Only that we now have a way to dispose of it, but the act is still done indoors. One might even say that we have ritual altars in special temples for the act of pooping. Surely, that must be an incredibly important ceremonial act, when nearly every dwelling has this special room with this special chair just for that.
In North America, coprolites have been used to show direct evidence of cannibalism (see: Cowboy Wash, Colorado, site). I hope the researchers at El Toro Cave in Spain & other European sites with suspected cannibalism keep an eye out for coprolites, which are more likely to survive in dry, stable cave environments. (Didn't find any studies online about them finding any.)
I just found your channel today. I had no idea that someone was covering prehistoric human history in such detail. Idk how you don't have more subscribers.
Excellent work, Dan. An instant classic for me. Great overview of the best sites' compositions and learnings, and obviously I appreciate the "Top 5 Signs and Portents of Ancient Cannibalism 101". My nomination for driest-delivered line of the video goes to: "When I say they 'used' the site, I mean their bones were smashed up and interred here, of course...".
Fascinating, thank you! I think it's essential to involve anthropological studies in this (as you did) not because they can directly tell us what people in the past did, but because they can illustrate different mindsets. It can be hard to even imagine what it would be like to eat someone dead out of love and respect, but it might be equally strange for someone who did to imagine our practices - "You put them in a hole in the ground? With the worms? You monster!". Through the study of human nature and the past we learn more about our species than we ever could by ignoring it.
Alternatively- you pickle them then put them in a box in a concrete box? How does the recycling hapoen? Why would you cut your ancestors off from nature?
Love your channel, sir. You present information in a coherent and scholarly way while still being entertaining, but without all the silly gimmicks that another channel might employ for shock value. Thank you and please don't stop! Cheers from Florida.
I recall reading an article in an archaeology magazine many years ago about this topic. It's really surprising how widespread, both geographically and temporally, these practices are. The Aztecs and Maori practiced ritualised consumption of human flesh, but other examples come from starvation. I remember a discussion on the subject of Herxheim in a Stefan Milo video from a while back. I'm sure he was of the opinion that it was an example of mass cannibalisation of an enemy tribe, so it was interesting to hear another perspective on it.
@@DanDavisHistory please do a Amazon jungle tribe, yanomami pre contact Europeans. I believe they made their longbows by scraping it with a pig's jaw sharpened on a stone
I had a very bizarre lucid dream where I dressed someone like a deer. I swear I'm not a psychopath or whatever but maybe there's something deep down in my psyche that remembers the Ice Age.
When I was at uni my lecturer for the hunter gatherer societies module promised us he'd do a lecture on cannibalism because he found it really interesting but he never made good on it. Dan Davis comes to the rescue years later
It's interesting how for every story of cannibalism brought on by survival/desperation, there's as many accounts of extremely formalized, ritualized cannibalism. It seems that it's either something humans think a lot about and plan carefully to do Correctly, or are pushed to it by extreme conditions.
History Time did a video on it a while back. Titled "Europe's first battle?" or something along those lines. Wouldn't mind seeing a different spin though
These are the jotuns of the old norse edda poems. jotun is connate with english eat and swedish jatte. original meaning was those who ate themselves big and fat. Trolls in scandinavian folklore would often eat humans. this is a cultural memory of cannibals who violated the divine order by eating humans. You see their children today in greedy and malicious people roaming modern society.
are people like bezos and gates trolls or jotuns? in dutch, jatten means stealing, taking something without the consent of the person you took it from.
There's something poetically beautiful about traveling many kilometers just to reach the place where you wish to die. In my experience, people tend to know when they are dying...I wonder how many families carried their elders on litters to complete the journey. I also wonder how many of them were willingly killed by their families once they reached their destination, possibly at their own request?
Strabo wrote in his Geography that the Irish consumed their dead, particularly the bodies of their parents. I heard a famous irish gypsy bareknuckle fighter say when his son died in a car crash he bit of part of his ear to always carry a piece of his son in him. So some very strange customs survive in ireland up to this day.
Have you heard of "brain balls"? The Irish heroic cycles, and even early medieval chronicles talked about how the skulls of enemies were broken open, and the brains removed, and then mixed with a mineral mixture that turned the brain matter rock hard. Brain balls were made as sling ammunition, and in battle shot at the enemy. You killed your enemy with your enemy's kinsmen! Also, as the Scythians and Mongolians did, the Irish made "skull cap bowls" of their enemies heads. There is a museum in Ireland that has one of these "skull cap bowls".
@@oduffy1939 I can't remember, unfortunately, the place or the date other than it was early or mid 20th century but apparently there was a place in Ireland that used a skull as a communion wine cup. I think it was at a holy well or similar rather than in a church. Obviously a relic from a previous pre-Christian ritual. The church authorities put a stop to it. Anyone reading this that can give details? It was many years ago when I read it.
The best evidence for cannibalism I’ve come across was human tissue identified in a coprolite found in Colorado. Of course, that was more like 800 years old, not Neolithic.
Dan, did your research find any mixing of the human processing burials and red ocher burials? I have so many more questions now. I need to start catching up on all the new discoveries over the last 40 years.
The Tupi from Brazil are probably one of the best examples of normalizes cannibalism. There’s written detail about everything, from the uses old women gave to human fatty oil they collected, the sacrifice itself, the preparations before it (which even included a free wife given by the sacrificing tribe)... it’s all very rich
Thanks for the information. I live close to herxhein. As far as I know, there is genetic evidence, that the people butchered and dumped in the pits where actually mesolithic hunters, not related in any way to the lbk farmers. So it seems pretty clear that they where sacrificed in a ritual and very likely also cooked and eaten.
Since I'm from Germany and have always wondered about the site, I like this video a lot! Thanks for presenting different viewpoints instead of pushing a fishy narrative in the absence of evidence, as it's usual.
Great video. I really think this was your best one. Who knows but it seemed well thought out and I like the Polynesian reference as well. I appreciate your hard work.
My grandparents were survivors of Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-1933. Horrible times, cannibalism was reported during Holodomor. A sort of Endocannibalism as you say. Desperate conditions of living, a struggle to survive make people to resort to a desperate measure in the middle of 20th century. So our Neolithic ancestors had their ups and downs as well.
Jesus's I never heard of this , in living memory cannibalism. We really aren't thought history properly in school , crazy ,thanks for sharing. Peace 🇮🇪
@@seanwhelan879 Yes, as crazy as it sounds. When my grandma told me stories about horrible conditions they were forced to live in when everything eatable was taken from them, I was still a teenager and I couldn’t believe that such indignity was imposed on people by the Stalin’s regime. But later I understood that grandma’ s stories were an awful inconvenient truth that the regime was trying to hide from the world. Reading stories about cannibalism during Holodomor is specially disturbing. In some cases, parents had to sacrifice a youngest child to feed the eldest children. And subsequently, of course, a few who tasted human flesh, were stigmatized by others. What is more horrible: to die from starvation or from a shame of being labeled as a cannibal by others? And it our recent history!!!
During the famine of 1946-1947, after the WW2, in Bessarabia (Republic of Moldova) people were actually hunting others, mainly children , to be killed and eaten... Terrible times...!
