850,000 YEARS AGO HUMANS ATE HUMANS, PROVEN NOW

THE DAWN OF EARLY HUMAN CANNIBALISM

• In a remarkable scientific discovery, Spanish archaeologists have found evidence that human ancestors ate children, some 850,000 years ago.
• Digging at the Gran Dolina cave site in Atapuerca, northern Spain, researchers found a human neck bone belonging to a child aged between two and four years old, with clear butchery marks, which suggests that the small children may have been devoured clean.

WHAT DID THE EXCAVATION TEAM SAY?

• The team from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) stated that the site of the marks on the neck bone suggests that the youngster was decapitated.
• It is to be noted that the body parts of the child belong to Homo antecessor who are believed to be the last common ancestor to both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.
• "This case is particularly striking, not only because of the child's age, but also due to the precision of the cut marks," said Dr Palmira Saladie, the co-director of the excavation.
• "The vertebra presents clear incisions at key anatomical points for disarticulating the head. It is direct evidence that the child was processed like any other prey."
• Although cannibalism is well documented in early humans, it is essential to note how unusual it is to find evidence of a child being eaten.
• If the discovery stands verified, it could mark the earliest evidence of the practice found to date.
• “What we are documenting now is the continuity of that behaviour: the treatment of the dead was not exceptional, but repeated,” said Ms Saladie.
• Stockier and shorter on average than modern humans, the Homo antecessor lived between 1.2 million and 800,000 years ago.
• Their brain size was roughly between 1,000 and 1,150 cubic centimeters, which is smaller than the average 1,350 cubic centimeters brain size of people today.
• "The new find reinforces the hypothesis that these early humans exploited their congeners as a food resource," the researchers said.
• “Every year we uncover new evidence that forces us to rethink how our ancestors lived, how they died, and how the dead were treated nearly a million years ago.”

Editor’s Note

• The discovery at Gran Dolina is more than a window into prehistoric horror — it’s a confrontation with our own evolutionary truth. The revelation that early humans may have consumed their own young 850,000 years ago forces us to rethink the foundations of humanity itself. Beneath the tools, art, and intellect we celebrate today lies a lineage marked by brutal survival — where hunger, fear, and instinct overpowered empathy. Cannibalism among early hominins was not driven by cruelty, but by necessity — an unfiltered portrait of existence before morality took shape. Yet, this find blurs the line between survival and savagery, raising unsettling questions: Did compassion evolve, or was it learned through the horror of what came before? Each fossil unearthed from the caves of Atapuerca reminds us — humanity’s story is not just about progress and civilization; it is also about what we had to overcome within ourselves to become human.
• #ancienthumans #cannibalismdiscovery #prehistoricfind #homoantecessor