Multiphase human cannibalism in Neolithic southern Iberia: Chronological and taphonomic evidence from Malalmuerzo, Carigüela, and Majolicas Caves

Human cannibalism is a behaviour with diverse social and symbolic meanings. Although it has been the focus of much interest, it remains difficult to investigate. The southern Iberian Peninsula is a key region for research into this behaviour, as remains from several classic Neolithic sites, such as Malalmuerzo, Carigüela and Majolicas Caves (Granada, Spain), have long been cited as examples of cannibalism. However, the human remains recovered from these sites lack direct radiocarbon dates and standardized taphonomic studies. To clarify the nature, timing and variability of these practices, we combined standardized taphonomic and demographic analyses with AMS radiocarbon dating of selected individuals from all three assemblages. Remains from all three sites exhibit signs of systematic perimortem manipulation compatible with cannibalism, including cut marks related to the butchery of corpses, deliberate cranial breakage, marrow extraction, boiling and human tooth marks. However, each assemblage presents specific taphonomic and chronological signatures. Malalmuerzo Cave shows a life-like demographic profile, evidence of blunt-force cranial trauma and tightly clustered Early Neolithic dates (∼5300–4950 cal BC), consistent with a short, concentrated episode that may have involved interpersonal violence. Carigüela Cave documents repeated body processing, including skull-cup manufacture, within a depositional sequence spanning different phases of the Neolithic. Two radiocarbon dates suggest recurrence, whereas a third, markedly older determination remains difficult to interpret. Majolicas Cave, dated to the Late Neolithic (∼3950–3760 cal BC), shows a less intensive long-bone fragmentation pattern together with cinnabar-stained human remains. Taken together, these data indicate that Neolithic cannibalism in the southern Iberian Peninsula was neither uniform nor synchronous but expressed through recurrent and context-dependent episodes of human body processing.