考古學家稱食人在遠古並不罕見 幼童腦髓被當做營養佳品

Digging around in a Spanish cave called Gran Dolina, archaeologists have found butchered humans' fossilized bones. Researchers say the bones show that cave dwellers skinned, decapitated, and enjoyed other early humans, before throwing their remains into a heap with animals bones from other meals.
在西班牙格蘭多利納洞穴發掘時，考古學家日前發現了古人被屠殺後遺留下來的骨頭化石。研究人員稱這些化石表明，遠古時期的穴居人類不僅剝同伴的皮、屠殺同伴，甚至還食用同伴的身體器官，最後將屍體遺棄在他們吃過的動物骨頭堆裏。

The study says the 800,000-year-old Homo antecessor bones could indicate the most "ancient cultural cannibalism … known until now." Adding to the nightmare: The hungry cavemen had a penchant for kids, since the 11 cannibalized humans uncovered were all youngsters. They speculate that the kiddos were easier to catch, and eating them was a good way to stop competitors from building their families.
研究表明，這些生活80萬年前的人類祖先的屍骨揭示了最爲“古老的食人文明”。更恐怖的是：飢餓的洞穴古人對食用小孩有強烈的偏好，因爲科學家發現11具被食用過的屍體骨頭都是屬於小孩的。科學家猜測這是因爲小孩更容易被抓到，而且吃了對手的孩子可以防止對手繁衍壯大。

Study coauthor José María Bermúdez de Castro, of the National Research Center on Human Evolution, said that marks near the base of some skulls hint that the diners decapitated humans to get the brain goodness inside. "Probably then they cut the skull for extracting the brain…. The brain is good for food."
西班牙“國家人類進化研究中心”研究人員之一的卡斯特羅稱頭顱底部的刻紋顯示這些人曾經被割去了頭顱以便食人者從中取得營養骨髓。“也許他們當時是爲了人腦才砍頭。人腦是相當好的食物。”

The researchers believe that eating other humans wasn't a big deal back then, and probably wasn't linked to religious rituals or marked by elaborate ceremonies. They draw that conclusion from the fact that butchered human bones were tossed in the scrap heap along with animal remains.
研究人員認爲遠古時代食人並不是什麼嚴重的事情，而且很可能不具有宗教意義。他們之所以得出這個結論，是因爲人類骸骨與動物殘骸被丟在了一起。

There is some debate as to how frequently human was on the menu, but these researchers note that the Sierra de Atapuerca region had a great climate and that cannibalism didn't likely result from a lack of alternatives.
也有人指出，同類相食並不常見，除非飢餓難耐。但研究人員稱格蘭多利納洞穴附近區域氣候適宜，食物資源豐富，所以遠古人類不太可能因爲缺少選擇而去食用同類。