Say what you want about 21st century body modification trends, but our prehistoric ancestors made numbers on their fingers.
According to researchers, men and women of the Paleolithic era in Western Europe may have cut off their fingers as part of religious rituals.
The proof? Hundreds of cave paintings depict hands with at least part of their phalanges missing.
“There is compelling evidence that these people may have had their fingers deliberately amputated in rituals intended to obtain help from supernatural entities,” archaeologist Professor Mark Collard of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver told The Guardian.
Collard recently presented a paper on his widely held theory of self-mutilation at the European Society for Human Evolution, pointing to 25,000-year-old hand paintings in France and Spain.
Each of the 200 prints was missing at least one finger. Some only parted with one top segment, while others lost several.
Collard’s presentation was based on his original idea, published in a 2018 study, that our prehistoric ancestors intentionally amputated to appease deities.
There are hundreds of cave paintings showing at least one amputated finger. Patricio Aventurier/SIPA
As proof, he and Ph.D. Student Brea McCauley pointed to 100 other ancient societies where people practiced finger amputation and commemorated their lives with hand-made engravings and paintings.
“This practice was clearly invented independently several times,” they state in the article. “And some recent hunter-gatherer societies practiced it, so it’s very possible that the Gargas groups and the other caves were engaged in this practice.”
Scientists previously theorized that the amputations could have reflected the use of sign language or a counting system, while others suggested it could have been caused by frostbite or that the painters simply bent their fingers to create an illusion.
Collard and McCauley argued that finger amputation is not the only form of self-mutilation practiced by ancient (and even some modern) societies.
Other communities resorted to walking on fire, piercing their faces with skewers, and piercing the skin with hooks so that a person could drag heavy chains behind them, all of which achieved similar ritual goals.
They also pointed to the Dani women of the New Guinea highlands, who to this day continue to cut off their fingers to symbolize the death of a loved one.
Some societies continue to amputate themselves as a form of cultural practice. fake images
“Many societies today encourage cutting off fingers and have done so throughout history,” he told the outlet.
“We think Europeans did the same sorts of things in the Paleolithic, although the precise belief systems involved may have been different. “This is a practice that was not necessarily routine, but we believe it has occurred at various times throughout history.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn