Field Notes

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Homo Anthropophagus

New research indicates that Neanderthals may have had peculiar, and disturbing, tastes—for human brains and bone marrow!

This past summer, anthropologists Alan Mann and Janet Monge, both of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, studied radiographs of Neanderthal bones from the Krapina Cave in Croatia. The site, occupied 130,000 years ago, contained 884 bone fragments from the skeletons of as many as 75 individuals. Most of the bones were radiographed at the University of Zagreb in 1989; the remainder were radiographed at the Radiology Clinic in Zagreb in 1997.

Though radiographs are not the latest in cutting-edge technology, they do allow researchers to assess bone quality and identify bones from separate skeletons. The radiograph images analyzed by Mann and Monge revealed that the Krapina Neanderthals were “surprisingly healthy.” But the scientists also found evidence of a bone tumor, osteoarthritis and primitive forms of surgery (one of these early hominids even had a hand surgically amputated).

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Mann told Archaeology Odyssey that some of the Neanderthal bones appear to have been butchered with stone tools. Mann hesitated, however, to attribute the markings to cannibalism, since he had no other evidence to support the claim. The results of Monge and Mann’s study were published as The Krapina Hominids: A Radiographic Atlas of the Skeletal Collection (Republic of Croatia, August 1999).

Just a month after the book’s publication, however, biologist Tim White of the University of California at Berkeley produced evidence that Neanderthals may have practiced cannibalism. Excavators working at Moula-Guercy, in southern France, reported finding bones dating from 120,000 to 100,000 years ago. The bones of six individuals had cut marks similar to those on the bones from Krapina. The tips of the Moula-Guercy bones, however, show striation patterns, typically caused by twisting the bones apart at the joints. The Krapina bones do not have striations.

White has determined that deer bones from the same context at Moula-Guercy have striation patterns similar to those on the human bones. He also noted that the Neanderthals and the deer had the same body parts butchered—probably suggesting a common purpose. White concludes that the Moula-Guercy butchery was Neanderthal cannibalism.

Of course, this prompts the question: Why would Neanderthals have taken to eating each other in the first place? Although human flesh was probably not a regular part of the Neanderthals’ diet, White said, they may have resorted to unusual measures to obtain sustenance during the long, cold winter months—exactly the sort of thing provided by high-fat, high-protein brain and bone marrow.

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CAARI Gets New Director

The Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI), a Nicosia-based branch of the American Schools of Oriental Research, has named Australian scholar and diplomat Robert S. Merrillees as its new director.

The multi-talented Merrillees, for most of his life, served in the Australian foreign service—most recently as ambassador to Greece and Bulgaria. But he is also an archaeologist, having received his Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of London and excavated for several years in Cyprus. Merrillees has published extensively on the Mediterranean region of the Bronze Age (see “How the Ancients Got High,” AO 02:01) and is a member of Archaeology Odyssey’s Editorial Advisory Board.

Cyprus’s Director of Antiquities, Sophocles Hadjisavvas, told Archaeology Odyssey that Merrillees’s two careers, as diplomat and as archaeologist, make him the ideal person to promote the study of Cyprus and its neighbors.

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Conservation Watch

The World Monuments Fund’s most recent listing of the 100 most endangered cultural sites was released last September. The list records sites around the world, ancient and modern, in need of immediate protection. Following are the endangered ancient sites in Archaeology Odyssey’s territory (see also the organization’s Web site: www.worldmonuments.org).

The oldest known city in the world, Catal Huyuk contains a labyrinth of mudbrick walls that are covered with plaster and painted with various scenes. Although this site in south-central Turkey is now being excavated and preserved, years of neglect have left the ruins severely eroded.

Built of coral and limestone, the Mnajdra temples (above) are a thousand years older than Egypt’s pyramids. Little is known about how they were used, though much has been learned from them about ancient building techniques. But now rain, salt, vandals, tourism and nearby construction are dangerously weakening the temples’ walls.

A city carved out of sandstone, Petra (above) is one of the most dramatic Near Eastern sites. The most imposing structures were carved by the Nabateans, an Arabic tribe that controlled caravan routes from Egypt and Arabia. Petra is built along a fault line in a narrow ravine—making the site susceptible to violent flash floods and earthquakes.

Built by the 2nd Dynasty Egyptian ruler Khasekhemwy, this so-called fort is now regarded as a mortuary temple. It is the largest freestanding unfired mudbrick structure in the world. The temple was damaged by shoddy 009excavations in the 1890s; and the current excavations at the site are weakening the structure even further.

Called “Troy in miniature” by Virgil, Butrint (above) was an important commercial city during the Greek and Roman periods. (See Judith Harris, Destinations, AO 01:02) The site remains largely unexcavated; it is severely threatened by water erosion and Albania’s political unrest.

This massive mudbrick gateway (with arches thousands of years older than anything “invented” by Rome) measures 50 feet across. It was preserved in ancient times by being buried under a huge defensive rampart built around the city. Discovered in 1979, the gateway has been only half excavated (to prevent erosion), though the exposed portions are rapidly disintegrating.

The tombs of Tutankhamun, Ramesses II and other New Kingdom pharaohs lie in the Valley of the Kings. The site is becoming increasingly damaged due to tourism. Thousands of visitors flock to the valley every year, causing moisture to build up in the tombs and erode the decorated walls.

Two hundred and fifty years of excavations have taken their toll on Pompeii. Once protected by the lava and volcanic ash that rained down from Vesuvius in 79 A.D., Pompeii is now exposed to the south Italian climate and threatened by the tens of thousands of visitors it receives each year.

Perched atop a mountain, the ritual site at Nemrud Dagûi (above) consists of a huge stone funeral barrow and colossal statues—built by King Antiochus I of the tiny kingdom of Commagene. Earthquakes, water damage and careless tourists have damaged this royal tomb complex.

Homo Anthropophagus