cave have long been used for funerary design in cultures from the Americas to Asia . In the Iberian Peninsula in modern - day Portugal and Spain , placing the utter in natural cave dates back to the early Neolithic earned run average . Also widespread was the manipulation of human remains within these interment caves , employ the bones to make shaft , and according to a new cogitation , turning skulls into drunkenness cups .
Archaeologists examined skeletal remains retrieve in the Cueva de los Marmoles in southerly Spain from at least 12 ancient world . They had been placed in the cave between the fifth and second hundred BCE , according to radiocarbon go out .
The team found complex funerary practices , with evidence that bones had been modified and even used as tools as well as other , from a modern perspective , macabre intention .
The markings led the team to believe the skull was used as a cup.Image credit: Z. Laffranchi and M. Milella (CC by 4.0)
" Anthropic traces on the corpse ( e.g. fresh fractures , marrow canal modifications , and skin marks ) hint at their designed fragmentation , cleaning from residual soft tissue paper , and in some cases reutilization , " the team wrote .
" These practices are well - represent by the recovery of one ' skull cup ' and of two long bone used as tools . These data point adjust with those from other cave contexts from the same geographical part , suggesting the comportment , specially during the Neolithic full stop , of shared ideologies centered on the human physical structure . "
The skull loving cup was notice with shallow scrapes , where ancient humankind had attempted to clean away the soft tissues , agree to the researchers who added , " [ T]his evidence strongly hint at the attempt to enter the marrow after crushing the long os structure . "
Though they considered an account of cannibalism , the cuts were more consistent with trying to take out soft tissue paper than abattoir , and the placement of bone suggested humanity had returned to the caves after the bodies had been place in there , to alter the bones and perhaps consume the marrow , which is nutritious .
So why did these ancient humans bury their dead in bedroom , and return to interact with the remains ? While from a innovative position , it may make horse sense to transfer the dead and keep them away from us as they break down , the source warn against attributing these motivation to the sepulture .
" The internal spatial structure of interment chambers ( megalithic or hypogeic ) and natural caves is reminiscent of the ' socially dynamic ' houses of the living , conferring to the residential district of the numb the social role of ' ancestor ' , " the team explains .
" Such cultural elements may vary , but the proximity of and interaction with the physical remains of the deceased seems a rather focal aspect of a organisation aimed at maintaining and reproducing the social order . "
The study is published inPLOS ONE .