Regarding endocannibalism, I wonder to what degree it may have been linked with conceptualizations of reincarnation - you consume your father or bone broth from your grandfather, and his essence literally nourishes you and gives you life. He becomes you (you are what you eat)
Interesting story about the Donner Party "pioneer" tragedy. Leaving a relatively warm and lush valley in the late fall to traverse the then unknown passage & distance over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, traveling a mere 40 miles into the mountains terrain when the going got too rough or became impassible for the load they were hauling, Instead of simply back tracking the 40 miles back the way they came & mostly downhill to the warmth and saftey of the valley, near present day Reno Nv, which would take maybe 3-5 days or 40 hours at 1 mile per hour these so called "tough pioneers" just stopped & camped and sat as winter set in. sent some party members out for help or rescue, But there were no towns \ and few settlements any where in that vast area in those times, So who exactly they would find to help rescue the 50 people, They had no idea how far it was to cross the Sierra Nevada Range (100 miles) with its 10k-14k peaks, much less starting in early in Winter. So they waited and starved thinking of themselves as lost.... Retreating the 40 miles backtracking downhill was the only sensible decision. The Donner party leaders, 2 brothers George and Jacob were 62 and 56 years old.. one could only summize that these 2 men were either over confident or delusional to the point of being stupid, or both & had dementia,, Advising the party to sit & wait for 2 months in the winter snow for help to arrive, instead of backtracking & walking the 40 miles a few weeks earlier. Just didn't make sense. Of coarse much of the history from that era in the west makes no sense. The drawbacks of Manifest Destiny, Civilized people dominating & taming the wild and all that non sense.
Since we know some of the bones were carried so far to this site I would think removing the flesh was more of a practical thing. Removing the flesh closer to home where the person died and then make a trip would reduce weight you wouldn’t be carrying around rotting meat so probably wouldn’t be attracting as many predators
Hey Dan wondering if you could make a video on human sacrifice cultures like the mesoamerican Aztecs or if you have any good book recommendations on the topic?
In my opinion, and the opinions of many educated archeologists, Herxheim was a prime example of Neolithic cannibalism. Seems to me it was a religious site used for ritual cannibalism. You have different groups from across Europe bringing their intended sacrifice/victim to this very spot for processing and consumption. I truly don't see how anyone could come to a different conclusion. It just seems very self evident.
One other example that comes to mind is the tradition of unburring the dead in Madagascar after a period of time. Actual Yucatec Mayas in Mexico also dig-up the bone of their dead, not to eat them, but to perform secondary burial, a common tradition around the world. I love your videos. Great work!!
Nice video. What is interesting for me was the Thirteenth Warrior where the Norsemen were not allowed to speak the name of Cannibal Tribes. I had a talk with a Sotho guy of South-Africa and they to must not mention the Word. Was this how humans basically got rid of the idea of Cannibalism within communities or basically any unwanted practice or idea ?
Nope, it was because they were(and still are) superstitious. Superstition was how they dealt with fear. Superstition gives a feeling of control. You can "control" the risk of being captured and eaten, by controlling what you speak. That instance of cannibalism in South Africa started out as desperation. Shaka Zulu's expantionism had a ripple effect that triggered a chain of migrations. Migrations which triggered conflict, which triggered more migration. And so on and so on. Similar to the chain of migrations and wars the Huns triggered. One tribe in South Africa, fleeing their home during that tumultuous period, ended up finding refuge in a cave in the Drakensberg mountain range. Where they couldn't herd or farm, or obtain much food. Desperate for food, this one tribe resorted to cannibalism...organised by their leader. They only ventured down to the low lands to capture victims. They obviously tended to go for easy targets, used stealth, ambushes, etc. ..which turned them into a kind of boogymen. Which led to superstitions. E.g., "meantioning their name causes them to capture you and eat you"...is such a superstition. Travelers were especially targeted as the mountains forced travelers onto specific paths. They knew about the risk they were taking, which caused fear. That fear fueling superstitions.
@@tylerdurden3722 Yes indeed. That makes sense. He told me that those Cannibals apparently had almost superhuman indurance according to the stories. Apparently there were several such tribes...Some to the South of the Zulu and others on the other side of the Limpopo river.
@@richern2717 those are related to the same event. It happened close to modern times. So it's well recorded. Perhaps all instances of organised or cultural cannibalism started out as a means to avoid starvation, but then continued on for other reasons. Eating your enemies (or their heartsz etc) obviously has a psychological fear factor on your enemies. In the case of those Sotho tribes... these were almost wiped out by an enemy they couldn't match in warfare. But, their aquired reputation as supernatural cannibals (even though it was only one or two small tribes...small enough to fit into a cave), ended up saving all Sothos...as it caused even the Zulu's to be terrified of venturing into these areas and becoming victim to the superstitious stories they believed.
@@tylerdurden3722 Yes the Mfekane. But my point was actually the way both Norsemen and Sotho both delt with this fear in the same way. "He who must not be named" Heheheeh. Harry Potter.
@@richern2717 oh I see.😬 Btw, Thirteenth Warrior is a work of fiction. As fictional as Harry Potter😅. The movie is based on another work of fiction called Eaters of the Dead (a novel). Which is itself also based on a work of fiction, called Beowulf (an Anglo-Saxon story from England, written in Old English). In Beowulf, the antagonist is an evil creature called Grendal that devours its enemies on the spot. The book, Eaters of the Dead, changes Grendal into a group of cave dwelling Neanderthals, called the Wendal (instead of Grendal)...the Wendal also consuming the dead. The book also changes the location of the events from Scandanavia, to Russia. This is done to merge a fictional version of Ahmad Ibn Faldan into the story to function as narrator. 13th Warrior was an effort to make the book, Eaters of the Dead, into a movie.
The answer to "was there cannibalism in (insert human populated area)?" seems to be 'At some point in time, with varying degrees of frequency, 100% yes.'
Very good and informative video on an interesting subject Reminded me on the discussion on cannibalism among the Anasazi of the American southwest, lots of evidence for it, cut bones etc. Modern native Americans vehemently denied this ever happened Few years ago scientists advanced to where they could determine what a person ate by testing their well preserved coprolites ( poop)…now no doubt they ate people. Now the native Americans are blaming it on Aztecs coming north. I collect human bones, skeletons, skulls etc. When I used to set up at shows ( I sold knives and axes I made ) I’d take a trepanned skull and put it on my table filled with unshelled peanuts 😃
I know someone who made a glass pendant with the ashes of her partner incorporated into the glass. It's not a person, but I had one of my cats skeletons articulated. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to him.
As ever a great video looking at really macabre subject in an objective fashion and with as little bias as possible. corking stuff. Though i did find the final one to be quietly chilling!
Seems we forget these ancient neolithic people used dogs for hunting. And protection. Had them around them all the time. So they needed to feed them somehow. Maybe feeding them human remains was a way to do it. Without feeding them animals they hunted. Kept that for themselves. Also I would bet they hunted humans to feed their dogs. This would make sense too. Seems this narrative is leaving out some basic things about daily neolithic life a little common sense would answer. But was interesting to watch. thanks
Maybe you are right Catherine, …. Who knows ? But giving your large family dogs a taste for human flesh must surely have carried quite a bit of a risk element with it . I certainly would not have wanted to have been a postman in those days.
@@barkershill I guess you don't know much about dog training. And their devotion to their master. For example have seen a highly trained police dog in a room full of little kids. That were pulling it's ears and tail, poking it's eyes, climbing all over it. And not so carefully too. The dog sat there and tolerated it the full afternoon. Looked content the whole time. Even gave the kids little kisses. But put that intelligent dog out where he knows his job. They don't put up with anything remotely similar . They know the difference. Can imagine in early times their dogs were seen as an essential hunting asset. And just as well-trained.
Wow... Thank you for a great video, this is a dark subject that you handled with respect. SUBBED!!! What we all forget is that we are all animals or mammals, and most things on this earth will eat each other when the opportunity takes, I think what makes us different is that we are no different, is that humans are picky at what they want to eat due to the amount of food on the planet. You can just about eat everything if cooked right. Because we think it does not mean we are separate from others, as they will eat us also if they had the chance.. What a game we live in.
If memory serves me correct I do recall that ancient Eygypt was divided by a human flesh eating faction. Also Captain Cook's body had to be returned by extortion by the British to prevent its cannibalism.
Regarding Fontbregoua Cave - It sounds to me as if what is being dug up is evidence of ownership changes over time. A new group decides they would like to live in the cave, they storm in and massacre the current inhabitants. When the dust settles there are plenty of available calories lying around on the ground, so why waste time and energy going hunting ? Years pass, the owners' group weakens to the point of becoming easy pickings for another larger group - rinse and repeat... It would be interesting to know whether such caves were in short supply and therefore we are seeing competition for a scarce accomodation resource, or whether when you went hunting you just went looking for the easiest calories you could find without drawing much distinction between the different sources...
As an Eastern European and a Christian, I don't know anyone who keeps ash or other human remains from their relatives. We just bury the dead. The only remains on display are the ones of saints in churches or monasteries.
So interesting to think that something that probably started out of morbid desperation could be incorporated into everyday life. You paint a vivid picture, Dan. I'm sure glad it's not capable of smellination! (Smell & imagination) Hey, it's the best that I can do on short notice. Smellevision doesn't properly describe it. Now I'm off to look at my genetic history to see if I had family in those areas, at those times. Great video! Thank you!
I love watching your videos cause its funny to see papers i write essays on in my degree 🤣Like a wrote a critique on the Herxheim study and its so cool to actually know about stuff people talk about
Regarding the skull caps - as you mentioned - there are documented cases of people using skull caps to drink from - so they may have been processed into tableware - but I can't help thinking that this would have been done more neatly if this were the case. I had a slightly grimmer idea... They reminded me of the top of a boiled egg that I have sliced off so I can poke my soldiers into the yoke ... :-)
as always i enjoyed the video... to put forward some alternative thoughts, however: even in Europe there has continued, until fairly recently, a limited tradition of secondary dealing with the dead... or in fact, COMMUNING with the dead- revering and visiting the remains, not merely at a burial site (although certainly people do THAT- we even decorate the graves yearly!) You have only to look at the artifacts of saints- or great kings and heroes... the gilded bones, the sacred items incorporating the bones and sometimes preserved flesh, of notable people or the cathedrals of the bones, and the niches of bones and labyrinths of bones, currently in Europe: where people paid to have their loved ones disinterred after the ground had consumed the flesh, and the bones ... displayed. At the displays of death masks, or even preserved corpses... we still do and if you look further than Europe? to the indigenous practices of people world wide, you find there are always a few places where the bones- once stripped of flesh- are painted with ochre, or positioned to sit and watch over... or skulls are kept... its... not that strange a concept, really even today i can tell you that a lot fo people maintain an ancestor shrine- whether they call it that or not: with relics and photos of their beloved grandparents, and tokens representing the place they came from...
Who is actually producing your videos? The very subtle drums coming in after 1:44 were very powerful. If you're doing all this editing and sound stuff yourself, good job, but if it's someone else, also good job, hope they're getting paid good!
7176 BCE had the largest geomagnetic storm in the last 10,000. This would have caused earthquakes, Lightning Storm, floods, volcanos, rapid ice melting causing rapid sea rise and river rise. Another one happens 5410 about the same time as the one in Spain. It wasn’t as strong as the 7176 event but it still was strong enough to cause carbon 14 residue all over the earth... in tree rings, ice cores, ocean cores and geological record.
Every kid who grows up in California learns about the Donner Party in school, I was eleven and in the 5th grade when I learned about it. It is interesting that the Law of the Sea, allows for "survival cannibalism" as far back as the 15th century. But mortuary cannibalism was far more common than one would think, some native tribes in the Amazon basin practiced a form of this. Though the tradition I read about the tribe allowed the body to decompose, enough that the those who ate it, would not enjoy it. It being meant to honour the tribal member, and not as food. National Geographic (I think) had an article about a tribe in Ecuador? Where a local group of traditional magicians would kidnap and kill villagers, to then kill and eat some portion of their bodies. Then would caverns as places of ritual, an leave the body part is a specific arrangement. That was until the local villagers got together and shot gunned them down, and ended the practice.
ODG, the most simply explanation is typically accurate. This was most likely a very savage tribe raiding, capturing, killing and consuming the human spoils of warfare.
The season of the long pig is revisited by humans on occasions. In this case the ancient hunter-gatherers, the first settlers of Europe were eaten by the second wave of settlers moving in from the middle-east. Must have been one of those 7 lean years and farming was a tough business or the newcomers did not want to waste precious meat while clearing the land from their previous inhabitants.
Dan true. I can see things like this. No one dies at an opportune time etc. So a winter death is a terrible time to die. Grounds frozen, bodies stink. Get rid of the stink. How? break everything then boil. For those stubborn pieces of flesh, teeth are best almost everyone has a set. Lol. Toss em under foot until spring thaw summer thaw?
Love these videos! I just had a thought the other day about how a lot of the behavioral instincts we struggle with in today's society, like xenophobia for example, were probably good adaptive behaviors in our past. From previous videos it seems that there's a trend of densifying populations followed by collapses of various causes that lead certain people to migrate in large numbers to find refuge/food. Generally, they'd bump into people of an entirely different culture who were indigenous to that new land, and well, looking at the genetic evidence it seems it would usually be genocide of one culture vs. another, with a few exceptions for females of the losing culture being able to reproduce. And so it would make sense for people to be really xenophobic in a world where wealth was zero-sum, land could not be shared cooperatively, and migrations were akin to genocides. In any case, I would love some videos dedicated to identifying trends in early human life, whether they be about war or food or shelter. I bet there's a lot we can learn about ourselves if you connect enough dots in our past.
You know that chimpanzees have wars right? Gorillas also have intergroup conflicts. Some of this is can be traced back to basic primate behaviour. A chimpanzee group, if the members are separated for too long, will see each other as from separate groups, and attack each other. It is interesting that almost every people, tribe, nation on earth referrer to themselves as, "The People' and everyone else as "The Others" - goyim, xenos, alien, stranger etc. Mongolian folktales are always full of stories of "daemons" i.e. the Tartars (Kazakhs), who are never called by their name, or ever referred to as "people", but just daemons.
@@oduffy1939 that's true but apparently we are also very closely related to bonobos, who are said to be very peaceful. I also think it's unlikely that we would retain such a behavioral quirk for millions of years just because it made sense all that time ago. Evolution is slow but not that slow.
Hooray - finally a discussion that points out that many claims of "cannibalism" are suspect. We know definitively that some cultures defleshed bodies in order to release the spirit of the deceased (Himalayan cultures) - and we know definitively that some cultures ate human flesh until very recently (New Guinean cultures). But the assumption that cut marks = cannibalism is sloppy scholarship and really gets my goat. Bravo to Dan Davis!
Thanks for watching. Please do hit "like" on the video, it really helps me out.
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When I posted reply, RUclips instantly deleted. There was nothing ofensive in my reply. It happened to me and to millions of other RUclips users.
I posted another reply, and RUclips instantly deleted it again. The second reply is a quotation from article published in The Atlantic (Mar 14, 2018).
