It turns out that the Neanderthals not only ate each other, but also made tools of labor from the bones of their fallen comrades - such conclusions were reached by a team of researchers who carefully studied the bones of our relatives.
What all this led to we now and find out …
A team of anthropologists from the University of Tübingen conducted a study and found out: our relatives, who lived in the territory of modern Northern Europe, not only ate each other, but also made tools from the bones of their comrades.
The text of the work can be found in the journal Scientific Reports. During the study, scientists worked with 99 bone fragments of Neanderthals found in the Goye group of caves in Belgium. Archaeologists have been excavating this monument since the 19th century, when excavation techniques were still imperfect.
Probably, this cave was inhabited at different times by both Neanderthals and people of the modern type, so researchers from the University of Tübingen had to make an effort to identify the remains of the Neanderthals.
In total, 283 bone fragments were found in the cave, of which 96 bone fragments and 3 teeth were identified by anthropologists as Neanderthal. Whole bones were collected from some of the fragments - there were 64 such bones. Ten of them were directly dated by radiocarbon analysis, for 15 isotopic analysis was carried out, and DNA was isolated from ten more.
Based on the totality of features (structure of bones, their preservation, mitochondrial DNA), scientists have determined that the bones belong to five individuals (four adult Neanderthals and one child) who lived about 40.5–45.5 thousand years ago.
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Anthropologists found traces of processing on a third of the bones, indicating that the Neanderthals ate the meat of their fellow tribesmen.
In the process of processing, Neanderthals removed the skin from deceased comrades, removed their bone marrow, and also removed the pectoral muscles.
“All of this suggests that the Neanderthals actively practiced cannibalism,” comments Herve Boherens, lead author of the study at the University of Tübingen. - Many of the remains of horses and deer found in Goya are processed in exactly the same way. By the way, this is the first evidence that the Neanderthals living in Northern Europe ate their fellow tribesmen."
Indeed, although Neanderthals are often portrayed as cannibals, there is actually very little evidence that our distant relatives ate each other. Previously, scientists have proven that cannibalism was common only among Neanderthals living in France and Spain. So, in the El Sidron cave in Spain, the remains of 12 Neanderthals were found, eaten by their relatives. The tribesmen even removed the scalp from the Neanderthal child.
At the same time, scientists believe that Neanderthals could butcher the bodies of their comrades, not only in order to dine, but also for ritual purposes. In the course of the study, anthropologists came to another conclusion: our relatives turned the bones of fallen comrades into tools. Thus, three tibia and one femur were used for stone processing.
Usually, Neanderthals used the bones of animals to work the stone - in particular, deer, cave bears and horses.
“The use of the bones of congeners as tools of labor is extremely rare for Neanderthals,” says Herve Boherens. "And in the territory of Belgium it, apparently, was very widespread."
Earlier, a team of scientists from Oxford hypothesized that Neanderthals could be killed by the habit of feasting on the brains of their relatives infected with a rare disease, an analogue of mad cow disease.
According to the authors of the study, this disease irreversibly weakened and reduced the number of populations - and as a result, Neanderthals disappeared from the face of the earth in just a couple of hundred years.
Tatiana Makarova