Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric PeoplesNadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
History
Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples
Nadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
Archaeology; Prehistoric peoples
Dr. Spring noticed at Chauvaux a great many bones which were nearly all
those of women and children, side by side with which lay others of
ruminants belonging to species still extant. All these bones bad alike
been subjected to great heat, and none but those which bad contained no
marrow were left unbroken. This appears an incontrovertible proof of
cannibalism, and Dr. Spring concludes that it was certainly practised
by the earliest inhabitants of Belgium. We must add, however, that
other excavations in the same cave at Chauvaux prove that it was used
as a burial-place, some skeletons being ranged in regular order with
weapons and stone implements placed beside them.4 M. Dupont mentions
having found in the caves of the Lesse, which date from the Reindeer
period, human bones mixed with other remains of a meal. He notes a
similar fact in another cave that he considers belongs to Neolithic
times. “But,” he adds, “none of these bones bear any trace of having
been struck with a flint or other tool with a view to their fracture.
If any of them are broken it is transversely, and the cause of the
fracture has been merely the weight of the earth above them; moreover,
they show no trace of the action of fire.”5 M. Dupont, therefore, still
retains some doubt of the cannibalism of the cave-men of the valley of
the Lesse, and attributes the presence of the bones of the dead amongst
the rubbish of all kinds accumulated by the living, to their idleness
and indifference. One example at the present day tends to confirm this
opinion, for travellers tell us of the same revolting carelessness
amongst the Esquimaux, who cannot certainly be classed amongst
cannibals.
The Abbé Chierici, speaking at the Brussels Congress6 of the
excavations in one of the Reggio caves, remarked that human bones were
mixed with those of animals, and that both showed traces of having been
burnt. These bones date from the Neolithic period, and with them were
picked up various objects of remarkable workmanship, including
fragments of pottery, half a grindstone for crushing grain, and some
admirably polished serpentine hatchets.
Other facts leave no doubt of the cannibalism of the earliest
inhabitants of Italy. Moreover, hesitation on this point is impossible
for other reasons, as Roman historians allude to the practice. Pliny,7
in saying how little removed was a human sacrifice from a meal, adds,
that it ought not to surprise us to meet with this monstrous custom
amongst barbarian races, as it prevailed in ancient times in Italy and
Sicily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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