I think cannibalism is kind natural when faced w extreme hunger and it also has ritual aspects to it
We can't lose sight of the fact that our aversion to cannibalism is more cultural than anything else. Back in prehistory there were no supermarkets or even farms where you could obtain fresh meat. So when human meat was available, it was eaten, simple as that. We cannot observe history from our place in time and want to put our morals and norms on those people. Our picture would undoubtedly be skewed. I am sure cannibalism was widely practiced in all primitive societies.
Where there are large centers of human activaties, shouldn't there be copperlite pits or trash pits? Copperlites would have evidence of cannibalism within them.
One of the things I most admire about you and your channel, is that you freely admit it when you don't know. This has become all too rare these days. It is so nice to have evidence presented, ideas considered and possible conclusions speculated upon... without a predetermined conclusion being forced down one's throat and all alternative thoughts being derided. Thank you!
You would probably also appreciate the work of Stefan Milo. His videos are very well researched, he presents evidence and theories objectively, and very often finishes off with saying ‘we just don’t know.’ Highly recommend.
Admission of ignorance on a subject is the mark of a good scholar and any other reasoning being. Absolute certainty is for fanatics and idiots.
We found the fanboy 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
Experts know what they don’t know.
Experts know what they don’t know.
Dude, if my descendants drank from my skull on my birthday I'd be a pretty honored ghost. Just so long as it's the good stuff. None of that bottom shelf trash.
You got to have standards lol
Id be stoked if my family stripped my body of all edible flesh and used my bones to sharpen their tools.
So right. Hell, use my severed fingers to stir the drinks. I don’t care. Just live it up… because I obviously can’t anymore.
...
yeah
Just found this channel and binged everything on it. Top tier history channel. Love how thorough and informative your videos are about sometimes obscure topics, and I can tell you're an author just by how you articulate yourself and infuse the videos with an imaginative aspect.
Thank you very much.
Yeah he's awesome...but will plug his books shamelessly lol
@@babyyoda0U812 sometimes it’s a big plus to the story though, I’m still in top comment’s camp
Agreed
@@babyyoda0U812 silly complaint, really.
Around twenty years ago, my father rediscovered the grave of my great-great-grandfather. The grave was about to be abandoned because our family cemetery is now elsewhere. But we were able to save the two-meter-high, 600 kg gravestone (donated by his eight children). Since then, it has been placed in a quiet corner of our garden and is a nice surprise for visitors.
Very nice.
Should be quite a crowd puller
I now want to find distant ancestors grave sights
@@poopbone666 Ha ha. On my fathers side, the graves were distroyed by a surface mining operation. On my mothers side, I know where (most of them) are. Cant touch them, though. It would be a fellony ;)
Who has a ‘family cemetery’? Are you Gomez Addams lol???
I was just thinking of using cannibalism in my current novel. I want to avoid making it an act of evil but I do want it to be a source of conflict among various belief groups. The idea is very fresh so, who knows what will come up when I read more on it.
Great content, sir.
I'm doing something similar for my "vampire" race called the Vampir, which are basically nocturnal humans. Long story short, the Vampir had a complex night themed pantheon of gods and one of them is known only as the Blood Bat. The Vampir once considered cannibalism an honorable act for warriors especially because it both signifies their victory and helps feed the Blood Bat at the same time. One day, unfortunately, a fringe cult of warriors who worshipped the Blood Bat as their patron began murdering and devouring whole villages across the land in an attempt to sate the Bat's blood lust. The Blood Bat exploited said warriors inexplicably altered neurology to make them addicted to the slaughter. The warriors were eventually dealt with, and the Blood Bat was renounced from the Vampir religion, but the horror snd shame still lingers over them.
Consuming the remains of a member of the own society could be a sign to have them become part of you. Meat goes in, but it isn't meat that comes out. So something from the ancestors has to stay. That way the forefathers never really leave, a piece of them will keep going on throughout the lineage, and each person adds something.
Consuming a fallen enemy could be a sign of respect or of disrespect. It might convey the message that those other guys are nothing but cattle, but it might also be a a method to honour their bravery and absorb their strength an power. A great warrior might have the force of many men, because each one he fell gave a bit to the mighty hero, metaphorically but also physically.
And one group might have beliefs that the remains that are interred have to be clean, so they cook the meat off the bones. Perhaps they have a festival where the ancestors visit their descendants, and that requires bringing the bones back from their resting place into the house so that the ancestor has a place to inhabit while visiting.
They might also arrange the bones in ossuaries, so that their temple is a place where the ancestors can quite literally watch over them and listen to their prayers.
That could've even started when they opened graves and found only bones. The flesh went away, but the bones stayed. So clearly the bones sticking around has to be important.
From there they might clean the bones, because that is the part of the body that will stay in the funeral place after all.
After battles in faraway places they might only send the bones back, for similar reasons.
What people tend to forget is what is taboo to us is quit normal to other societies and our ancestors. Some commentors found this gross or off putting. I found it incredibly entertaining and informative. Thank you.
That doesn't justify it though, I'm not sure if that's what you're trying to argue, but either way the idea that all societal practices are valid is wrong. Any form of ritual cannibalism is barbarism done by savages
@@chico9805 Funny enough, you only proved him right. You only talk about "barbarism" and "savages" because you're indoctrinated in a society where it is such a strong taboo. There is no universal definition of what is barbaric and what is civilized, it's only defined by cultural norms.
@@kored8688 Yes, there is. It's not about "indoctrination", nature itself tells us that cannibalism is barbaric and counterintuitive to the survival of our species. You can try excusing the behaviour of savages all you want, but they're still savages
@@chico9805 Who knows in the future people who eat meat would be considered savages even though it's a societal norm now.
If you believe in transsubstantiation, then every time a Christian takes communion he’s performing a cannibal rite. “This is my body. This is my blood.” It’s pretty grisly.
I received my BA in Anthropology in '81. I remember that a couple of topics inspired almost violent disputes among the Professors.
One was cannibalism. Another was Humans pooping in the house. Go figure.
Both equally bad.
The other issue that Anthropologists had was with primitive warfare. There was/is this imaginary idea that our ancestors were peaceful and that warfare was due to civilization and empire. Remains found in Neolithic sites and earlier indicate that warfare was common. Many skulls show severe cranial damage from finishing blows with blunt objects like a club or mace--and we're not talking about trepanation wounds. These wounds were most likely finishing blows from an enemy incapacitated from other injuries like arrows in their bodies or a spear thrust. While they didn't practice large scale warfare, warfare was more on the order of ambushing and opportunistic killing of a few enemies here and there. Kind of like the Hatfields and McCoys feud or modern gang slayings.
The other thing is that the male skull is well designed to mitigate some damage from blunt force trauma to the skull. it's clearly evolutionary. Male hominids have been clubbing one another over the head for a good million+ years. For instance, the frontal skull is sloped. Even though the male skull is a tad bit thinner than the female skull, the sloping makes it thicker depending on the angle of the club. Modern tanks utilize this geometry by angling frontal armor. The female skull tends to be flat in the front which would lead to more traumatic damage from the same bludgeoning.
@@asimian8500 Fascinating. Men are T-34s and Women are Tigers I. I would think that warfare or killing would be less common due to there being few humans around making DNA very valuable. Better to make love not war so to speak.
@@jamessnee7171 @James Snee Wonderful analogy of WW2 tank design. I love it.
