Neanderthals cleared forests as early as 125,000 years ago

Neanderthals cleared forests as early as 125,000 years ago, long before the advent of agriculture: they did so using fire, as evidenced by the remains found during excavations in a lignite quarry in Germany by archaeologists and paleobotanists of the University of Leiden (Netherlands).

The study results are published in the journal Science Advances.

The finds were found in a quarry near the German city of Halle where 125,000 years ago there was a large forest that stretched from the Netherlands to Poland: it was populated by horses, deer, cattle, but also by elephants, lions and hyenas. There were several lakes in the region and traces of Neanderthal settlements have been found on the shores of some of them.

By that time, the dense forest had already begun to give way to the great outdoors, partly as a result of the fires. “A question therefore arises: were these open spaces created due to the arrival of the ancestors of man or did the ancestors of man arrive precisely because they found these open spaces? We - explains archaeologist Wil Roebroeks - have found enough evidence to conclude that hunter-gatherers have kept these spaces open for at least 2,000 years ”.

A comparative research conducted by paleobotany Corrie Bakels shows that near other lakes in the same region, where the same animals lived but where there were no traces of Neanderthals, the dense vegetation of the forest had remained largely intact.

Thus the ancestors of man would have begun to modify the environment long before the advent of agriculture 10,000 years ago.

Thanks to this study, the consideration we have of the first hunter-gatherers also changes.

“They weren't 'primitive hippies' wandering around to pick fruit here and hunt prey there: they helped shape their landscape,” Roebroeks concludes.