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From shellfish to deer, the Neanderthal sea and mountains menu

2020-03-27T15:00:23.754Z


Research that also speaks Italian (ANSA) found out


Mussels, clams, crabs, sea bream, seals: for the first time, research shows that Neanderthals ate sea food, just like their contemporaries Sapiens from southern Africa, and that they had a rich menu of sea and mountains which also included geese, deer, and even pine nuts. The result, published in the journal Science, is due to research led by Joao Zilhao, from the University of Barcelona, ​​and Diego Angelucci, from the University of Trento, who rebuilt the menu thanks to the finds found in a cave near Lisbon.

The research is further evidence to support the intellectual abilities of these men considered until a few years ago rough and primitive, confirming instead that they had a good technological development and were familiar with the sea and the coasts. The cave of Figueira Brava, protagonist of the discovery, was frequented by groups of Neanderthals in the period between about 106 thousand and 86 thousand years ago.

"The excavation - explains Angelucci - made it possible to recover remains related to the occupation of the cave by the Neanderthals: chipped stone tools, meal remains, residues from the use of fire". The remains of the meal surprised the researchers very much because they include molluscs (mussels, clams and limpets), crustaceans (spider crabs and other crabs), fish (sharks such as the emery, the so-called sea calf, and the verdesca, but also eels, sea bream , conger eels, mullet, various sea or water birds (including mallards, wild geese, sea magpies), and marine mammals (dolphins and gray seals).

To these are added the remains of hunting products, which included the deer, the ibex, the horse, and the terrestrial turtle, and the remains of plant resources, such as wild vines, figs and domestic pine, of which fragments of wood have been found , pine cones and pine nut shells.

According to Angelucci, "the data add a further contribution to the re-evaluation of the way of life of the Neanderthals". If it is true that the habitual consumption of marine food has played a determining role in the development of the cognitive abilities of our Sapiens ancestors, "it must therefore be recognized that this process will have affected all humanity and not only a limited population of southern Africa which then expanded out of the African continent. "

Source: ansa

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