Known only as “Tsukumo No. 24,” the prehistoric skeleton bore 790 deep wounds, which scientists are attributing to a tiger or white shark.
Kyoto University“Tsukumo No . 24 ” was notice buried at a cemetery near the Seto Inland Sea of the Japanese archipelago .
While the University of Oxford squad primarily mean on read human violence in prehistorical Japan , one 3,000 - twelvemonth - erstwhile skeletal frame took them elsewhere . First unearthed in the early 1900s , the remains contained almost 800 cuts that leave the experts baffled — until they make this was the oldest shark attack victim ever found .
Recovered from the Tsukumo Shell - mound archeological site near the Seto Inland Sea , the Isle of Man had been bury in a cemetery like any other . He had clearly conform to a clearly gruesome goal , however , while a causal agency of end was never established . Oxford archaeologists Rick Schulting and J. Alyssa White hoped to witness one .
Kyoto University“Tsukumo No. 24” was found buried at a cemetery near the Seto Inland Sea of the Japanese archipelago.
One of the most telling cue was that none of the wound had shown any sign of healing , allot toScience Alert — point that they had been fatal . The whimsey that another person knifed him nearly 800 times , however , seemed cockeyed .
“ We were initially stick by what could have caused at least 790 recondite , serrated injuries to this man , ” the studypublishedin theJournal of Archaeological Science : Reportssaid . “ There were so many injuries and yet he was buried in the biotic community entombment earth , the Tsukumo Shell - hillock cemetery land site . ”
expert rule out human conflict , land - based marauder , and any of the metal tools used by the Jōmon cultivation from that era . According toCNN , carbon 14 analysis of the bones and 3D scans allowed the team to construct what happen — namely a horrifying encounter with multiple sharks .
Wikimedia CommonsThe experts are confident the nearly 800 wounds came from a tiger shark or great white shark (seen here) — and perhaps more than one.
Wikimedia CommonsThe experts are convinced the near 800 wounding come up from a tiger shark or great snowy shark ( seen here ) — and perhaps more than one .
While Schulting and White managed to prevail out various probability , they were in uncharted territory . The team had been assay to research human force in prehistorical Japan , after all , and had now found themselves deciphering an animal attack . On top of that , fateful shark skirmish were rare .
“ There are very few known examples of shark attacks in the archaeological record , ” explain Schulting . “ The chief reason that so few case are known is simply because they were so rare . Even today , with so many more the great unwashed in the human beings , only a handful of lethal shark attacks occur each year . ”
Kyoto UniversityThe man lost his left hand and right leg while attempting to thwart the vicious attack.
forefront of the Florida Program for Shark Research , George Burgess , helped the team comb out through a litany of forensic shark flak fount for comparison . The earliest documented example they get hold date to around 1000 A.D. in Puerto Rico , while a reconstruction of this typeface indicated Panthera tigris or white-hot sharks were the culprits .
“ Given the injuries , he was distinctly the victim of a shark attack , ” said Schulting .
In perhaps the most fascinating phase angle of the entire study , the experts acquit a radiocarbon analysis of the adult male ’s underframe and mapped his lesion onto a 3D model to analyze his wounds . This point revealed the man had conk out between 1370 and 1010 B.C. , while his wounds point he was live during the onrush .
Wikimedia CommonsThe islands of the Seto Inland Sea.
Kyoto UniversityThe human beings lost his left hand and right leg while attempting to thwart the venomous attack .
Most disturbing of all was that the dupe ’s left-hand hired hand was run . He presumably lost it during his final here and now , while seek to scotch the fierce predator from devouring him . Schulting said that there were “ so many tooth marks all over the skeleton ” that the horrifying incident probably endure “ for some time . ”
“ We surmise that the humanity was probably out fishing with some companions in the Inland Seto Sea in southern Japan , ” said Schulting . “ They could have been fishing from a boat , or diving event for shellfish . Perhaps they were even hunting shark , as shark tooth are sometimes found in Jōmon archaeological internet site .
“ One or more sharks — we suspect one but ca n’t be sure about that — attacked the man either while he was already in the water , or perhaps he lost his residuum and fell , or was pull overboard if the shark was on a fishing line of products — this would not have been a little shark . ”
In the close , those who witnessed the man being eaten take him ashore as soon as the violence ceased and bury him in their local memorial park .
Wikimedia CommonsThe island of the Seto Inland Sea .
In the end , the sheer act of bite and their overlapping placement made it impossible to precisely identify the coinage that killed the man in motion . Simply dubbed “ Tsukumo No . 24 , ” the remains have given archaeologists invaluable new perceptivity into the danger of prehistoric hunter - collector animation , however .
“ The flak on Tsukumo No . 24 highlights the risks of maritime fishing and shellfish diving or , perhaps , the risk of opportunist hunting of sharks drawn to blood while fishing , ” the field of study said . “ Humans have a long , shared story with sharks , and this is one of the relatively rare instance when human race were on their card and not the turnaround . ”
After read about the quondam shark flak dupe , study aboutthe gruesome shark attack of 1916 . Then , say aboutthe Japanese burial primer coat with 1,500 bodies find in Osaka .
