Evolution and humans: Neanderthal's cooked (Evolution)

by David Turell , Sunday, October 15, 2023, 16:34 (195 days ago) @ David Turell

Their advanced lifestyle included making fire and cooking:

https://phys.org/news/2023-10-neanderthal-cuisine-excavations-reveal-neanderthals.html

"The fact that Neanderthals were able to make a fire and use it, among other things, for cooking, demonstrates their intelligence. "This confirms our observations and theories from previous studies," explains Diego Angelucci, archaeologist at the University of Trento and co-author of the study.

"'Neanderthals were capable of symbolic thought, could create artistic objects, knew how to decorate their bodies using personal ornaments and had an extremely varied diet. Add to that that, based on our findings, we can say with certainty that they habitually ate cooked food. This ability confirms that they were as skilled as the Homo sapiens who lived millennia later."

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"In this study we demonstrate that there is no doubt that Neanderthals could make a fire and that fire was a central element in their daily life."

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"The cave is part of the Almonda karst system, a vast network of caves placed at different elevations above a large spring that have been inhabited in different periods during Prehistory. The oldest layers of the Gruta de Oliveira, which includes a number of passages, date back to about 120,000 years ago, the most recent to about 40,000: It is believed that Neanderthals inhabited this place between 100,000 and 70,000 years ago.

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"In this case however, what caught the attention of archaeologists were the traces of hearths intentionally built and used in the cave. The archaeologists found about a dozen hearths at various stratigraphic levels in an excavation area of about 30 square meters and six meters deep. The unmistakable basin-like, circular structures were filled with remains.

"Findings from inside and near the hearths demonstrate that the inhabitants of the caves used to cook their food. "We found burnt bones, burnt wood and ash remains. And the rock underneath—continues Angelucci—has been reddened by the heat: This is a crucial detail because it tells us that the structure is in a primary position. And it has always been there. Fire is a fundamental element in their daily lives. It makes the place comfortable and helps socialization. It gives back that basic idea of 'home' that perhaps could also apply to them."

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"What did Neanderthals eat? "We were able to find out what they ate and even the cooking techniques they used. We found the remains and burnt bones of cooked goats, deer, horses, aurochs (extinct bulls), rhinos, turtles, which were probably laid on their carapace and stewed on hot stones.'"

"'Meat was on the menu in this inland cave, but in other excavations in caves overlooking the western Mediterranean Sea near Cartagena (Spain), remains of fish, mussels and mollusks, even roasted pine nuts, were found. We had already demonstrated in 2020 in another paper that appeared in Science that Neanderthals had a varied diet, but the Portuguese excavations have further confirmed that they used fire to cook food."

"Despite the excavations, the archaeologists were not able to determine how the Neanderthals started a fire."

Comment: this certainly rehabilitates the Neanderthal story to show they were quite advanced.