New details of human skulls used as ritualistic bowls are coming to light . Found across prehistorical Europe , graze from the Upper Paleolithic to the Bronze Age ( roughly 20,000 to 4,000 years ago ) , researchers call back the skulls were just a by-product of cannibalism , but now there may be more to the story .
As report in theJournal of Archeological Science , the investigator look at fossils from fives sites across continental Europe , including two location in Spain , Britain , France , and Germany . These cannibalized human skulls picture vestige of precise butchering – marks that were likely make by the scalping , defleshing , and dismembering of the victim ’s headland .
At first , the investigator believed the skull were broken so that the head could be eaten . However , the bones were crack in such a way that only the thick part of the cranial burial vault remained . This fact commingle with the grounds that the skull were comprehensively scrap of any trace of muscle tissue and skin suggest their goal was to create containers or vessel of some kind , after having removed the mental capacity and meat to flow on .
“ A taxonomic intervention has been identified for the manufacturing of the skull cupful , " write the the team . " This outgrowth begins with the dismemberment of the skull or with the removal of the scalp , resulting in heavy and parallel slice marks generated on the upper part of the skull , and continues with the removal of the muscle , characterize by groups of shorter reduce cross located near the muscle bundles . Finally , this process ends with a careful breaking of the skulls in rescript to preserve the cranial vault . "
The function of these skull cupful stay somewhat of a closed book . In some ancient smart set , decapitated heads were warfare trophies . Some were also used as masks , and there were impression that skulls have powers or life sentence force . The vessels might have been used for ritual practices . We roll in the hay that they were associated with acts of human cannibalism but not much more is make love .
Not only isthe temporal and geographical spreadof the skull cups telling , but the care take to make them paint a picture these target were important artifacts in our prehistoric past .