The Gombe Chimp War in 1974 changed everything about chimps, hominids, and warfare. It's a fascinating case study which shows that even though the warfare was low-intensity, it nevertheless ended up in one side being annihilated over the course of years. Hominid through Neolithic humans probably practiced similar low-intensity warfare of annihilation. It might have happened between different species of hominids like Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo Erectus, and Homo Sapiens.
In a way we do the second still these days. Only that we now have a way to dispose of it, but the act is still done indoors. One might even say that we have ritual altars in special temples for the act of pooping.
Surely, that must be an incredibly important ceremonial act, when nearly every dwelling has this special room with this special chair just for that.
In North America, coprolites have been used to show direct evidence of cannibalism (see: Cowboy Wash, Colorado, site). I hope the researchers at El Toro Cave in Spain & other European sites with suspected cannibalism keep an eye out for coprolites, which are more likely to survive in dry, stable cave environments. (Didn't find any studies online about them finding any.)
I just found your channel today. I had no idea that someone was covering prehistoric human history in such detail. Idk how you don't have more subscribers.
Thanks very much, welcome to the channel.
Excellent work, Dan. An instant classic for me. Great overview of the best sites' compositions and learnings, and obviously I appreciate the "Top 5 Signs and Portents of Ancient Cannibalism 101". My nomination for driest-delivered line of the video goes to: "When I say they 'used' the site, I mean their bones were smashed up and interred here, of course...".
lol thanks Ben, I'm glad you liked it. This one took a lot of work so I'm really pleased to hear it.
Fascinating, thank you! I think it's essential to involve anthropological studies in this (as you did) not because they can directly tell us what people in the past did, but because they can illustrate different mindsets. It can be hard to even imagine what it would be like to eat someone dead out of love and respect, but it might be equally strange for someone who did to imagine our practices - "You put them in a hole in the ground? With the worms? You monster!". Through the study of human nature and the past we learn more about our species than we ever could by ignoring it.
Alternatively- you pickle them then put them in a box in a concrete box?
How does the recycling hapoen?
Why would you cut your ancestors off from nature?
@@stripeytawney822 I want a tree planted on my non pickled dead body 👍
Last time I was this early, it was the pre-pottery neolithic.
lol
Love your channel, sir. You present information in a coherent and scholarly way while still being entertaining, but without all the silly gimmicks that another channel might employ for shock value. Thank you and please don't stop! Cheers from Florida.
Thank you very much, I appreciate it.
Perfectly summed up. I couldn't quite put my finger on why I like this channel so much - but you found the reason.
And you have a steady, calm voice which supports the content, rather than distracting from it. Very well done.
@@shojinryori thank you
I recall reading an article in an archaeology magazine many years ago about this topic. It's really surprising how widespread, both geographically and temporally, these practices are. The Aztecs and Maori practiced ritualised consumption of human flesh, but other examples come from starvation. I remember a discussion on the subject of Herxheim in a Stefan Milo video from a while back. I'm sure he was of the opinion that it was an example of mass cannibalisation of an enemy tribe, so it was interesting to hear another perspective on it.
Interesting, I'll have to watch that. Yeah the 2009 paper made a big splash but all the conclusions are disputed by others.
@@DanDavisHistory please do a Amazon jungle tribe, yanomami pre contact Europeans. I believe they made their longbows by scraping it with a pig's jaw sharpened on a stone
And you still go against God. These pagans are led astray!
I had a very bizarre lucid dream where I dressed someone like a deer.
I swear I'm not a psychopath or whatever but maybe there's something deep down in my psyche that remembers the Ice Age.
Why do you have to watch ads just because you went back and then forward to where you were in the video?
When I was at uni my lecturer for the hunter gatherer societies module promised us he'd do a lecture on cannibalism because he found it really interesting but he never made good on it. Dan Davis comes to the rescue years later
Well this is just about the Neolithic so I'm sorry you miss out again Jack lol
@@DanDavisHistory mate it's people in the past eating each other, I'm a happy chappy whether it's farmers or hunter gatherers 👍
It's interesting how for every story of cannibalism brought on by survival/desperation, there's as many accounts of extremely formalized, ritualized cannibalism. It seems that it's either something humans think a lot about and plan carefully to do Correctly, or are pushed to it by extreme conditions.
Any plans to cover the Tollense Valley battlefield? Not sure if there's even enough information for a full video, but it's a really interesting site.
Yes I will.
@@DanDavisHistory Awesome! I look forward to it
There's plenty of data about it, probably the best preserved early bronze age archaeological site.
History Time did a video on it a while back. Titled "Europe's first battle?" or something along those lines. Wouldn't mind seeing a different spin though
@@froggystyle642 Lindybeige did a very comprehensive video about it too.
If only I had watched this video a few days ago. Herxheim was the bonus question in my early history archaeology exam
I m from this village
These are the jotuns of the old norse edda poems. jotun is connate with english eat and swedish jatte. original meaning was those who ate themselves big and fat. Trolls in scandinavian folklore would often eat humans. this is a cultural memory of cannibals who violated the divine order by eating humans. You see their children today in greedy and malicious people roaming modern society.
So trolls where once humans?
@@lukedontknow9283 Trolls are bad humans. stupid and greedy.
are people like bezos and gates trolls or jotuns? in dutch, jatten means stealing, taking something without the consent of the person you took it from.
@@amossutandi They are kings of the Jotunns. Very smart but very greedy and evil.
Okay then
I find your voice so soothing especially after a mad day at work (I’m a teacher , every day is mad). So thank you. Great video as always 🙏
Thank you very much.
@@DanDavisHistory no problem, respect friend. Loving your work.
There's something poetically beautiful about traveling many kilometers just to reach the place where you wish to die. In my experience, people tend to know when they are dying...I wonder how many families carried their elders on litters to complete the journey. I also wonder how many of them were willingly killed by their families once they reached their destination, possibly at their own request?
Strabo wrote in his Geography that the Irish consumed their dead, particularly the bodies of their parents. I heard a famous irish gypsy bareknuckle fighter say when his son died in a car crash he bit of part of his ear to always carry a piece of his son in him. So some very strange customs survive in ireland up to this day.
Have you heard of "brain balls"? The Irish heroic cycles, and even early medieval chronicles talked about how the skulls of enemies were broken open, and the brains removed, and then mixed with a mineral mixture that turned the brain matter rock hard. Brain balls were made as sling ammunition, and in battle shot at the enemy. You killed your enemy with your enemy's kinsmen! Also, as the Scythians and Mongolians did, the Irish made "skull cap bowls" of their enemies heads. There is a museum in Ireland that has one of these "skull cap bowls".
I wonder if he knows that he already had a part of his son in him. That’s kind of how birth works haha.
@@oduffy1939 I can't remember, unfortunately, the place or the date other than it was early or mid 20th century but apparently there was a place in Ireland that used a skull as a communion wine cup. I think it was at a holy well or similar rather than in a church. Obviously a relic from a previous pre-Christian ritual. The church authorities put a stop to it. Anyone reading this that can give details? It was many years ago when I read it.
The best evidence for cannibalism I’ve come across was human tissue identified in a coprolite found in Colorado. Of course, that was more like 800 years old, not Neolithic.
You and @History Time are REALLY changing the game with historical content
Thank you very much.
Dan, did your research find any mixing of the human processing burials and red ocher burials? I have so many more questions now. I need to start catching up on all the new discoveries over the last 40 years.
