Neanderthals Were Excellent Butchers

News August 15, 2014

© Henri Granjean--Collectif item/Inrap
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© Henri Granjean--Collectif item/Inrap

QUINCEAUX, FRANCE—A Middle Paleolithic site in southwestern France has produced hundreds of bones belonging mostly to large animals, as well as flints, evidence of prehistoric butchering by the area’s Neanderthal inhabitants some 35,000 to 55,000 years ago, reports horsetalk. According to the researchers, the bones of horses were particularly numerous—although there were also wooly rhinoceros, bison, reindeer, mammoth, bear, and even a few wolf bones—and are a result of Neanderthal hunting and scavenging. In many cases, the animals’ long bones are missing, perhaps evidence that the meatier parts were butchered and then taken away, and the carcasses left behind. The excavation, which was originally scheduled to end soon so road construction can begin at the site, has been determined to be of such significance that the archaeologists have been given extra time to investigate.

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