CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 18Pleistocene-Era Hominins and ArchaeologyForensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology StudiesArchaeological and Geological Studies

Cannibalism and burial in the late Upper Palaeolithic: Combining archaeological and genetic evidence

Open access
Marsh, William A, Bello, Silvia·2023·Quaternary Science Reviews
DOI 10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108309
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The Magdalenian (∼23.5–∼13.5 kBP) is one of the two major technocomplexes identified in Europe during the late Upper Palaeolithic and is notable for its complex worked bone and lithic industries, and both artistic and ritualistic behaviours. Magdalenian funerary behaviours, however, remain enigmatic, with human assemblages often represented by scattered and fragmented remains showing evidence of post-mortem manipulation that has been associated with cannibalism. To best clarify any patterns of funerary behaviour during the Magdalenian, an exhaustive literature review was performed to identify Magdalenian sites that have delivered human remains. Of the 59 sites identified, it was possible to ascertain funerary behaviour at 25 sites, with 10 deposits attributed to primary burial, 13 showing evidence of anthropic modification indicative of cannibalism, and two sites combining both behaviours. Given the similarities of the anthropic modifications observed on the cutmarked and cannibalised human remains across sites, the high frequency and geographic distribution of this practice, and the association, in some of the sites, of cannibalism with the ritualistic manipulation of human remains, it is proposed that cannibalism during the Magdalenian was practiced as a form of funerary behaviour rather than for necessity or as gastronomic cannibalism. Funerary cannibalism appears in greater abundance during the Middle Magdalenian whilst primary burials are more common during the Upper and…

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108309

Cites

144 of 144 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • A recent study of human assemblages from the Epigravettian and Magdalenian cultures has identified a potential association between burial practices and genetic ancestry.

    “A recent study of human assemblages from two distinct later Upper Palaeolithic cultures, the Epigravettian (~ 24,000-12,000 BP) and the Magdalenian (~ 23,500-13,500 BP), has identified a potential association between burial practices and genetic ancestry (Marsh & Bello, 2023).”

    From The Archaeology of Cannibalism: a Review of the Taphonomic Traits Associated with Survival and Ritualistic Cannibalism (2025) · cites this paper as Marsh & Bello, 2023

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

6 of the 150 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 20

  1. Blanchard, 1935, Découverte d’un squelette humain à Saint-Germain-la-Rivière, Revue historique et archéologique du Libournais, 9
  2. Boulestin, 2012, vol. 2415
  3. d’Acy, 1895, La Grotte Des Hoteaux, Revue Archéologique, 26, 240
  4. Drucker, 2011, Les derniers rennes de Dordogne. Nouvelles données chronologiques et environnementales par l’étude isotopique du collagène (13C, 14C et 15N), PALEO. Revue d’archéologie, préhistorique, 85
  5. Duport, 1976, La Grotte de Montgaudier-Commune de Montbron (Charente), Mémoires du Cercle Archéologique et Historique de Valenciennes, 9, 399
  6. Gambier, 2000, Aurignacian children and mortuary practice in Western Europe, Anthropologie, 38, 5
  7. Germonpre, 1997, vol. 67, 167
  8. Gietz, 2001, Die menschlichen Skelettreste aus dem paläolithischen Fundhorizont der Burghöhle Dietfurt, Zeit-Räume, 14, 465
  9. Heberer, 1939, Über einen Kinderunterkiefer aus der Ilsenhöhle unter Burg Ranis (Kr. Ziegenrück) in Thüringen, Anthropologischer Anzeiger, 77
  10. Jelınek, 1999, Hominid Remains: An Up-Date. Czech and Slovak Republics, Anthropologie et Préhistoire Supplément, 9, 1
  11. Le Mort, 1991, Cutmarks and breakage on the bones from Le Placard (France). An example of special mortuary practice during the Upper Palaeolithic, Anthropologie, 29, 189
  12. Le Mort, 1992, Diversité du traitement des os humains au Magdalénien: un exemple particulier, le cas du gisement du Placard (Charente), Documents préhistoriques, 2, 29
  13. Lucas, 2023, Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, 120, 135
  14. McNeill, 2002, Human spear points and speared humans: the procurement, manufacture, and use of bone implements in prehistoric Guam, Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin., 22, 175
  15. Orschiedt, 2000, Hominid Remains: an Up-date. Germany, Supplement Anthropologie et Préhistoire, Brussel, 74
  16. Orschiedt, 2017, Human remains from Maszycka cave: the treatment of human bodies in the magdalenian, Archaol. Korresp., 47, 423
  17. Simon, 1993, Die Burkhardtshöhle-eine Magdalénienstation am Nordrand der Schwäbischen Alb, Archäologische Informationen, 16, 341
  18. Sutcliffe, 1977, An unsolved mystery—the age of the almost destroyed human remains from Cattedown Cave, Plymouth, Studies in Speleology, 3, 43
  19. Von Berg, 2002, Comments on Irlich. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system, Archaeometry Datelist, 31, 10
  20. Worth, 1887, On the occurrence of human remains in a bone cave at Cattedown, Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 19, 419

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Marsh, W. A., & Bello, S.
Affiliations
Natural History Museum (GB)
Corresponding author
  • Marsh, William A
  • Bello, Silvia
ORCID
Venue
Quaternary Science Reviews
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2023-11
Volume
319
Pages
108309
ISSN
0277-3791 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108309
OpenAlex
W4387354584
Semantic Scholar
0ac2c44adcc6b457670969a4b2adcebb0354dd42
Cited by
18
References
150
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 6
FWCI
22.13
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
Quaternary Science Reviews (publishedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Calleva Foundation (1078808)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Archaeological and Geological Studies
Keywords
cannibalism, Magdalenian, Late Upper Palaeolithic, primary burial, cut marks, genetic ancestry, Epigravettian, human mobility, taphonomy, ritual behavior, human remains, Middle Magdalenian

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review