Overview
- The peer-reviewed research, published in Scientific Reports, dates the Goyet assemblage to roughly 41,000–45,000 years ago and identifies the largest known cache of cannibalized Neanderthal remains in northern Europe.
- Genetic analyses indicate a minimum of six individuals, including four adult or adolescent females, a child, and a newborn male, with butchery traces absent only on the infant.
- Isotopic data show the victims were not from the local group, supporting an exocannibalism scenario in which outsiders were consumed.
- Taphonomic signatures such as fresh fracturing and percussion marks match treatment seen on hunted animal bones, pointing to food processing rather than ritual activity.
- Morphological assessments suggest the processed individuals were short and gracile, and the authors propose the episode reflects inter-group tensions potentially heightened by the arrival of Homo sapiens, a link they present as interpretive.