The Tupi from Brazil are probably one of the best examples of normalizes cannibalism. There’s written detail about everything, from the uses old women gave to human fatty oil they collected, the sacrifice itself, the preparations before it (which even included a free wife given by the sacrificing tribe)... it’s all very rich
Thanks for the information. I live close to herxhein. As far as I know, there is genetic evidence, that the people butchered and dumped in the pits where actually mesolithic hunters, not related in any way to the lbk farmers. So it seems pretty clear that they where sacrificed in a ritual and very likely also cooked and eaten.
Very interesting, you got a link to the research?
My daughter in law has a necklace with a tiny bit of her dad's ashes. I'd never known of that before, but it's definitely meant to honor him
Since I'm from Germany and have always wondered about the site, I like this video a lot! Thanks for presenting different viewpoints instead of pushing a fishy narrative in the absence of evidence, as it's usual.
Great video. I really think this was your best one. Who knows but it seemed well thought out and I like the Polynesian reference as well. I appreciate your hard work.
Thank you very much, it's great to hear that.
I misread the title as "Cannabis of Neolithic Europe" Nonetheless it would make for an interesting topic.
Yes I should do that
@@DanDavisHistory please do! And hemp oil!
I'm sure opium was known, cannabis was, and is for pregnant women.
I made the same mistake Rex, that picture that goes with the title did not help . It looks like they are all sat around sharing a joint
You’re high right now aren’t you
My grandparents were survivors of Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-1933. Horrible times, cannibalism was reported during Holodomor. A sort of Endocannibalism as you say. Desperate conditions of living, a struggle to survive make people to resort to a desperate measure in the middle of 20th century. So our Neolithic ancestors had their ups and downs as well.
Jesus's I never heard of this , in living memory cannibalism. We really aren't thought history properly in school , crazy ,thanks for sharing. Peace 🇮🇪
@@seanwhelan879 Yes, as crazy as it sounds. When my grandma told me stories about horrible conditions they were forced to live in when everything eatable was taken from them, I was still a teenager and I couldn’t believe that such indignity was imposed on people by the Stalin’s regime. But later I understood that grandma’ s stories were an awful inconvenient truth that the regime was trying to hide from the world. Reading stories about cannibalism during Holodomor is specially disturbing. In some cases, parents had to sacrifice a youngest child to feed the eldest children. And subsequently, of course, a few who tasted human flesh, were stigmatized by others. What is more horrible: to die from starvation or from a shame of being labeled as a cannibal by others? And it our recent history!!!
That happened more than once in Ireland, where people were eaten to survive, the last time being the Great Hunger (Potato Famine 1845-1850).
During the famine of 1946-1947, after the WW2, in Bessarabia (Republic of Moldova) people were actually hunting others, mainly children , to be killed and eaten... Terrible times...!
Personally I’d end it before resorting to cannibalism. I’ll die with dignity thank you .
This has become one of my favorite channels! Along with Survive the Jive and Magemasher22.
Thank you!
Survive the jive is such a wonderful channel too, so glad to see I’m not the only overlap viewer here
Regarding endocannibalism, I wonder to what degree it may have been linked with conceptualizations of reincarnation - you consume your father or bone broth from your grandfather, and his essence literally nourishes you and gives you life. He becomes you (you are what you eat)
What happens several hours after you eat a big meal of pottage meat??
That's the ends of them that eats men
Thank you for dealing with this sensitive topic honestly.
You earned my subscription today.
Thanks 👍
Interesting story about the Donner Party "pioneer" tragedy. Leaving a relatively warm and lush valley in the late fall to traverse the then unknown passage & distance over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, traveling a mere 40 miles into the mountains terrain when the going got too rough or became impassible for the load they were hauling, Instead of simply back tracking the 40 miles back the way they came & mostly downhill to the warmth and saftey of the valley, near present day Reno Nv, which would take maybe 3-5 days or 40 hours at 1 mile per hour these so called "tough pioneers" just stopped & camped and sat as winter set in. sent some party members out for help or rescue, But there were no towns \ and few settlements any where in that vast area in those times, So who exactly they would find to help rescue the 50 people, They had no idea how far it was to cross the Sierra Nevada Range (100 miles) with its 10k-14k peaks, much less starting in early in Winter. So they waited and starved thinking of themselves as lost.... Retreating the 40 miles backtracking downhill was the only sensible decision. The Donner party leaders, 2 brothers George and Jacob were 62 and 56 years old.. one could only summize that these 2 men were either over confident or delusional to the point of being stupid, or both & had dementia,, Advising the party to sit & wait for 2 months in the winter snow for help to arrive, instead of backtracking & walking the 40 miles a few weeks earlier. Just didn't make sense. Of coarse much of the history from that era in the west makes no sense. The drawbacks of Manifest Destiny, Civilized people dominating & taming the wild and all that non sense.
Since we know some of the bones were carried so far to this site I would think removing the flesh was more of a practical thing.
Removing the flesh closer to home where the person died and then make a trip would reduce weight you wouldn’t be carrying around rotting meat so probably wouldn’t be attracting as many predators
Hey Dan wondering if you could make a video on human sacrifice cultures like the mesoamerican Aztecs or if you have any good book recommendations on the topic?
I don't know much about the Aztecs or Mesoamerica. I watch this channel called Ancient Americas, he's good, you should check that channel out.
Would high percentage of bones of children be more of a sign of endogenous processing as their mortality rate is higher?
I mean, it depends. Are we talking about in your backyard, or...? Kidding!
In my opinion, and the opinions of many educated archeologists, Herxheim was a prime example of Neolithic cannibalism. Seems to me it was a religious site used for ritual cannibalism. You have different groups from across Europe bringing their intended sacrifice/victim to this very spot for processing and consumption. I truly don't see how anyone could come to a different conclusion. It just seems very self evident.
One other example that comes to mind is the tradition of unburring the dead in Madagascar after a period of time. Actual Yucatec Mayas in Mexico also dig-up the bone of their dead, not to eat them, but to perform secondary burial, a common tradition around the world. I love your videos. Great work!!
Winter 1846 must have sucked, No shortage of Cannibalism in Ireland then as it was in middle of the Great Famine
Cool video 😎
The videos get me by until another book comes out 💪🏻
Nice video. What is interesting for me was the Thirteenth Warrior where the Norsemen were not allowed to speak the name of Cannibal Tribes. I had a talk with a Sotho guy of South-Africa and they to must not mention the Word.
Was this how humans basically got rid of the idea of Cannibalism within communities or basically any unwanted practice or idea ?
Nope, it was because they were(and still are) superstitious. Superstition was how they dealt with fear.
Superstition gives a feeling of control. You can "control" the risk of being captured and eaten, by controlling what you speak.
That instance of cannibalism in South Africa started out as desperation.
Shaka Zulu's expantionism had a ripple effect that triggered a chain of migrations. Migrations which triggered conflict, which triggered more migration. And so on and so on.
Similar to the chain of migrations and wars the Huns triggered.
One tribe in South Africa, fleeing their home during that tumultuous period, ended up finding refuge in a cave in the Drakensberg mountain range. Where they couldn't herd or farm, or obtain much food.
Desperate for food, this one tribe resorted to cannibalism...organised by their leader. They only ventured down to the low lands to capture victims. They obviously tended to go for easy targets, used stealth, ambushes, etc.
..which turned them into a kind of boogymen. Which led to superstitions. E.g., "meantioning their name causes them to capture you and eat you"...is such a superstition.
Travelers were especially targeted as the mountains forced travelers onto specific paths. They knew about the risk they were taking, which caused fear. That fear fueling superstitions.
