Say what you will about the body modification trend of the 21st century, but our prehistoric ancestors did numbers on their digits.
Palaeolithic-era men and women in Western Europe may have cut off their own fingers as part of a religious ritual, according to researchers.
Evidence? Hundreds of cave paintings depict hands missing at least part of their phalanges.
“There is strong evidence that these people may have deliberately cut off their fingers in rituals aimed at seeking help from supernatural entities,” archeology professor Mark Collard of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver told The Guardian.
Collard recently presented a paper on his long-peddling theory of self-mutilation at the European Society for Human Evolution, pointing to 25,000-year-old hand paintings in France and Spain.
At least one finger is missing out of every 200 prints. Some only parted with the upper segment, while others lost some.
Collard’s presentation builds on his original idea — published in a 2018 study — that our prehistoric ancestors deliberately cut themselves to appease the gods.
There are hundreds of cave paintings that show at least one severed finger. Patrick Aventurier/SIPA
As evidence, he and his Ph.D. student Brea McCauley points to 100 other ancient societies where people practiced finger amputation and remembered their lives with hand-printed drawings and stencils.
“This practice was clearly created independently multiple times,” they state in the paper. “And it’s involved in some recent hunter-gatherer societies, so it’s very possible that groups in Gargas and other caves are involved in that practice.”
Scientists have previously theorized the amputation may reflect the use of sign language or a counting system, while others have suggested it may have been caused by frostbite or that painters simply bent their fingers to create the illusion.
Collard and McCauley argue that finger amputation was not the only form of self-mutilation practiced by ancient societies – even some modern societies.
Other communities turned to fire walking, piercing the face with skewers and putting hooks through the skin so that one could haul heavy chains on their back, all of which achieved similar ritual goals.
They also point to the Dani women of the New Guinea Highlands, who continue to this day to cut off their fingers to mark the death of a loved one.
Some societies continue to cut themselves as a form of cultural practice. Getty Images
“The vast majority of society encourages finger amputation today and has done so throughout history,” he told the outlet.
“We believe that Europeans did the same thing in the paleolithic, although the exact belief systems involved may have been different. This was a practice that was not necessarily routine but has occurred at various times through history, we believe.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
