Latest news with #cannibalism
The Independent
a day ago
- Science
- The Independent
New bone discovery leads to gruesome revelation
Decapitated remains of an infant, dated to 850,000 years ago, were discovered at the Gran Dolina archaeological site in Burgos, Spain. The child 's vertebra shows clear cut marks and defleshing, consistent with intentional decapitation and processing like prey, indicating cannibalism. This discovery, attributed to the human ancestor species Homo antecessor, may represent the earliest evidence of cannibalism in Europe. Archaeologists from IPHES state that the precision of the cuts suggests a systematic practice of human meat consumption by this ancient species. The findings hint at early humans exploiting their peers for food or territorial control, with researchers expecting more human remains in unexcavated layers.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Toddler bone remains may be earliest evidence of cannibalism in Europe
The decapitated remains of an infant discovered at the Gran Dolina archaeological site in Burgos, Spain, may be the earliest evidence of cannibalism in Europe. The child's vertebra, dated to 850,000 years ago, clearly shows cut marks consistent with intentional decapitation, hinting the ancient human was cannibalised, researchers from the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution, or IPHES, say. The vertebra was unearthed at the Unesco World Heritage site along with 10 other remains, all attributed to the human ancestor species Homo antecessor. The site's sediments have been divided into 11 strata from TD-1 to TD-11, with excavations at the TD-6 level unravelling over 160 bone fragments of at least 11 human ancestor species from 850,000 to 780,000 years ago. In the latest dig, scientists found defleshing marks and intentional fractures on the infant's remains, typical indicators of meat exploitation similar to those found on animal bones consumed by the same ancient human species. The child was likely between 2 and 5 years old when they died, scientists say. 'This case is particularly striking, not only because of the child's age, but also due to the precision of the cut marks,' said archaeologist Palmira Saladié from IPHES. 'The vertebra presents clear incisions at key anatomical points for disarticulating the head. It is direct evidence that the child was processed like any other prey.' The world's first known case of human cannibalism was found 30 years ago. 'What we are documenting now is the continuity of that behaviour: the treatment of the dead was not exceptional, but repeated,' Dr Saladié, specialist in prehistoric cannibalism, said. The latest findings point to a systematic process of human meat consumption by Homo antecessor who may have been ancestors of Homo heidelbergensis, who in turn gave rise to the Neanderthals, researchers say. They also hint at early humans likely exploiting their peers as a food resource and perhaps also as a means of territorial control. In the Gran Dolina cave section where the child's remains were found, scientists also discovered fossilised hyena excretion, pointing to an alternating occupation of the site by carnivores and humans. Researchers suspect more human remains may lie undiscovered in the unexcavated layers of the cave. 'Every year we uncover new evidence that forces us to rethink how they lived, how they died, and how the dead were treated nearly a million years ago,' Dr Saladié said.
CTV News
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
‘Incredibly ambitious and probably really stupid': R.T. Thorne's sci-fi debut '40 Acres'
Danielle Deadwyler as Hailey Freeman in "40 Acres" is seen in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Rafy, courtesy of Mongrel Media (Mandatory Credit) TORONTO — R.T. Thorne says he could have played it safe with his debut feature. Instead, he swung for the fences, writing an epic sci-fi thriller about generational trauma, cannibalism and humanity's connection with land — all set in what he calls 'a post-apocalyptic world where the stakes are at the absolute highest.' 'For my first film, it was incredibly ambitious and probably really stupid to write something like that,' the Calgary-born writer-director laughs in a recent video call from Toronto. '40 Acres,' out Friday, centres on a Black-Indigenous family in a famine-stricken future where a fungal pandemic has wiped out all animal life on the planet. When a marauding group of cannibals closes in on their farm, ex-military matriarch Hailey Freeman, played by Danielle Deadwyler, clashes with her son Manny, played by Toronto's Kataem O'Connor, over the best way to survive a world in ruins. Deadwyler says she was drawn to the film's historical context — the Freemans are the last descendants of a Black family of farmers who settled in Canada after the U.S. Civil War. 'The connection between the American and Canadian history of folks getting to this northern liberated land, it was very much on my mind,' the Atlanta native says in a recent video call Los Angeles. 'You can talk about the Underground Railroad for sure — there were people escaping who got (to Canada) and established themselves. When we think about Hailey, she is coming from a place where she understands the century-plus-long history of her family on the land that they are fighting for.' Michael Greyeyes, who plays Hailey's partner Galen, considers '40 Acres' an 'Indigenous rights film' because it centres on people fighting to stay on their land. 'If you look at the world in general, colonialism, empire and taking land away from Indigenous populations is an ongoing threat,' says the actor from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, reached by Zoom in Winnipeg. 'Our film actually states that the land belongs to the caretakers and that we resist empire and we resist encroachment.' Thorne says the earliest seeds of the film were planted in something more intimate: a desire to channel his relationship with his mother. 