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A Family of Carib natives drawn from life, by Agostino Brunias. Source: Public Domain

Dark Secret of the First Native Americans to Meet Columbus (Video)

In October 1492, Christopher Columbus's encounter with the Arawak-speaking natives marked a pivotal moment in history, unveiling a complex narrative of migration and cultural exchange in the...
Scene of cannibalism based on European accounts of expeditions to the Americas from America tertia pars by Theodor de Bry, circa 1592. Source: Public domain

8 Ancient Cultures Practicing Cannibalism Through the Ages

When we think of cannibalism today it usually conjures up images of characters like Hannibal Lecter. In reality, many cultures practiced cannibalism throughout history. Therefore, while it may be a...
Human remains of bones and skulls at a traditional cannibal site.  Source: simanlaci / Adobe Stock.

Fiji’s Rampant Cannibalism for 2,500 Years Earned it the Name ‘Cannibal Isle’

Fiji , the idyllic paradise in the South Pacific, carries a dark historical secret. Long before it was renowned for its scenic beauty, early European explorers knew it as the foreboding 'Cannibal...
View of the hominin tibia from Koobi For a, with magnified area that shows cut marks that are evidence of possible prehistoric cannibalism. 	Source: Jennifer Clark/Smithsonian

Prehistoric Cannibalism Revealed? Human Relatives Butchered Each Other 1.45 Million Years Ago

A human leg bone dating back to 1.45 million years ago is marked with 11 tiny cut marks. A new study shows that while two were made by an animal, probably a lion, the remaining 9 suggest another...
What is a Wendigo? A depiction of the mythical creature of Native American legend. Source: GARETH / Adobe Stock

What is a Wendigo? The Beast with an insatiable Hunger for Human Flesh

The Wendigo is a horrifying creature of Algonquian Native American legends said to devour human flesh to survive a harsh winter. But are they only part of Native American mythology or are there...
Ancient And Modern Cannibalism: A Question Of Taste

Ancient And Modern Cannibalism: A Question Of Taste

Of all the horrible and shocking things that human beings can do to one another, nothing alarms, disgusts, terrifies – or fascinates – more than cannibalism. The subject is intriguing, in part,...
Modern day lakatoi at the Hiri Moale Festival, a modern celebration of the previous Hiri trade cycle. (Steve Jurvetson / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Oceania’s Papua New Guinea: Forged In Volcanic Fire

The Australasian realm in the Pacific Ocean includes Australia, New Zealand, eastern Indonesia, and several Pacific island groups - including Papua New Guinea – all scattered along the Ring of Fire,...
Les Cathares, painting by Bernard Romain. Source: Public Domain

The Medieval Crushing of the Cathars and Sexualizing of Witches

Many Christian writers identified the gods and lesser spirits of the Greek and Roman world with demons. This ushered in the Christian practice of demonizing those they perceived as their opponents...
Charles II had a deathbed obsession with King’s Drops, which were made using powdered human skulls. Source: papi8888 / Adobe Stock

The King’s Drops: Charles II, Powdered Skulls and a Deathbed Obsession

For all of Europe’s pretentions of progress with civil democracies and human rights, the archives are filled with anything but. From the blood of Roman gladiators being sold as a remedy for epilepsy...
The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers by Jan de Baen. (Public domain)

Johan de Witt: The Failed Politician who was Cannibalized by his Opponents

Even after a successful political career, Johan de Witt has gone down in history for having suffered one of the most bizarre assassinations in history and one of the few recorded cases of cannibalism...
Wendigos fall into the larger definition of cannibalism as they consume parts of living people.		Source: Daniel / Adobe Stock

Atypical Nourishment – Hematophagy, Cannibalism and Necrophagy

The character Renfield from Bram Stoker's “Dracula" admitted the importance of blood, saying that “The blood is the life." This idea is not new, for example, Maya kings attempted to obtain the good...
The remains of Pueblo Bonito, the largest of the Chacoan Great Houses in Chaco Canyon. Source: Viktor Posnov / Adobe Stock

The Collapse of Chaco Canyon: Recent Study Challenges Drought Theory

In the center of America’s Four Corners Region , Chaco Canyon is an arid, desolate place, sprinkled with the occasional, lonely juniper tree, cactus, or sage bush. Hundreds of mysterious, ancient...
Moai on Rapa Nui, aka Easter Island. Source: thakala /Adobe Stock

