June 29, 2000
Vol . 18, No. 5
June 29, 2000 Vol . 18, No. 5
By Marianne Meadahl
An international research team
led by a Simon Fraser University archaeologist has found conclusive
evidence that European Neanderthals were top-level meat eaters,
settling a long-standing debate over how carnivorous they were.
Michael Richards, a post-doctoral research fellow in SFU's archaeology
department, says the study, published June 20 in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Science (and posted June 13 at
(http://www.pnas.org), proves
Neanderthals were not primarily scavengers but were high-level
carnivores with adept hunting skills.
Archaeological evidence, in the form of remains of animal bones
and stone tools used for hunting, has only provided a partial
picture of Neanderthal diets, says Richards, currently at Oxford
University. The other researchers are from Washington University,
Northern Illinois University, the Croatian Academy of Sciences
and the University of Zagreb.
"It is clear that animals were a part of Neanderthal diets,
but it is impossible, from the archaeological evidence alone,
to see the actual proportion of the diet that these animals made
up," he explains.
The research team used evidence from bone chemistry to identify
the composition of Neanderthal diets. Researchers analysed the
chemical composition of a jawbone and skull bone from two Neanderthals
recently dated to about 28,000 years old. The bones were recovered
at the Vindija cave site, located about 34 miles north of the
Croatian capital of Zagreb.
The bone composition was then compared with other central European
animals of the same time period. Richards says the stable isotope
composition of the Neanderthal bones, and associated animal bones,
shows that within their ecosystem Neanderthals had diets similar
to other top carnivores, such as wolves, hyenas and lions. Their
diet consisted of hunted herbivores and may have included mammoths,
wild cattle and deer.
"Stable isotope analysis provides a direct measure of human
diet, and our bones record the isotope signatures of the foods
we have eaten in our lifetimes," explains Richards, who will
return to SFU in July. "By measuring these isotope signatures
in fossil bones we can reconstruct the diets of humans and animals
from the past."
The new evidence suggests the Neanderthals may have been almost
exclusively meat eaters. With a diet dominated by animal protein
Neanderthals must have actively hunted animals, says Richards.
"This implies that Neanderthals had a high level of social
interaction and organization in order to be able to hunt these
animals so successfully," he concludes.
The same research team last fall used radiocarbon dating to determine
that Neanderthals, commonly portrayed as prehistoric humans of
limited capabilities who were driven to extinction by superior
early modern humans, roamed central Europe as recently as 28,000
years ago.
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