'She ran a strict household. I grew up with somebody who was so concerned and so vital in teaching me how to move in the world and what she felt was important in the world,' he recalls. Thorne got his start directing music videos for artists including Sean Paul and Keshia Chanté before creating the 2020 sci-fi series 'Utopia Falls' and helming the 2022 period drama 'The Porter,' both of which aired on CBC. With '40 Acres,' he set out to explore 'the universal generational conflict that happens in every family: the parents think they know what it is and as the young people grow up, they want freedom.' But as a self-described 'dreamer,' his ambitions quickly grew, envisioning a do-or-die sci-fi future where that family tension could play out on a much larger canvas. Originally conceived seven years ago as a microbudget project through Telefilm's Talent to Watch program, the Sudbury, Ont.-shot film expanded in scale and scope to match Thorne's creative vision. There were some growing pains. Just after the film's premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, the union representing crew members on the shoot issued a statement saying they were 'profoundly disappointed' that some crew and vendors had yet to be fully paid for their work on the production. IATSE — which represents behind-the-scenes workers across film, TV and theatre — says all outstanding payments have since been made. At a public event in Toronto last week, '40 Acres' producer Jennifer Holness addressed the situation by saying that just before filming began in fall 2023, a U.S. distributor that promised a minimum guarantee asked for script changes that would have 'damaged the film and our vision.' Holness said the team chose to walk away, leaving the production '$2 million in the hole.' With an initial $8 million budget — including $3.2 million in public funding from Telefilm — Holness said the production became a week-to-week financial struggle. 'Every single week after the third week of production, we were in a situation of, 'How do we get to the end of the week and pay everyone?'' she said. 'We did 12 weeks up there, and we paid our crew every single week on time. We, the producers, had to come together and invest in the film ourselves. It was a journey. It was an incredibly stressful journey.' The film was picked up by U.S. distributor Magnolia earlier this year and heads to screens across North America this week. Thorne says all payment issues have been resolved and commends Holness for 'steadying the ship.' He adds there are many issues that occur during productions that people don't know about. 'You're always almost falling over to get it to the screen. The thing that I will say is that you come together as a community and you try to fix the mistakes and issues that you have and you make sure that people feel taken care of,' he says. 'And then you come out successful at the end when you do it. And the films that don't, you don't hear about them.' Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'40 Acres' Review: Danielle Deadwyler Protects Her Farm in a Dystopian Home Invasion Saga
In a crushing blow to anyone who claims they'd rather be dead than vegan, a fungal plague wiped out animal life on planet earth 14 years ago. The natural disaster effectively wiped out thousands of years of human economic development, turning us back into an agrarian society overnight. Land has become the most important resource on planet Earth, and anyone who owns their own farm is both blessed with the resources they need to survive and burdened by the knowledge that people are trying to kill them at all times. And because people still need protein, cannibalism is making a regrettable comeback. So begins '40 Acres,' a dystopian home invasion saga anchored by a phenomenally grizzled Movie Star Performance from Danielle Deadwyler. The actress stars as Hailey Freeman, a former soldier who runs a family farm and is all too aware of the kinds of people who would love to take it from her. Even in a world that's now firmly focused on the bottom level of Maslow's pyramid, Hailey is determined to make sure her son Emanuel (Kataem O'Connor) and stepdaughter Raine (Leenah Robinson) have some semblance of a humanities education. In addition to all the farming and self-defense lessons, she makes them read the classics and assigns book reports for good measure. More from IndieWire You Can Now Buy Tickets for Angel Studios' Founding Father Biopic 'Young Washington' Before It's Even Shot Brad Pitt Says His Generation of Actors Were 'More Uptight': 'You Didn't Sell Out' with Franchises Her rigid discipline has created the closest thing that you can find to a conventional nuclear family under such dire circumstances, but it's all predicated on her having complete control over everyone. And children don't stay young forever. The danger has only increased as of late, with an influx in cannibals infiltrating farms posing as soldiers making routine inspections. That has led Hailey to tighten her grip on her children at the very moment when the teenage Emanuel is starting to crave independence. The situation comes to a head when a new girl (Milcania Diaz-Rojas) appears in the forest. Emanuel's desire to protect her clashes with Hailey's military mom instincts, leading to a collision that forces everyone to consider how much safety is worth giving up for freedom and vice versa. '40 Acres' marks the feature debut of R.T. Thorne, who has found plenty of success directing TV episodes and music videos over the past two decades. The film benefits from his steady visual hand, with elegantly composed shots of swooping landscapes and hard-won food that illustrate just how inseparable this dystopian society is from the farmland that these characters are willing to die for. Thorne also knows exactly how to shoot his leading lady, framing Deadwyler's militant Hailey with the imposing gravitas the character deserves as she rules with an iron fist in order to shield her children from outside horrors. The strong visual language elevates the film over plenty of other limited-location dystopian survival stories that have come and gone over the years — a good thing, since this is one of the few that actually has something to say. You don't have to look too hard to see the sci-fi