CANNIBALISM IN BRITAIN: TAPHONOMY OF FAUNAL AND HUMAN REMAINS FROM GOUGH'S CAVE 



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are frequent and affect both inner and outer surfaces of the ribs, and 

 some other ribs are also heavily damaged by chop marks. Cut-marks 

 on the inner surfaces have been interpreted as due to evisceration 

 (Diez et al. 1999). Cuts and chop marks on adjacent ribs shows that 

 the damage was inflicted while the rib cage was more or less intact, 

 and the purpose must have been to gain access to the thoracic cavity 

 while at the same time dismembering the ribs. The concentration of 

 marks near the heads of the ribs suggests that the aim was to separate 

 the ribs from the vertebrae (see Fig. 13, above). On the other hand, 

 many of the ribs remained intact, with no further damage, and the 

 ribs from individuals 1 and 2 were discarded within a very small area 

 of the cave. Damage observed on the ribs thus suggests the common- 

 est processes operating on both animal human bodies was 

 dismemberment, filleting and possibly evisceration. 



Vertebrae of all taxa recorded at Gough's cave have similar types 

 of damage induced by humans. Cuts appear on similar sides and 

 damage of the transverse or spinous processes are similar. Peeling 

 only occurs on human vertebrae. The human axis and the equid atlas 

 both show cuts on the articulation with the adjacent vertebrae in 

 order to dismember the neck and head. The cuts observed on the front 

 (ventral) of the human axis body are matched by cuts on the hyoid 

 bone and may have been related to detachment of the hyoid. In 

 summary, vertebrae show clear evidences of dismemberment activi- 

 ties, both in humans and non-human skeletons. 



Human vertebrae are scarce at Gough's Cave and this is in 

 agreement with Turner's (1983) observations that a characteristic of 

 cannibalism is that vertebrae are usually missing. Turner explains the 

 low representation of vertebrae as a result of having first been 

 crushed on an anvil stone to then the fragments boiled to facilitate oil 

 extraction. He suggests this hypothesis based on ethnographic de- 

 scriptions of the boiling of animal bones for marrow extraction. 

 Scarcity or absence of vertebrae has been observed among the 

 Prehistoric American Southwest from Arizona (e.g.: Pollaca Wash, 

 Leroux Wash, House of Tragedy, Canyon Butte, Chaco Canyon and 

 others studied by Turner and colleagues 1970-1999) and at the 

 Anasazi pueblo of Mancos (White, 1992), as well as at the French 

 Neolithic of Fontbregoua (Villa et al, 1986a,b), Navatu of Fijian 

 groups (Degusta, 1 999), and French Neanderthals (Defleur & White, 

 1999). Turner & Turner (1995) observed that vertebrae were absent 

 or crushed at the prehistoric and historic Arizona sites. On the other 

 hand, vertebrae are not scarce at the Atapuerca (7D6-Aurora Stra- 

 tum) human assemblage among the early Europeans (Fernandez-Jalvo 

 et al. 1999), but here there is no evidence of fire. Villa, et al ( 1985) did 

 not find evidence of fire at Fontbregoua, and absence of vertebrae 

 was considered as due to humans having moved the discarded bones 

 into 'amas' (discard features). No evidence of burnt bones at Gough's 

 Cave has been observed, but there is similar pattern of breakage and 

 cutting between human and non-human vertebrae. 



