2025-07-04
Large-scale processing of within-bone nutrients by Neanderthals, 125,000 years ago
Publication
Publication
Science Advances , Volume 11 - Issue 27
Diet played a key role in human evolution, making the study of past diet and subsistence strategies a crucial re-search topic within paleoanthropology. Lipids are a crucial resource for hunter-gatherers, especially for foragerswhose diet is based heavily on animal foods. Recent foragers have expended substantial amounts of energy toobtain this resource, including time-consuming production of bone grease, a resource intensification practicethus far only documented for Upper Paleolithic populations. We present archaeological data from the lake land-scape of Neumark- Nord (Germany), where Last Interglacial Neanderthals processed at least 172 large mammals ata water’s edge site. Their (partial) carcasses were transported to this location for the extraction of within-bonenutrients, particularly bone grease. This “fat factory” constitutes a well-documented case of grease rendering pre-dating the Upper Paleolithic, with the special task location devoted to extraction of nutritionally important lipidsforming an important addition to our knowledge of Neanderthal adaptations.
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| doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adv1257 | |
| Science Advances | |
| Released under the CC-BY NC 4.0 (“Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International”) License | |
| Organisation | Staff publications |
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Kindler, Lutz, Gaudzinski-Windheuser, Sabine, Scherjon, Fulco, Garcia-Moreno, Alejandro, Smith, Geoff M., Pop, E., … Roebroeks, Wil. (2025). Large-scale processing of within-bone nutrients by Neanderthals, 125,000 years ago. Science Advances, 11(27). doi:10.1126/sciadv.adv1257 |
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