Hidden Rapa Nui: Easter Island’s Cults, Cannibals, and Cultural Connections

Two-thousand-and-two-hundred miles (3,500 km) west beyond the coast of Chile, in the dark blue belly of the southeastern Pacific Ocean, hides Easter Island. A slightly more appropriate name of this...
The Anasazi and Anakim: Nephilim Ruins and Evidence of Ritual Murder

The Anasazi and Anakim: Nephilim Ruins and Evidence of Ritual Murder

Across the ancient world, from the rocky deserts of the American West all the way to the shores of the Mediterranean, enigmatic parallels between ancient myths and archaeological sites are emerging...
Working tables of palaeontologists in a science museum, Spain.        Source: Joaquin Corbalan / Adobe Stock

A Site of Archaeological Treasure and Murder at Atapuerca, Spain

The Atapuerca archaeological site is one of the most important in Europe, if not the world as it has provided a great many relics and remains related to some of the earliest hominids yet found...
The Mutilation of Uranus by Saturn: fresco by Giorgio Vasari and Cristofano Gherardi. (1560) Sala di Cosimo I, Palazzo Vecchio (Public Domain)

The Highest Altar: Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece

In the Greek Peloponnese, high atop the summit on Arcadia’s Mount Lykaion (Wolf Mountain) lies an altar at one of the oldest and most revered of all primordial sanctuaries. Towering at nearly 5,000...
Detail of ‘Jupiter and Lycaon’ by Jan Cossiers. Source: Public Domain

King Lycaon of Arcadia – The First Werewolf?

Lycaon was a king of Arcadia mentioned in Greek mythology. He is believed to have lived in the period before the Great Deluge, and therefore was a contemporary of two other legendary kings, Deucalion...
Reproduction of a prehistoric cave painting showing hominins hunting

Million-Year-Old Cannibals Took Advantage of the Easy Calories

Research scientists have discovered that almost one million years ago an ancient human relative, Homo antecessor, ate humans “in preference” to other animals. Inhabiting hunting planes in what is...
Skull cup, found in Gough's cave, Somerset, England. About 14,700 years old, this skull bears cut marks inflicted shortly after death to remove soft tissues and shape the skull into a cup.

Human Skull ‘Cups’ and Butchered Bones Lead Archaeologists to One Conclusion – Neolithic Cannibals

Archaeologists in Spain have made a grim discovery in a deep cave in the south-west of the country. They believe that they have found the remains of some Stone Age people who were butchered and...
‘Hercules Fighting Death to Save Alcestis’ (1869-1871) by Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton. Many ancient death rituals seem very odd or macabre to modern minds.

Bizarre, Brutal, Macabre And Downright Weird Ancient Death Rituals

Any parent must agree that one of the greatest hardships experienced around the death of a family member is having to explain to children what happened and what happens next? Should you tell them the...
A Fore tribesman of Papua New Guinea holding a skull

Diet of human brains helped Papua New Guinea tribe to resist disease

The investigation of a Papua New Guinea tribe, formerly infamous for eating human brains as part of their elaborate funerary rights, has provided insights into the development of mad cow disease and...
Hyena and Neanderthal teeth on hyena background.

Were Cannibal Leftovers Really Swallowed by an Ancient Hyena?

About 65,000 years ago, a large carnivore, probably a hyena, consumed someone’s face, new scientific data published this week has proven. And, according to the scientists who made this discovery,...
Cannibal feast on the Island of Tanna, New Hebrides by Charles E. Gordon Frazer (1863-1899).

Our Ancestors Were Cannibals – and Probably Not Because They Needed the Calories

James Cole / The Conversation In the recently released horror movie Raw , a lifelong vegetarian teenager arrives at a veterinary school and, after being forced to consume a rabbit kidney at a student...
Evidence of Gruesome 9,500-Year-Old Funerary Rites Found in Brazil

Evidence of Gruesome 9,500-Year-Old Funerary Rites Found in Brazil

Evidence of complex and gruesome funeral rites found in the Lapa do Santo cave in Brazil have shocked researchers yet again. The researchers have discovered evidence of the mutilation of corpses,...

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