Fragmented, butchered, and scattered, the remains of Neanderthals found at Northern European sites have long hinted at cannibalism, but until now, no one knew who these individuals were or why they were singled out.
Now, a new multidisciplinary study may have finally cracked the mystery, revealing a chilling pattern of selective violence in ancient Europe during the waning days of the Neanderthals. The research, published in Scientific Reports, uses palaeogenetics, isotopic chemistry, and detailed bone-structure analysis to reconstruct the identities and life histories of the Goyet individuals.
What emerges is a striking demographic picture: nearly all of the cannibalized adults were female, physically smaller, and gracile compared to other Neanderthals. Additionally, all appear to have been non-locals.
Combined with evidence of systematic butchery and bone processing, the new study suggests that the Goyet remains represent one of the strongest cases yet for exocannibalism driven by conflict between Neanderthal groups.
“The overrepresentation of short, morphologically gracile, non-local females, alongside two immature individuals, suggests a strong selection bias in the individuals present at the site,” the researchers write in the new study. “Dated between 41,000 and 45,000 years ago, a period marked by Neanderthal cultural diversity, biological decline and the arrival of Homo sapiens in Northern Europe, the cannibalized female and juvenile Neanderthals from Goyet indicate exocannibalism, possibly linked to inter-group conflict, territoriality, and/or specific treatment of outsiders.”
When Neanderthal bones were first unearthed at the Goyet Caves in the late 19th century, researchers were baffled. Mixed in with piles of butchered horses and reindeer were the fragmented remains of Neanderthals, processed with the same butchery techniques used on prey. It was a disturbing discovery that would haunt the site for more than a century.
To solve the mystery, researchers combined genetic sex determinations, radiocarbon calibration, and high-resolution micro-CT analyses to build biological profiles for each individual.
They identified that the bones came from at least six Neanderthals: four adolescent or adult females and two young males—a child and a newborn infant.
The adults were unusually small, with one specimen (GN3) falling among the smallest percentage of all Neanderthals ever measured.
“All Neanderthals from Goyet present shorter estimated statures than the Neanderthal average,” the researchers write. “GN3 even falls below two standard deviations of the Neanderthal range of variation, close to the presumed female Palomas 96.”
Their limb bones, though fragmented, preserved enough structure to reveal another pattern: the women were unusually slender, even by Neanderthal standards. “The three Neanderthal femora from Goyet assessed for their structural properties exhibit gracile morphologies compared to other Neanderthal specimens,” the authors note.
This matters because lighter, less sturdy bones can reveal important things about a person’s sex, activity level, and even their role within a group. In this case, the pattern was unmistakable: every genetically identified female had the smallest and most delicate bones of all the Neanderthals studied.
Even an unsexed femoral specimen closely matched the female pattern. “The combination of a short estimated stature, gracile morphology, and structural similarity with the genetically-sexed female specimens from Goyet suggests that GN-FemIII may also belong to a female individual,” the researchers concluded.
Yet, despite isotopic signatures indicating that these individuals were non-local, they also lacked the typical skeletal hallmarks of long-distance mobility, migration, or extensive terrestrial travel.
Their bones did not reflect the repeated directional loading expected of highly mobile hunters or foragers. Instead, “the structural properties of their long bones indicate low to moderate locomotor activities, which does not support the idea of mobility behaviors having led them away from their main foraging area.”
This raises an important question: if they weren’t highly mobile travelers, how did these non-local individuals end up in Goyet?
The strongest clue comes from the bones themselves. Nearly a third of the Neanderthal specimens bear unmistakable signs of human butchery—“cutmarks in particular anatomical areas attest to practices of defleshing and disarticulation, while fresh-bone fractures and percussion notches indicate marrow extraction episodes and attempts.”
The treatment of the Neanderthal remains closely matched that of the cave’s animal bones, which included butchered horses and reindeer, showing that these were not ritual manipulations but nutritive ones.
Moreover, the demographic makeup of the cave population is so skewed that random mortality can’t explain it. A demographic simulation showed that the Goyet pattern—four adult females and two juveniles—is “statistically highly unlikely” under every natural mortality model tested.
Taken together, the evidence led the researchers to a striking conclusion: “the case of Goyet represents the most compelling evidence to date for inter-group competition among Late Pleistocene Neanderthal populations.”
Anthropologists have long observed that exocannibalism often emerges during periods of heightened conflict, when groups clash over land, resources, or dominance. The study underscores this pattern, noting that “exocannibalism is typically associated with warfare or competition between groups, involving the violent abduction of individuals from outside communities.”
If true, the Goyet victims may have been captured female Neanderthals from neighboring groups, targeted for reasons ranging from symbolic violence to undermining a rival group’s reproductive potential—a pattern also known in primate territorial aggression.
“At a minimum, it suggests that weaker members of one or multiple groups from a single neighboring region were deliberately targeted. It can also be hypothesized that this selection strategy might have aimed at undermining the reproductive potential of (a) competing group(s),” the researchers write.
While the possibility that early Homo sapiens were involved cannot be entirely dismissed. Modern humans were moving into Northern Europe around the same time. Supporting that possibility, a recent study of remains from Maszycka Cave in southern Poland found evidence that humans there engaged in a form of “warfare cannibalism” around 18,000 years ago. However, researchers say the evidence weighs more heavily toward Neanderthal-on-Neanderthal conflict.
“It is theoretically possible to suggest that the cannibalized Neanderthals at Goyet were selected by early Homo sapiens groups associated to the LRJ since the site preserves tenuous evidence of this techno-complex,” the researchers write. “[However,] we consider the hypothesis of inter-Neanderthal group behavior to be the more likely explanation for the assemblage accumulation at Goyet.”
Ultimately, the study offers a rare window into the social landscape of Europe between 41,000 and 45,000 years ago. For Neanderthals, this was a turbulent period marked by cultural diversification, population decline, and the arrival of Homo sapiens.
The findings also challenge the stereotype of Neanderthals as static or homogeneous, revealing complex dynamics of conflict, mobility, and selective violence.
More importantly, it marks the Goyet cave as a testament to the inter-group tensions that may have shaped the final chapters of Neanderthal history.
“The demographic pattern, skeletal representation, and butchery marks differ from the similarly well-documented case of endo-cannibalism at El Sidrón2,” the researchers conclude. “Instead, the case of Goyet represents the most compelling evidence to date for inter-group competition among Late Pleistocene Neanderthal populations.”
Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter: @LtTimMcMillan. Tim can be reached by email: tim@thedebrief.org or through encrypted email: LtTimMcMillan@protonmail.com