A team of researchers concluded that man died more than 3,000 years ago, between 1370 and 1010 BC
Newspapers regularly publish stories of horrific shark attacks, but a published article by Oxford researchers recounts the discovery of a 3,000-year-old human victim attacked by a shark in the Seto inland sea of the Japanese archipelago.
The study, published in the Journal of Archeological Science: Reports, shows that the remains are the earliest direct evidence of a shark attack on humans, and an international research team has carefully recreated what happened using forensic techniques.
The grim discovery of the victim was made by Oxford researchers J. Alissa White and Professor Rick Schallting while researching evidence of violent trauma on the remains of prehistoric hunter-gatherers at Kyoto University. They stumbled upon the recovered body no. 24 from the previously excavated site of Tsukumo. It was a grown man, riddled with injuries.
“At first we were confused as to what could have caused at least 790 deep serrated wounds in this man,” say their Oxford colleagues. He was buried in a communal grave in the Tsukumo Rakushechnik cemetery.
Scientists pointed out that the injuries were mostly to the arms, legs, front of the chest and abdomen. Injuries caused by humans, animal predators or scavengers were excluded.
Because archaeological sightings of sharks are extremely rare, they turned to forensic scientists for clues and worked with expert George Burgess, director emeritus of the Florida Shark Research Program. The reconstruction of the attack was prepared by an international team.
The team concluded that the person died over 3,000 years ago, between 1370 and 1010 BC. The distribution of the wounds strongly suggests that the victim was alive at the time of the attack; his left arm was bitten off, possibly a defensive injury.
The body of Man No. 24 was discovered shortly after the attack and buried with others in the cemetery. Excavation records indicated that he was also missing his right leg and that his left leg was placed over his body in an inverted position.
Given the injuries, he was clearly the victim of a shark attack. And judging by the nature and location of the tag teeth, it was most likely a tiger or white shark.
Co-author Dr. Mark Hudson, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute, says: “The Neolithic people in Jomon, Japan, exploited a variety of marine resources … It is unclear whether the victim was deliberately hunting sharks or whether the shark was attracted by blood or bait for other fish. In any case, this find not only provides a fresh perspective on ancient Japan, but is also a rare example of how archaeologists can reconstruct a dramatic episode from the life of a prehistoric community.
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