
SPAIN: Neanderthals surely needed places to rest their weary bones. Anthropologists think they've found one in Esquilleu Cave, which has a hearth and evidence—in the form of phytoliths, tiny silicate particles that naturally occur in certain plants—of beds of grass. The repeatedly refreshed grass piles could have been both beds and sofas—comfortable places for sleeping, preparing food, making stone tools, or just lounging in front of a fire.