TARRAGONA, SPAIN—According to a statement released by Frontiers, Mariana Nabais of the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) and her colleagues attempted to replicate meals that might have been eaten by Neanderthals by processing five wild birds that had died of natural causes. The two carrion crows, two collared doves, and a wood pigeon would have been similar to the birds available to Neanderthals, Nabais said. The researchers chose preparation and cooking methods based upon archaeological evidence and ethnographic data. First, the birds were defeathered by hand. Then, two of the birds were butchered raw, while the rest were roasted whole over hot coals and then cut apart. The bones were then dried and examined for cut marks, breaks, and burns for future reference. Marks on the flint flake used in preparation were also evaluated. The researchers determined that cut marks left behind when cutting tendons left marks on the raw bones similar to those found on butchered bird bones uncovered at archaeological sites. They also found that the bones of the birds that were roasted before cutting were brittle and sometimes shattered, suggesting that the bones of cooked birds might not be preserved at archaeological sites. “Using a flint flake for butchering required significant precision and effort, which we had not fully valued before this,” Nabais added. Future projects could attempt the preparation of more species of prey and processing birds for talons and feathers, she concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology. To read about Neanderthals diets, go to "Neanderthal Medicine Chest," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2012.
