Did Humans Feast on Neanderthals?

Computer-assisted paleoanthropological reconstruction of a Neanderthal child based on skull fragments unearthed in Gibraltar.

Scientists remain uncertain about the type of interaction that may have occurred during the Palaeolithic era between Neanderthals and humans. There has been speculation that the two species interbred in Europe between 33,000 and 24,000 years ago. Now, new evidence points to humans possibly having eaten Neanderthals and used their bones for ornaments.

According to Cosmos Online:

Re-examined artifacts from the Les Rois cave, a settlement of early modern humans in southwest France, include a jawbone with flint-knife cut marks on it and a pendant made from a child's tooth cut out of another jawbone, according to a report in the Journal of Anthropological Sciences.

“Secondary burial practices and cannibalism are the two explanations traditionally proposed to account for modifications on prehistoric human bones,” the researchers wrote.

Although researchers can’t be certain the 30,000-year-old jawbone belonged to a Neanderthal, several of its features are characteristic of that species, said co-author Marian Vanhaeren, an archaeologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Nanterre.

The idea will provoke considerable opposition from scientists who believe Neanderthals disappeared for reasons that did not involve violence. Neanderthals were a sturdy species who evolved in Europe 300,000 years ago, made complex stone tools and survived several ice ages before they disappeared 30,000 years ago - just as modern human beings arrived in Europe from Africa.

And according to Britain's Guardian:

The idea will provoke considerable opposition from scientists who believe Neanderthals disappeared for reasons that did not involve violence. Neanderthals were a sturdy species who evolved in Europe 300,000 years ago, made complex stone tools and survived several ice ages before they disappeared 30,000 years ago - just as modern human beings arrived in Europe from Africa.

Some researchers believe Neanderthals may have failed to compete effectively with Homo sapiens for resources, or were more susceptible to the impact of climate change. But others believe our interactions were violent and terminal for the Neanderthals. According to Rozzi, the discovery at Les Rois in south-west France provides compelling support for that argument.

Click here for the Cosmos Online article.

Click here for the Guardian article.

Click here for an earlier article about interbreeding.