The discovery of a serial of ancient burial sites in eastern Brazil has assist to shed light on some truly blood - curdling funerary ritual that took place around 9,500 eld ago . The maimed consistency , some of which showed signs ofcannibalism , defend the early evidence of complex funerary tradition in this part of South America .
Describing their morbid discovery in the journalAntiquity , the study source let out that the bone – which were carbon 14 date to between 9,400 and 9,600 years ago – were line up at a cave called Lapa do Santo and expose signs of “ manipulation ” .
They go on to write that it seems potential that during this period , “ the reduction of the body – by mutilation , defleshing , tooth removal , pic to fire and possibly cannibalism – followed by the lower-ranking burial of the corpse according to strict rules , became a central element in the discourse of the dead . ”
In an interview withDiscovery News , study carbon monoxide gas - author André Strauss went into even more sick item , explaining that “ inhumation let in ivory with switch off and chopping marks , exposure to fire , a head buried with cut off hands and skulls in which all tooth were by design removed . ”
Fascinatingly , remains were regain to vary substantially between graves . In one down payment , os appeared to be arranged in accordance with cosmological beliefs , “ centered on a ‘ dichotomic rule ’ that was express by couple of oppositions among abstract category such as ‘ grownup ’ and ‘ sub - adult ’ , ‘ cranium ’ and ‘ post - cranium ’ , ‘ shaft ’ and ‘ extremities ’ , and ‘ teeth ’ and ‘ empty alveolus ’ . ”
A nearby grave , meanwhile , contained the remains of bodies that had apparently been leave to decompose elsewhere and only brought to Lapa do Santo for burial when they had all been crumble .
Intriguingly , these rituals seem to have died out after a while , as bodies buried between 8,200 and 8,600 years ago show no evidence of mutilation or manipulation . This , the researchers say , demonstrate that “ that the region was inhabited by dynamical groups in constant shift over a period of C . ”
