Dirt After Dark: Yes We Cannibal!

This month, we're sinking our teeth into a topic sufficiently spooky for Halloween: cannibalism! What makes a person eat a person? How can archaeologists tell whether a person was cannibalized? Where has evidence of cannibalism been found? Why does Amber sound suspiciously enthusiastic about this topic? All this and more! 

To learn even more about this topic, check out the following sources:

Elizabeth Carter, "On Human and Animal Sacrifice in the Late Neolithic at Domuztepe" in Sacred Killing: The Archaeology of Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East (ed. A. Porter and G. Schwartz; Eisenbrauns 2012) via Academia.edu 

Neandertal cannibalism and Neandertal bones used as tools in Northern Europe (Nature)

Evidence of Cannibalism: Did Neanderthals Eat Each Other? (Live Science)

The caves that prove Neanderthals were cannibals (Phys.org)

And, for those especially interested, behold! The bibliography of Amber's junior-year term paper, "Cannibals or Can'tibals? Recognizing Taphonomic Signatures of Human Bone Processing" is as follows: 

Arens, W. (1979). The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy. New York: Oxford University Press.

Binford, L.R. (1981). Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths. New York, NY: Academic Press.

Branigan, K. (1982). The unacceptable face of Minoan Crete? Nature, 299, 201-202.

Campbell, S. (1999). Domuztepe 1999. Anatolian Archaeology, 5, 2-4.

Chamberlain, A. (1994). Human Remains. Berkeley: University of California Press. 

DeGusta, D. (1999). Fijian Cannibalism: Osteological Evidence from Navatu. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 110, 215-241.

Fiorillo, A.R. (1989). An Experimental Study of Trampling. In R. Bonnischen (Ed.), Bone Modification (pp. 61-72). Orono, ME: University of Maine Institute for Quaternary Studies.

Flinn, L., Turner, C., Brew, A. (1976) Additional Evidence for Cannibalism in the Southwest: The Case of LA 4528. American Antiquity, 41(3), 308-318.

Kansa, S. and Campbell, S. (2003). Feasting With the Dead?—A ritual bone deposit at Domuztepe, south eastern Turkey (c.5550 BC). In O’Day, S. et al (Ed.), Proceedings of the 9th ICAZ Conference, Durham 2002, Vol I: Behavior Behind Bones (pp. 2-13). Oxford, UK: Oxbow Books.

Marlar, R., Leonard, B., Billman, B., Lambert, P., Marlar, J. (2000). Biochemical evidence of cannibalism at a prehistoric Puebloan site in southwestern Colorado. Nature, 407, 74-78.

Pearson, M.P. (1999). The Archaeology of Death and Burial. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.

Sagan, E. (1974). Cannibalism: human aggression and cultural form. New York, NY: Psychohistory Press. 

Stodder, A. (2005). The Bioarchaeology and Taphonomy of Mortuary Ritual on the Sepik Coast, Papua New Guinea. In G. Rakita et al (Ed.), Interacting with the Dead: Perspectives on Mortuary Archaeology for the New Millennium (pp. 228-250). Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press.

Turner, C. (1983). Taphonomic Reconstruction of Human Violence and Cannibalism Based on Mass Burials in the American Southwest. In G.M. Lemoine and A.S. MacEachern (Ed.), Carnivores, Human Scavengers, and Predators: A Question of Technology (pp. 219-240). Calgary, Canada: Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary.

Turner, C. and Turner, J. (1999). Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence in the Prehistoric American Southwest. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press.

Verano, J. (2005). Human Sacrifice and Postmortem Modification at the Pyramid of the Moon, Moche Valley, Peru. . In G. Rakita et al (Ed.), Interacting with the Dead: Perspectives on Mortuary Archaeology for the New Millennium (pp. 277-289). Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press.

Villa, P. (1992). Cannibalism in Prehistoric Europe. Evolutionary Anthropology, 1(3), 93-104.

Warren, P. (1984). Knossos: New Excavations and Discoveries. Archaeology, 37(4), 48-55.