Often portrayed as an opportunistic meat eater, void of many intelligent traits, the Neandertal may no longer prefer meat only. A new find in the Mediterranean could prove that they had a higher level of intelligence, at least in their choice of cuisine.
Situated somewhere between Spain and Morocco leading into the Mediterranean, the Rock of Gibraltar has revealed some potentially new evidence that shows
Neandertals were more than just meat-only.
According to
Science News, the gnarly human figures from which we may have evolved might have enjoyed a meal that was just as diverse as the modern Stone Age humans.
In two caves on the eastern side of the Rock of Gibraltar, scientists have unearthed evidence that Mediterranean-dwelling Neandertals ate a varied diet of land and sea animals that put them on a culinary par with Stone Age Homo sapiens, or modern humans.
These finds support the view that Neandertals behaved in ways that have often been attributed only to modern humans, such as regularly visiting seaside haunts to hunt and gather marine animals, according to a team led by anthropologist Christopher Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London. Most Neandertal sites lie in inland parts of Europe and the Middle East, where researchers have traditionally thought the human relatives spent most of their time.
Many specialists hypothesize as to exactly how this ties into the Neandertal habits, but some believe that the discoveries prove that they lived in the Med and then once modern humans came from Europe and the Middle East, they returned to the Med.
The Science News article quotes Pat Shipman of Penn State University saying "That modern human subsistence behaviours would show up among archaic humans like Neandertals, even as late as 28,000 years ago, is startling." Shipman goes on to explain that the Neandertals may have engaged in long-range planning and other behaviours, attributed only to modern human behaviour.
Neandertals may have been just as smart as those of the Stone Age.
Opposing theorists call the find "intriguing" but nothing more than a simple confirmation that they "occasionally gathered shellfish and scavenged or hunted sea mammals." Still the find is considered important from both sides. The find could change how these early inhabitants were viewed but further studies of the new evidence will need to be undertaken.
We forget that small finds that are at first unbelievable often change history.
Cave Man No Longer Want Mammoth Steak....Give Me Oyster
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