@@tylerdurden3722 Yes indeed. That makes sense. He told me that those Cannibals apparently had almost superhuman indurance according to the stories. Apparently there were several such tribes...Some to the South of the Zulu and others on the other side of the Limpopo river.
@@richern2717 those are related to the same event. It happened close to modern times. So it's well recorded.
Perhaps all instances of organised or cultural cannibalism started out as a means to avoid starvation, but then continued on for other reasons.
Eating your enemies (or their heartsz etc) obviously has a psychological fear factor on your enemies.
In the case of those Sotho tribes... these were almost wiped out by an enemy they couldn't match in warfare.
But, their aquired reputation as supernatural cannibals (even though it was only one or two small tribes...small enough to fit into a cave), ended up saving all Sothos...as it caused even the Zulu's to be terrified of venturing into these areas and becoming victim to the superstitious stories they believed.
@@tylerdurden3722 Yes the Mfekane. But my point was actually the way both Norsemen and Sotho both delt with this fear in the same way. "He who must not be named" Heheheeh. Harry Potter.
@@richern2717 oh I see.😬
Btw, Thirteenth Warrior is a work of fiction. As fictional as Harry Potter😅.
The movie is based on another work of fiction called Eaters of the Dead (a novel).
Which is itself also based on a work of fiction, called Beowulf (an Anglo-Saxon story from England, written in Old English).
In Beowulf, the antagonist is an evil creature called Grendal that devours its enemies on the spot.
The book, Eaters of the Dead, changes Grendal into a group of cave dwelling Neanderthals, called the Wendal (instead of Grendal)...the Wendal also consuming the dead.
The book also changes the location of the events from Scandanavia, to Russia. This is done to merge a fictional version of Ahmad Ibn Faldan into the story to function as narrator.
13th Warrior was an effort to make the book, Eaters of the Dead, into a movie.
Dan is the best channel to watch while smoking a joint. Feed me informations and knowledge, my master. Lol
The answer to "was there cannibalism in (insert human populated area)?" seems to be 'At some point in time, with varying degrees of frequency, 100% yes.'
Very good and informative video on an interesting subject
Reminded me on the discussion on cannibalism among the Anasazi of the American southwest, lots of evidence for it, cut bones etc.
Modern native Americans vehemently denied this ever happened
Few years ago scientists advanced to where they could determine what a person ate by testing their well preserved coprolites ( poop)…now no doubt they ate people.
Now the native Americans are blaming it on Aztecs coming north.
I collect human bones, skeletons, skulls etc. When I used to set up at shows ( I sold knives and axes I made ) I’d take a trepanned skull and put it on my table filled with unshelled peanuts 😃
See? The white man and the red are the same! Always blaming the Mexicans.😂
I know someone who made a glass pendant with the ashes of her partner incorporated into the glass.
It's not a person, but I had one of my cats skeletons articulated. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to him.
the NFT add did not age well lol. Great video!
As ever a great video looking at really macabre subject in an objective fashion and with as little bias as possible. corking stuff. Though i did find the final one to be quietly chilling!
Thank you very much.
Seems we forget these ancient neolithic people used dogs for hunting. And protection. Had them around them all the time. So they needed to feed them somehow. Maybe feeding them human remains was a way to do it. Without feeding them animals they hunted. Kept that for themselves. Also I would bet they hunted humans to feed their dogs. This would make sense too. Seems this narrative is leaving out some basic things about daily neolithic life a little common sense would answer. But was interesting to watch. thanks
Loki second wife, Angrboda/ troll-ogre- jotun, the wolf mother Bringer of Sorrows, mother of Hel, Midgard Serpent and Fenis the Wolf.
Maybe you are right Catherine, …. Who knows ? But giving your large family dogs a taste for human flesh must surely have carried quite a bit of a risk element with it . I certainly would not have wanted to have been a postman in those days.
@@barkershill I guess you don't know much about dog training. And their devotion to their master. For example have seen a highly trained police dog in a room full of little kids. That were pulling it's ears and tail, poking it's eyes, climbing all over it. And not so carefully too. The dog sat there and tolerated it the full afternoon. Looked content the whole time. Even gave the kids little kisses. But put that intelligent dog out where he knows his job. They don't put up with anything remotely similar . They know the difference. Can imagine in early times their dogs were seen as an essential hunting asset. And just as well-trained.
@@catherineszabo396 it was a joke for heavens sake, and don’t make assumptions about me , I have kept dogs all my life
@@catherineszabo396 I dont think cops feed their k9 partners the remains of felons... I could be wrong though.
Wow... Thank you for a great video, this is a dark subject that you handled with respect. SUBBED!!!
What we all forget is that we are all animals or mammals, and most things on this earth will eat each other when the opportunity takes, I think what makes us different is that we are no different, is that humans are picky at what they want to eat due to the amount of food on the planet. You can just about eat everything if cooked right. Because we think it does not mean we are separate from others, as they will eat us also if they had the chance.. What a game we live in.
Thank you. Welcome to the channel.
In Latin America in some places there is a tradition to store ancestor's bones, and every year they are taking them out to sweep away dust.
If memory serves me correct I do recall that ancient Eygypt was divided by a human flesh eating faction. Also Captain Cook's body had to be returned by extortion by the British to prevent its cannibalism.
Dude, you did it again. Amazing storytelling!!!
Thank you very much.
Regarding Fontbregoua Cave - It sounds to me as if what is being dug up is evidence of ownership changes over time. A new group decides they would like to live in the cave, they storm in and massacre the current inhabitants. When the dust settles there are plenty of available calories lying around on the ground, so why waste time and energy going hunting ? Years pass, the owners' group weakens to the point of becoming easy pickings for another larger group - rinse and repeat... It would be interesting to know whether such caves were in short supply and therefore we are seeing competition for a scarce accomodation resource, or whether when you went hunting you just went looking for the easiest calories you could find without drawing much distinction between the different sources...
"I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti"
As an Eastern European and a Christian, I don't know anyone who keeps ash or other human remains from their relatives. We just bury the dead. The only remains on display are the ones of saints in churches or monasteries.
I got an ad about solving world hunger while watching this video
So interesting to think that something that probably started out of morbid desperation could be incorporated into everyday life.
You paint a vivid picture, Dan.
I'm sure glad it's not capable of smellination! (Smell & imagination)
Hey, it's the best that I can do on short notice. Smellevision doesn't properly describe it.
Now I'm off to look at my genetic history to see if I had family in those areas, at those times.
Great video!
Thank you!
Another great program.
Thanks
I love watching your videos cause its funny to see papers i write essays on in my degree 🤣Like a wrote a critique on the Herxheim study and its so cool to actually know about stuff people talk about
Holy shit! I wouldn't love to drink from my grandfather's skull on his birthday.
Especially if he's still alive.
@@DanDavisHistory Muhahahahahaa.....😝
@@DanDavisHistory No. I'm not g4y.
Omg that opening slide, definitely got my attention! Looking forward to watching ☀️🌸☀️🌸!! I know it will be exceptionally good as always, thanks!!!
Thanks Olina!
Excellent video. On a side note, momento mori like locks of hair, death masks, and death photos were common in the west until the last century.
Regarding the skull caps - as you mentioned - there are documented cases of people using skull caps to drink from - so they may have been processed into tableware - but I can't help thinking that this would have been done more neatly if this were the case. I had a slightly grimmer idea... They reminded me of the top of a boiled egg that I have sliced off so I can poke my soldiers into the yoke ... :-)
as always i enjoyed the video...
to put forward some alternative thoughts, however: even in Europe there has continued, until fairly recently, a limited tradition of secondary dealing with the dead... or in fact, COMMUNING with the dead- revering and visiting the remains, not merely at a burial site
(although certainly people do THAT- we even decorate the graves yearly!)
