The Language of Argument

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A r g u m e n t s f r o m A n a l o g y

the bone. Long bones were bashed open “to get at the fatty marrow inside,”

says White.

So what does all this have to do with cannibalism? The bones of the six (so

far) humans in the same locations have precisely the same markings made by the same

tools. That means these fairly modern humans were skinned and eaten in the same

manner as the deer.

And if you are thinking they were eaten after they just happened to die,

they do represent all age groups. Two were children about 6 years old, two

were teenagers, and two were adults.

But maybe they were eaten at a time when food was unusually scarce,

right? Not so. There is a large number of animal bones at the same dig, indicat-

ing that there were options to eating other Neanderthals.

Human bones with similar cut marks have been found throughout

Europe, from Spain to Croatia, providing tantalizing hints of Neanderthal

cannibalism activity over tens of thousands of years. But finding such clear

evidence of the same preparation techniques being used on deer in the

same cave site in France, will “necessitate reassessment of earlier finds,”

always attributed to ritual burial practices or some other explanation, says

White.

(continued)

From DEFLEUR ET AL., SCIENCE 286:128 (1999). Reprinted with permission from AAAS.

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