Gross motor primitives who ran after mammoths and co with spears – this outdated image of the Neanderthals is now contradicted again by finds: More than 65,000-year-old bird bones with cut marks from the Hohle-Fels cave in the Swabian Jura prove that our archaic cousins also preyed on nimble small animals. They were at least not entirely dependent on big game hunting.
What did the Neanderthals feed on? Findings in caves in which they once lived provide insights into their diet – this is also the case in the Swabian Jura: Discoveries in the Hohle-Fels cave prove that the Neanderthals hunted big game there more than 65,000 years ago. Among other things, a flint blade tip was discovered there, which could once have been part of a Neanderthal spear. This fit with the traditional image of these early humans as hunters of Ice Age megafauna.
There were even suspicions that the limited diet could have been fatal to the Neanderthals: while modern humans used a broader range of food, they only hunted large mammals, so the thought goes. However, this assumption has already been contradicted by findings from recent years, which point to a diet that may have included fish and birds in addition to plant-based food. The new finds from the Hohle-Fels-Cave now join these indications of a relatively wide range of prey.
Cut marks on 65,000-year-old bird bones
As the University of Tübingen reports, the excavation team led by Nicholas Conard found a total of 1187 bird bones in a sediment layer below the find layers of modern humans. Using electron spin resonance dating, they were able to determine the age of the finds at around 65,000 years – so they date from the time of the Neanderthals. According to the results of the analysis, these are fragments of bones from ptarmigan, wood grouse and black grouse, as well as ducks, which also include geese and swans.
“Most of the evidence suggests joints were broken apart and flesh was detached from bone,” says Conard. While the majority of the excavated bones could also have been brought into the cave by predators, the signature of the Neanderthals is clearly visible on six specimens, the archaeologists report: There are cut marks on the bones, which apparently appeared when the flesh was removed blades were made. These findings therefore suggest: “The Neanderthals were probably already able to hunt birds in order to develop other sources of calories and nutrients in addition to the meat of horses, reindeer and other large game,” says Conard.
Another piece in the mosaic of the new Neanderthal image
The findings thus fit into the archaeological finds of recent years, which speak for an ecological adaptability of the Neanderthals and considerable cognitive talents. From southern Europe, for example, there are indications that the Neanderthals there used a wider range of food than was previously known and have apparently also developed special hunting strategies. There is also evidence that they adorned themselves with bird feathers and claws.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the Neanderthals did not become extinct primarily due to a lack of mental abilities or their restricted diet. Stefanie Kölbl from the Prehistoric Museum in Blaubeuren says: “We have to break away from the widespread image of the muscular Neanderthals with a one-sided preference for mammoth steaks: Highly intelligent hunting strategies, the need for jewelry and, as we know, the burying of the dead – all of this identifies the Neanderthals as flexible and symbolically talented people who had far more in mind than just surviving,” says Kölbl.
Source: University of Tubingen