Assessing the calorific significance of episodes of human cannibalism in the Palaeolithic

James Cole

doi:10.1038/srep44707

Assessing the calorific significance of episodes of human cannibalism in the Palaeolithic

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Abstract

Episodes of Palaeolithic cannibalism have frequently been defined as ‘nutritional’ in nature, but with no available empirical evidence to assess their dietary significance. This paper presents a nutritional template that offers a proxy calorie value for the human body. When applied to the Palaeolithic record, the template provides a framework for assessing the dietary value of prehistoric cannibalistic episodes compared to the faunal record. Results show that humans have a comparable nutritional value to those faunal species that match our typical body weight, but significantly lower than a range of fauna typically found in association with anthropogenically modified hominin remains. This could suggest that the motivations behind hominin anthropophagy may not have been purely nutritionally motivated. It is proposed here that the comparatively low nutritional value of hominin cannibalism episodes support more socially or culturally driven narratives in the interpretation of Palaeolithic cannibalism.

Original language	English
Article number	44707
Pages (from-to)	1-10
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/srep44707
Publication status	Published - 6 Apr 2017

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ © The Author(s) 2017

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James Cole
- J.N.Colebrighton.acuk
- School of Applied Sciences - Principal Lecturer
- Past Human and Environment Dynamics Research and Enterprise Group
Person: Academic

Cite this

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title = "Assessing the calorific significance of episodes of human cannibalism in the Palaeolithic",

abstract = "Episodes of Palaeolithic cannibalism have frequently been defined as {\textquoteleft}nutritional{\textquoteright} in nature, but with no available empirical evidence to assess their dietary significance. This paper presents a nutritional template that offers a proxy calorie value for the human body. When applied to the Palaeolithic record, the template provides a framework for assessing the dietary value of prehistoric cannibalistic episodes compared to the faunal record. Results show that humans have a comparable nutritional value to those faunal species that match our typical body weight, but significantly lower than a range of fauna typically found in association with anthropogenically modified hominin remains. This could suggest that the motivations behind hominin anthropophagy may not have been purely nutritionally motivated. It is proposed here that the comparatively low nutritional value of hominin cannibalism episodes support more socially or culturally driven narratives in the interpretation of Palaeolithic cannibalism.",

author = "James Cole",

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Assessing the calorific significance of episodes of human cannibalism in the Palaeolithic

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