Canadian scientists say evidence from cave art all over the world shows digits may have been ritually removed to appease deities or aid social cohesion

Men and women might have had their fingers deliberately chopped off during religious rituals in prehistoric times, according to a new interpretation of palaeolithic cave art.

In a paper presented at a recent meeting of the European Society for Human Evolution, researchers point to 25,000-year-old paintings in France and Spain that depict silhouettes of hands. On more than 200 of these prints, the hands lack at least one digit. In some cases, only a single upper segment is missing; in others, several fingers are gone.

In the past, this absence of digits was attributed to artistic licence by the cave-painting creators or to ancient people’s real-life medical problems, including frostbite.

But scientists led by archaeologist Prof Mark Collard of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver say the truth may be far more gruesome. “There is compelling evidence that these people may have had their fingers amputated deliberately in rituals intended to elicit help from supernatural entities,” said Collard.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    11 months ago

    OR - now bear with me here… OR one or more fingers were curled under when the tracing was made for reasons we can’t comprehend.

    Maybe it was some ancient numbering system, or an attempt at a calendar. There’s really no way to know.