You have only to look at the artifacts of saints- or great kings and heroes... the gilded bones, the sacred items incorporating the bones and sometimes preserved flesh, of notable people
or the cathedrals of the bones, and the niches of bones and labyrinths of bones, currently in Europe: where people paid to have their loved ones disinterred after the ground had consumed the flesh, and the bones ... displayed.
At the displays of death masks, or even preserved corpses...
we
still
do
and if you look further than Europe? to the indigenous practices of people world wide, you find there are always a few places where the bones- once stripped of flesh- are painted with ochre, or positioned to sit and watch over... or skulls are kept...
its... not that strange a concept, really
even today i can tell you that a lot fo people maintain an ancestor shrine- whether they call it that or not: with relics and photos of their beloved grandparents, and tokens representing the place they came from...
Very true! The photographs on some modern tombstones make me think of the reconstructed faces of the Jericho skulls in the same way.
Has kinda changed my look on fellow men :-)
Bon appetit !
Greets from the Netherlands, T.
Thanks, T.
Who is actually producing your videos? The very subtle drums coming in after 1:44 were very powerful. If you're doing all this editing and sound stuff yourself, good job, but if it's someone else, also good job, hope they're getting paid good!
Thank you very much for noticing. I do everything myself.
Dan delivers yet again!
7176 BCE had the largest geomagnetic storm in the last 10,000. This would have caused earthquakes, Lightning Storm, floods, volcanos, rapid ice melting causing rapid sea rise and river rise.
Another one happens 5410 about the same time as the one in Spain. It wasn’t as strong as the 7176 event but it still was strong enough to cause carbon 14 residue all over the earth... in tree rings, ice cores, ocean cores and geological record.
18:03 what if some communities manufactured and traded cool skull cups and this was their factory?
Two adults and four children? Not exactly a happy meal.
One of the best videos I’ve ever seen from this channel!
Thank you very much, very pleased to hear it.
Super underrated channel.
This reminds me of the American settlers canilabalism
Just found this on suggested, glad I did subbed and liked 👍
Thank you. Welcome to the channel, I hope you like the other videos too.
kalott in my language means the northernmost piece, Swedish.
Every kid who grows up in California learns about the Donner Party in school, I was eleven and in the 5th grade when I learned about it. It is interesting that the Law of the Sea, allows for "survival cannibalism" as far back as the 15th century. But mortuary cannibalism was far more common than one would think, some native tribes in the Amazon basin practiced a form of this. Though the tradition I read about the tribe allowed the body to decompose, enough that the those who ate it, would not enjoy it. It being meant to honour the tribal member, and not as food.
National Geographic (I think) had an article about a tribe in Ecuador? Where a local group of traditional magicians would kidnap and kill villagers, to then kill and eat some portion of their bodies. Then would caverns as places of ritual, an leave the body part is a specific arrangement. That was until the local villagers got together and shot gunned them down, and ended the practice.
When I saw this notification thought it said "Neolithic Cannabis". Good vid nonetheless...love history before written history
Thank you. Yes a lot of people have said that - perhaps I should make a video about it.
Ill be back later tonight. Looking forward to it.
I'm so ashamed that my ancestors ate people! I feel I owe a lot of people apologies - unfortunately, they've all been eaten.
Another excellent and well balanced presentation. Nice one again Dan.
Thank you very much.
I’m so glad I found you cause now I’m watching your whole channel at midnight while sick 👁👄👁
Can't wait to see Herxheim in the gods of bronze series
I'm very sorry, Gods of Bronze starts around 3000 BC and Herxheim was 2000 years earlier.
@@DanDavisHistory This is fair, lowkey thought about herxhiem listening to the first book- prequel fodder perhaps
Yeah there is certainly plenty of opportunity for prequels.
Always Brilliant.
Honor and Respect.
Thank you very much.
Another great video and was awesome to see my name at the end haha
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for supporting the channel.
@@DanDavisHistory no worries mate
ODG, the most simply explanation is typically accurate. This was most likely a very savage tribe raiding, capturing, killing and consuming the human spoils of warfare.
Thanks for this needed to relax today
Relax and listen to cannibalism stories, Ryan.
@@DanDavisHistory i never claimed to be normal haha
It's okay, you've come to the right place.
Excellent video. Thank There are several European deities who ate their family members so these people copied the cannibalism of their deities.
Practical not to waste all that meat. Especially if fat and protein is at times scarce like it may have been for some early farmers...
The season of the long pig is revisited by humans on occasions. In this case the ancient hunter-gatherers, the first settlers of Europe were eaten by the second wave of settlers moving in from the middle-east. Must have been one of those 7 lean years and farming was a tough business or the newcomers did not want to waste precious meat while clearing the land from their previous inhabitants.
This is the first video of youres I've watched and I like your story telling.
Thank you. Welcome to the channel. I hope you like my other stuff too.
@@DanDavisHistory I look forward to exploring it
Dan true. I can see things like this. No one dies at an opportune time etc. So a winter death is a terrible time to die. Grounds frozen, bodies stink. Get rid of the stink. How? break everything then boil. For those stubborn pieces of flesh, teeth are best almost everyone has a set. Lol. Toss em under foot until spring thaw summer thaw?
Love these videos! I just had a thought the other day about how a lot of the behavioral instincts we struggle with in today's society, like xenophobia for example, were probably good adaptive behaviors in our past. From previous videos it seems that there's a trend of densifying populations followed by collapses of various causes that lead certain people to migrate in large numbers to find refuge/food. Generally, they'd bump into people of an entirely different culture who were indigenous to that new land, and well, looking at the genetic evidence it seems it would usually be genocide of one culture vs. another, with a few exceptions for females of the losing culture being able to reproduce. And so it would make sense for people to be really xenophobic in a world where wealth was zero-sum, land could not be shared cooperatively, and migrations were akin to genocides.
In any case, I would love some videos dedicated to identifying trends in early human life, whether they be about war or food or shelter. I bet there's a lot we can learn about ourselves if you connect enough dots in our past.
You know that chimpanzees have wars right? Gorillas also have intergroup conflicts. Some of this is can be traced back to basic primate behaviour. A chimpanzee group, if the members are separated for too long, will see each other as from separate groups, and attack each other.
It is interesting that almost every people, tribe, nation on earth referrer to themselves as, "The People' and everyone else as "The Others" - goyim, xenos, alien, stranger etc. Mongolian folktales are always full of stories of "daemons" i.e. the Tartars (Kazakhs), who are never called by their name, or ever referred to as "people", but just daemons.
@@oduffy1939 that's true but apparently we are also very closely related to bonobos, who are said to be very peaceful. I also think it's unlikely that we would retain such a behavioral quirk for millions of years just because it made sense all that time ago. Evolution is slow but not that slow.
Hooray - finally a discussion that points out that many claims of "cannibalism" are suspect. We know definitively that some cultures defleshed bodies in order to release the spirit of the deceased (Himalayan cultures) - and we know definitively that some cultures ate human flesh until very recently (New Guinean cultures). But the assumption that cut marks = cannibalism is sloppy scholarship and really gets my goat. Bravo to Dan Davis!
So excited about being so early, I have nothing witty to post
It must be eating you up inside.
this video is pure gold