• Scientists have discovered the oldest evidence of human cannibalism in the western European Mediterranean region, by analysing 10,000-year-old bones with scratch and bite marks on them.
• The bones, discovered in the Santa Maria Caves in Spain, belong to the Mesolithic period, researchers said.
• The Mesolithic period lasts from about 10,200 to 8,000 years ago.
• The human bones were an accidental find, said study lead researcher Juan Morales-Perez, a researcher at the University of Valencia in Spain.
• Researchers eventually discovered 30 bones belonging to three individuals: a robust adult, a gracile adult and an infant, ‘Live Science’ reported.
• However, the infant had only one complete bone (a shoulder blade) that did not show signs of cannibalism, the researchers said.
• The bones date to between 10,200 and 9,000 years ago
• The last of the hunter-gatherer communities lived during this time, and evidence suggests that their culture was more organized and complex than it was during the Paleolithic period.

Source: Indian Express