Did Neandertals Try to eat Raw Flesh and Brains?

In an previously Psychology Right now publish, I advised that Neandertals may have absent extinct mainly because they experienced a penchant for cannibalizing 1 one more. It could have been a successful technique for approximately 100,000 several years right up until the time modern day Homo sapiens entered Europe about 50,000 a long time back and did not follow cannibalism. A rather modern archaeological investigation (Rougier et al., 2016) now sheds light on a new part of Neandertals’ cannibalistic methods: they could have eaten other Neandertals’ flesh and brains raw.

Rougier and her colleagues investigated a cave in Belgium (Troisième cave in Goyet) and analyzed 99 bones belonging to 5 Neandertals (four adolescents/adults and 1 child). The bones had been mostly tibias (the much larger of the two reduce leg bones), femurs (thigh), skulls, humeri (higher arm), and mandibles (reduce jaw). The bones dated to amongst 40,500 to 45,500 several years back, consequently they represented a sample of some of the final living Neandertals, as Neandertals look to have gone extinct by about 30,000 decades in the past. The authors also observed lots of horse and reindeer bones scattered among the Neandertal stays, preliminarily indicating Neandertals may perhaps have cannibalized even when other animal meat was plentiful. The Neandertal bones had been butchered and cannibalized equally to the animal remains, which signifies the Neandertal bones have been not possible part of a funerial exercise or mortuary ritual. They discovered that the Neandertals’ arms and legs experienced been lower off (disarticulated) and skinned, scraped of their flesh, their even larger bones (thighs and legs) had been damaged open to try to eat the nutritionally wealthy marrow, and their brains experienced been scraped out and eaten. It also appeared that the decrease jaw on at minimum 1 cranium experienced been slash off from the relaxation of the cranium. There was also a single scenario the place either a toe or finger experienced been chewed upon. [Side note: It’s interesting that the vegetable okra is also called Lady’s Fingers.]

Was the Neandertal flesh and brains eaten uncooked?

There is no concern about whether or not Neandertals employed fire: they did. However, Rougier et al. did not discover sturdy evidence for fire at the Troisième internet site. Further more, they were being effectively capable to extract DNA from the Neandertal bones and that intended that cooking, roasting, or boiling the flesh was extremely not likely, as the DNA would have been ruined in the heating approach. This strongly implies the flesh of equally Neandertals and animals experienced been eaten raw. It is fascinating to be aware the present day culinary and gustatory exercise of consuming uncooked beef is recognized as steak tartare, and the having of uncooked fish is regarded as sashimi. And this is where not only Neandertals’ penchant for cannibalism may perhaps have contributed to their extinction, but the observe of consuming meat raw could also have contributed to their extinction as nicely.

Frederick L. Coolidge

It is well recognized that raw meat frequently incorporates unsafe germs like salmonella, E. coli, Campylobacter, and listeria, all of which can induce severe ailments and even demise. Even so, provided the vulnerability of Neandertals to extinction above their final 100,000 yrs thanks to their low inhabitants densities and much less reproducing team users (referred to as an successful population), any more factors impinging upon their “fragile” existence, this kind of as disorders from cannibalism, might have played an further role in their extinction. There is also the chance that given the proof for the taking in of Neandertal flesh and brains previously about 120,000 several years in the past at Moula-Guercy (France) and later at Troisième cave, a prion-prompted (an irregular protein) disorder these types of as mad cow (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE) may perhaps have been current. BSE is one of the ailment forms of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), and it is typically much more present in the brains of animals than in their flesh. In human beings, TSE produces a severe kind of dementia, Creutzfeldt-Jakob ailment, that kills folks very quickly (within just a few of many years or speedier). In New Guinea, individuals men and women who practiced cannibalism had been perfectly known to put up with from kuru, which suggests to shake or tremble, for the reason that those had been some of its original symptoms. It has also been uncovered that TSE may possibly in the beginning have an impact on the cerebellar brain network, and the cerebellum is liable for high-quality and gross motor movements (and also wondering). Interestingly, women of all ages and kids appeared to be a lot more susceptible to kuru, as it was a cultural observe extra probable between them than the grownup adult males. The incidence of kuru declined precipitously with the decrease of cannibalism in New Guinea from the 1950s to the existing.

Consequently, Neandertals’ observe of cannibalizing just about every other may possibly have accounted for their extinction in at minimum two methods: (1) it dangerously diminished their all round populace quantities, and (2) having uncooked brains and flesh may perhaps have introduced hazardous microbes and prion-induced mind conditions. There is very little or no evidence that Homo sapiens practiced cannibalism in these locations in Europe during the Troisième time period and up to the time Neandertals went extinct about 30,000 yrs ago. It also seems that Homo sapiens’ entry into Europe about 50,000 yrs ago started off a Neandertal migration into much less source-prosperous places and finally may perhaps also have led to their extinction. Lastly, 1 speculation: Just like some modern gourmands take pleasure in steak tartare on a standard foundation, is it attainable that this Neandertal practice of consuming brains that spanned at minimum 80,000 decades (Moula-Guercy to Troisième) was not only a pragmatic exercise (lower competition and give nourishment), but also gustatory? That likelihood reminds me of a new version of the 1948 film, I Bear in mind Mama, which could be known as, I Dismember Mama.

Want to browse far more about Neandertals? Attempt: Wynn, T. & Coolidge, F. L. (2012). How to imagine like a Neandertal. Oxford College Push.