Spanish scientists have found the oldest known evidence of human cannibalism in Europe, dating back 1.3 million years, press reports said Thursday, according to dpa. An arm bone found at the archaeological site of Atapuerca in northern Spain shows traces of a stone tool which appears to have been used to cut flesh and to get to the bone marrow. The Atapuerca area is known as having been inhabited by the oldest known Western European human species, the Homo Antecessor. The new evidence pointed to cannibalism having been practised in Europe half a million years earlier than had hitherto been believed. Humans living in the Atapuerca area probably fought over territory, and ate the enemies they killed, the daily El Mundo quoted investigators as saying. The Homo Antecessor lived before the Neanderthals and modern man, and could have a relation with both species.
