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The grisly riddle of the 9,000-year-old decapitation: Skull found with amputated hands had its flesh removed during ancient ritual

The decapitated skull was found in a cave in Lagoa Santa in Brazil
Analysis suggests the skull belonged to a young man and lived in the cave
Cut marks suggest the head was forcibly removed and had its flesh cut off
Scientists said the find could provide insights into the origins of decapitation practices used by native groups in South and North America

Published: 05:32 EST, 24 September 2015 | Updated: 07:13 EST, 24 September 2015

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Even for anthropologists that are well used to digging up the remains of human bodies, this latest discovery is particularly grisly.

Scientists have discovered what is believed to be the oldest case of a ritual beheading ever found in the Americas.

The 9,000-year-old decapitated skull was unearthed, with a pair of amputated hands placed in opposite directions over the face, and cut marks suggest the flesh had been removed.

Anthropologists were shocked to discover a 9,000-year-old decapitated skull with the victim's amputated hands placed carefully over their face (pictured right). The discovery was made in a shallow pit (left) beneath a limestone slab in a cave once used by prehistoric hunter gatherers in Lagoa Santa in east-central Brazil

It was found in a cave called Lapa do Santo, in Lagoa Santa, east-central Brazil.

Researchers believe the decapitated head may provide clues about the origins of decapitation practices that later became widespread throughout South America.

The Tupinamba from Brazil were famed for collecting heads as war trophies, for example, while the Arara Indians used the heads of defeated enemies as musical instruments.

Elsewhere, for the Chmiu culture in Peru decapitation was used during human sacrifices.

PREHISTORIC MAN WAS A CANNIBAL

Prehistoric humans living in a cave 14,700 years ago were cannibals and made cups from the skulls of the dead, a new study has found.

Researchers at the Natural History Museum in London and University College London found evidence that the human bones found in Gough's Cave in Somerset had the flesh cut from them before being chewed and crushed.

They found tooth marks on many of the bones, which were discovered in the cave during excavations between 1880 and 1992.

Human skulls found in the cave had also been extensively shaped to create cups or bowls.

The archaeologists behind the study say the findings suggest people living in the late Ice Age indulged in ritual cannibalism, perhaps as a macabre way to revere their dead kin.

There is also evidence that early humans living in Germany 7,000 years ago may have indulged in mass cannibalism.

Analysis of the decapitated skull has revealed that it belonged to a young man who was member of the group of humans who inhabited the cave, rather than a defeated enemy.

The careful positioning of the hands and skull also suggest the disembodiment was carried out as a part of a ritual or ceremony.

Tiny cut marks on the skull suggest the soft tissue around the skull was additionally cut away before it was buried.

However, researchers are baffled about why this beheading took place, although they believe the head may have been removed after the man had died.

Dr André Strauss, the lead author of the study at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said: 'This ritualised decapitation attests to the early sophistication of mortuary rituals among hunter-gatherers in the Americas.

'Moreover, the finding from Lapa do Santo doubles the chronological depth of the practice of decapitation in South America.

'Geographically, it expands the known range of decapitation in more than 1,240 miles (2,000km), showing that during the early Holocene this was not a phenomenon restricted to the western part of the continent as previously assumed.'

The amputated hands were found to have been laid over the face in opposite directions. Part of the vertebrae was also found still attached and had been rotated, indicating it had been pulled as it was cut from the body. The illustration above summarises the cut marks and position of the bones as they were discovered

Cut marks on the skull and part of the spine (pictured) found with the skull indicate the head was forcefully removed and then the flesh was cut away, suggesting it was part of a ritual decapitation

Previously, the oldest known case of decapitation in South America occurred in the Peruvian Andes, dating to around 3,000 years ago.

The oldest known case in North America was found in Florida and is around 6,990 to 8,120 years old.

Lapa do Santo is thought to have been occupied by humans up to 12,000 years ago.

Stone tools and animal bones found in the region suggested prehistoric hunter-gatherers used the site for some time.

In 2007, anthropologists discovered the disembodied skull and jaw, together with the first six vertebrae of the neck and two severed hands in a pit just below the surface of the cave.

They had been covered with limestone slabs, suggesting they had been carefully buried.

The remains were found in a cave called Lapa do Santo, in Lagoa Santa, east-central Brazil (marked). It is thought to have been used by prehistoric humans up to 12,000 years ago

Stone tools and animal bones found in the region suggested prehistoric hunter-gatherers used the site for some time. The entrance to the Lapa do Santo cave is pictured

The hands had been cut from the rest of the body and placed palm sized down over the face, with the left hand pointing upwards on the right side of the face and the right hand pointing down on the left side of the face.

Dr Domingo Carlos Salazar-Gárcia, another of the researchers involved in the study at the Max Planck Instiute for Evolutionary Anthropology, said the decapitation appears not to have been a violent act.

'The chemical analysis of strontium isotopes done in this study indicates that the decapitated individual was not an outsider to the group,' he said.

'Therefore, it was probably not a defeated enemy but instead a member of the community'.

The skull (pictured in the cave) was unlike any other burial found in the cave and suggests that burial practices among these prehistoric humans were more complex than had originally been believed

Cut marks found on the jawbone and around the skull suggest the soft tissue had been carefully removed from them before being buried. This suggests the person had not been violently killed

The skull (pictured) showed no drill holes or other signs of damage which would suggest it had been used as a war trophy of some kind. Instead researchers said it was perhaps part of the group's burial rituals

The way the remains had been arranged contrasts dramatically with other burials discovered in the Lagoa Santa area, which have been relatively simple.

Writing in the journal Public Library of Science One, the researchers said the discovery suggests these early human inhabitants of South America had quite complex burial rituals.

They said: 'At Lapa do Santo, neither drill holes nor an enlargement of the foramen magnum were observed in the skull, making it unlikely that this was a trophy head.

'The ritualised decapitation of Burial 26 was not a violent act against the enemy but instead part of a broader set of mortuary rituals involving a strong component of manipulation of the body.

'The careful arrangement of the hands over the face is compatible with an important public display component in the ritual that could have worked to enhance social cohesion within the community.

'In the apparent absence of wealth goods or elaborate architecture, Lagoa Santa's inhabitants seemed to be using the human body to reify and express their cosmological principles concerning death.'