Archaeologists have found evidence of mass cannibalism¹ at a 7,000-year-old human burial site in south-west Germany, the journal Antiquity² reports.

杂志《古代》报道，考古学家在德国西南部一处7000年的人类埋葬地发现大量同类相食的证据。

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The site contains remains of 500 "intentionally mutilated" humans

The authors say their findings provide rare evidence of cannibalism同类相食，吞食 in Europe's early Neolithic⁵ period新石器时代.

Up to 500 human remains unearthed⁶出土 near the village of Herxheim may have been cannibalised.

The "intentionally mutilated切断，使残废" remains included children and even unborn babies, the researchers say.

The German site was first excavated挖开，凿通 in 1996 and then explored again between 2005 and 2008.

Team leader Bruno Boulestin, from the University of Bordeaux in France, told BBC News that he and his colleagues had found evidence the human bones were deliberately⁸故意地 cut and broken - an indication of cannibalism.

"We see patterns on the bones of animals indicating that they have been spit-roasted," he said. "We have seen some of these same patterns on the human bones [at this site]."

But Dr Boulestin stressed it was difficult to prove that these bones had been deliberately cooked.

Some scientists have rejected the cannibalism theory, suggesting that the removal of flesh could have been part of a burial埋葬 ritual仪式.

But Dr Boulestin said the human remains had been "intentionally mutilated" and that there was evidence many of them had been chewed咀嚼.

The early Neolithic was the period when farming first spread in central Europe and the team believes that cannibalism in Europe was likely to have been exceptional - possibly carried out during periods of famine饥荒.