The mysterious disappearance of the Neanderthals about 30 thousand years ago has long worried the minds of scientists
Now French researchers have come to the conclusion that the fate of this species was sad. In their opinion, the Neanderthals were eaten by our ancestors. This conclusion was prompted by recent excavations.
This is evidenced by tooth marks, fractures and cracks discovered by archaeologists on the bones of Neanderthals during excavations in Leroy in southwestern France. The teeth marks are the same as on the bones of deer and other animals eaten by our ancestors in the Stone Age. Scientists are sure that people ate meat and made necklaces from teeth, reports The Daily Mail.
Fernando Rozzi, a leading archaeologist at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, says: “Neanderthals were exterminated by humans, and in some cases were eaten. For many years people tried to close their eyes to the cannibalism of our ancestors, but now we have found living proof of this.
Rozzi is confident that the footprints on the bones prove that people hunted Neanderthals, and then ate their meat in caves, and used their teeth as trophies.
Neanderthals lived on Earth 300 thousand years ago. They suffered several glaciers before disappearing 30,000 years ago, around the same time that modern humans arrived in Europe from Africa.
The Neanderthals had a very prominent nose, large brow ridges on a large face without a chin.
According to one theory, the Neanderthals became extinct because they could not compete with people who had a more developed mind, more sophisticated tools for obtaining food.
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Other scientists believe that this species has disappeared under the influence of climate change.
In the academic community, opinions about cannibalism are divided. Francesco d'Errico of the Institute for Ancient History in Bordeaux disagrees with this theory. According to him, one set of bones does not yet speak of a general principle. People could find bones and use them for necklaces.
Professor Christ Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London, by contrast, considers the discovery of French scientists to be very important.
“More obvious evidence is hard to find, but the find indicates that Neanderthals lived in Europe at the same time as humans, that they interacted and were often hostile to each other. This is not to say that humans were trying to wipe out Neanderthals completely, or that they regularly ate their meat. But it is clear that it was the fight against humans that led the Neanderthals to extinction,”Stringer says.
