Neanderthals used to eat dead people

The life of ancient Neanderthals is harsh. Sometimes they lack food so much that if a person dies, other people may be forced to eat meat, a recent study shows.

Neanderthals buried the dead.(Photo: Dagonbytes)

Antonio Rosas and his colleagues at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, Spain, studied the 43,000-year-old Neanderthals fossils found at the El Sidrón cave - located north of the Iberian Peninsula.

This is a cave containing many fossils of Neanderthals. About 1,300 fossil samples have been found since it was discovered in 1994. And what the scientists analyzed shows that based on the evidence, it will add to our understanding of humanity. This history.

Rosa examined the teeth of 8 bodies found in the cave and found evidence that when they were alive, these people experienced a period of severe food shortage. Besides, cuts on some bones show that they may have been eaten by others in the community.

"It is possible that the harsh living conditions at that time forced them to eat whatever was in their hands, including human flesh , " Rosas said. Another possibility: The cannibalism is a ritual in the lives of Neanderthals and the victims are sacrifices in the ceremony.

"The signs of cannibalism can tell us a few things about the religious life of Neanderthals , " he said.

When compared to the fossils found in Southern Europe, Rosas' group found many morphological differences between the Neanderthals in northern and southern Europe. The Neanderthals in the south have larger faces and jaws. This finding supports the hypothesis that Neanderthals in different regions are morphologically different, possibly due to differences in living conditions and environmental factors.

"Neanderthals are said to be clumsy, filthy and barbaric, but I want to believe that our view of them will change with these new findings," Rosas said.

The fossils of Neanderthal jaw parts are evidence that
they die from hunger. (Photo: Newscientist.com)

Neanderthal is an ancient breed of people who built tools, used to live in Europe, Near East, Central Asia, North Africa and possibly western Siberia more than 100,000 years ago and extinct about 30,000 years ago. They have different characteristics from modern people, such as large head frames, forward facing faces, heavy bodies and fairly low but strong legs, showing a strenuous lifestyle, taking a lot of energy. . These characteristics show optimal adaptation to glacial climatic conditions, where they live. They can control fire, create sophisticated stone tools, sometimes even bury dead people, love natural colors and depend on wild meat (probably by hunting).

But they were quickly replaced by Cro-Magnons, the closest ancestor of modern people about 45,000 years ago. The detailed studies have led to a comment: Neanderthals have not developed their intelligence as well as modern people, and their elimination is inevitable.

Viet Linh