Four human scapulae, three clavicles and two horse pelves have 

 been recorded at Gough's Cave as the only flat bones. Both scapulae 

 and pelves are intensively damaged by cut-marks and percussion 

 marks. The damage is mainly related to areas of muscle attachments, 

 for example the muscle attachment of rectus femoris on the ilium. In 

 the case of scapulae, which all come from humans, they also show 

 peeling as evidence of stripping muscle from the scapula. All cuts 

 found on the scapulae were interpreted by Cook ( 1 986) as the natural 

 effect of trampling processes (notably specimens M54059 and 

 M54056). The cut-marks on these specimens, however, are deeply 

 incised, their positions are often on protected areas of the bone that 

 cannot be reached by sediment grains, and finally most of the cuts are 

 located on areas associated with muscle attachments. They are also 

 concentrated around the glenoid fossa, suggesting disarticulation of 

 the shoulder joint, and they are seen on the muscle attachment areas 



of trapezium, triceps, subscapular, teres major and teres minor 

 muscles. In contrast to this, if trampling were the only agent of 

 modification that produced striations, it would be expected that the 

 most salient angles of the scapula, such as the scapular spine or the 

 outer edge of the coracoid process, should be most heavily damaged 

 (Andrews & Cook 1985, Olsen & Shipman 1989). They are not cut, 

 but on the contrary the cut-marks are on the inner angles of these 

 processes. This leads us to the conclusion that the cuts were human- 

 made, although it is certainly true that there are trampling marks as 

 well as cut-marks. On the clavicles, cut-marks are related to muscle 

 attachments, for example the sternocleidomastoid on M54054) and 

 the costoclavicular ligament, indicating the purpose was dismem- 

 berment of the joints. 



Most cut-marks on long bones, both on human and on animal, are 

 related to muscle attachment or articular surfaces, indicating dis- 

 membering activities. There is also a case of filleting (a right human 

 radius split shaft) with cuts that are not related to muscle attachment. 

 Breakage to open the marrow is more evident on large bones (i.e. 

 femora, humeri, tibiae) than on bones with no marrow content (i.e. 

 radii, ulnae and fibulae). Most long bones, either human or animal 

 bones, show strong percussion marks that occur extensively along 

 the shafts and broken edges, and sometimes percussion marks are 

 seen related to anvil marks. Repeated blows to the shaft are seen on 

 some bones, for example on the human tibia. Adhered flakes, removed 

 flakes, peeling and conchoidal scars related to longitudinal breakage 

 of the bone most probably came about as the result of extracting the 

 marrow content in the bone. Peeling occurs only on human bones 

 (two ulnae, a radius, and a tibia fragment), but it is absent on other 

 animal long bones. Binford ( 198 1 ) considers scraping and peeling to 

 be linked to the preparation of the bone for subsequent breakage and 

 marrow extraction, since soft tissues might absorb much of the force 

 when the attempt is made to break the bone. On the other hand, Dfez 

 et al. (1999) considered that periosteum extraction may also be an 

 end in itself, aimed at getting at all of the animal's nutrients. 

 Breakage to open the marrow is more evident on large bones (i.e. 

 femurs, humeri, tibiae) than in no marrow content bones (i.e. radii, 

 ulnae and fibulae). Most long bones, either human or animal bones, 

 and broken edges, and sometimes percussion marks related to anvil 

 marks. 



Wrist and ankle bones are present only for large mammals, mostly 

 horse. On these skeletal elements, cut-marks occur most frequently 

 on calcanei (5 out of 8 specimens). Cut-marks on calcanei are mainly 

 located on the calcis, on plantar and dorsal edges, as well as on the 

 articulation between calcaneus and astragalus. Just one calcaneus 

 has a chop mark and it is located on the calcis. Astragali have more 

 cuts on the medial side of the condyle or on the trochlea related to the 

 medial ligament. The other carpal-tarsal bones are damaged on the 

 dorsal sides at the position of the dorsal ligament. In all cases the 

 main purpose appears to be to cut ligaments connecting the lower leg 

 and the metapodials. One central tarsal has an adhered flake on a 

 broken surface on the articular dorsal ridge, probably due to dismem- 

 berment. 



There are a few human metatarsals, all crushed on the ends but 

 without cut-marks. Lateral metapodials of equids are also crushed on 

 their articular ends as seen on humans. Some human metapodials 

 could have human chewing (Fig. 6). Metapodials are much more 

 abundant in the case of non-human mammals, more than a 50% of 

 them with cut-marks, mainly located on the articulations (Fig. 5A), 

 suggesting dismemberment of the joints. Medial metapodials of 

 horse have a consistent pattern of breakage (Fig. 5B) that has 

 produced great consistency of preservation of the metapodials, and 

 this is probably the result of marrow extraction. 



Most phalanges come from equids, with only one of human 