film's overt engagement with American history. It takes its title from the infamous broken promise that every freed slave would receive 40 acres and a mule to rebuild their lives during Reconstruction, and follows a Black woman named Freeman who owns her own farm. Natural disasters that wipe out civilization as we know it and turn everyone into cannibals have a funny way of making us forget about the past in favor of more timely concerns, so Thorne's decision to essentially reboot history gives him a largely blank canvas that's unburdened by what came before. But in this new world, just like the last one, land ownership continues to be the most valuable currency around which all other economic relationships are formed. By turning the tables and making a Black woman the landowner, the filmmaker manages to both subvert the past and illustrate the same economic forces that led to all the inequality we still face in the real world. It all makes for a fitting Fourth of July weekend viewing, with plenty of cannibal combat thrown in for good measure. A Magnolia Pictures release, '40 Acres' opens in theaters on Wednesday, July 2. Want to stay up to date on IndieWire's film and critical thoughts? to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers. Best of IndieWire The 25 Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies, Ranked Every IndieWire TV Review from 2020, Ranked by Grade from Best to Worst
Fox News
29-06-2025
- General
- Fox News
Rockefeller heir vanished in tribal waters after eerie last words
Over 60 years after an heir of one of America's wealthiest families vanished off the coast of a remote island inhabited by cannibals, questions still swirl over what may have caused his untimely disappearance – or death. Michael Rockefeller, the youngest son of then-New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, was just 23 years old and a recent Harvard graduate when he departed for a months-long trip to the island of Dutch New Guinea, a region inhabited by the Asmat, to collect indigenous art for a Museum of Primitive Art exhibition. The Asmat people were particularly talented in woodcarving, decorating elaborate spirit masks and ancestor "bisj" poles. Despite their artistic beauty, they were also known for headhunting and cannibalism, rooted in their spiritual beliefs. In 1961, Rockefeller and anthropologist René Wassing were seven months into the excursion when their catamaran overturned in rough waters, leaving the pair and two local teenagers clinging to the wreckage. In an attempt to save their lives, the young art collector decided to swim to shore in search of help and was never seen again. "When people vanish, it is incredibly unsatisfying and there's no closure," Carl Hoffman, author of "Savage Harvest," told Fox News Digital. "Just as Amelia Earhart remains fascinating to people, so is the death of Michael Rockefeller." Hoffman, whose novel dives into the tale of Rockefeller and the lives of the Asmat, spent years pouring over archival materials and meeting with villagers in the region before coming to his own conclusion regarding what may have happened in the 23-year-old's final moments. After the travel party's homemade catamaran flipped, leaving the group to drift in the ocean for over 24 hours, Rockefeller strapped empty gasoline cans to his waist and swam for help. "Michael said, 'I'm going to do it, I am going to swim,'" Hoffman said. "And his last words, as Wassing reported them, were, 'I think I can make it.'" While Wassing was rescued by the Dutch government, a two-week search failed to find Rockefeller. Different theories surround his disappearance – such as an untimely brush with a shark or crocodile – with the vast majority of speculation landing on the belief that the young adventurer drowned as he swam for his life. "The most sensational rumor was that he had encountered men from the Asmat and they had killed and eaten him," Hoffman said. "It was always this great mystery." Hoffman's research revealed two priests in the region who heard rumors that Rockefeller had encountered members of a nearby tribe upon arriving on the island. "[They] immediately started hearing stories that men from one particular village – the village from Ochenep – had been at the mouth of a river," Hoffman told Fox News Digital. "[They] had encountered an exhausted [Rockefeller] swimming up to them, and they had killed him, taken him to a very specific place and performed the sacred Asmat rituals on him in order to restore balance." According to Hoffman, the priests documented their findings, but the reports were only ever shown to the Dutch government and the apostolic vicar – the highest Catholic official in the Netherlands. The Rockefeller family was reportedly made aware of the rumors, resulting in them reaching out to Dutch officials, who allegedly swept the claims under the rug. The young Rockefeller's passion for indigenous art is reflected in the newly renovated Michael C. Rockefeller Wing of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The wing showcases 16 galleries of art, including works from Oceania, Africa and the ancient Americas. "Opened to the public in 1982, the addition was named after Nelson Rockefeller's son, Michael C. Rockefeller, who was greatly inspired by the cultures and art of the Pacific and pursued new avenues of inquiry into artistic practice during his travels there," according to the Met's website. "Among the wing's signature works are the striking Asmat sculptures he researched and collected in southwest New Guinea." The Met did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. While the mystery surrounding Rockefeller's disappearance may never be solved, his legacy will live on through the artwork of the people who may have been the ones to end his life. "There was nothing primitive about the Asmat at all," Hoffman said. "They were this fantastically rich, complex culture that had 17 tenses and produced this art that was a direct view into archetypes and of the human unconscious, the human mind – and that's a fantastic thing. It's mind-opening, and it's mind-expanding, and it's inspiring."
