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Were Neanderthals Devoured By Humans?
Hugh Pickens writes "The Guardian reports that a Neanderthal jawbone covered in cut marks similar to those left behind when flesh is stripped from deer provides crucial evidence that humans attacked Neanderthals, and sometimes killed them, bringing back their bodies to caves to eat or to use their skulls or teeth as trophies. 'For years, people have tried to hide away from the evidence of cannibalism, but I think we have to accept it took place,' says Fernando Rozzi, of Paris's Centre National de la Récherche Scientifique. According to Rozzi, a discovery at Les Rois in south-west France provides compelling support for that argument. Previous excavations revealed bones that were thought to be exclusively human. But Rozzi's team re-examined them and found one they concluded was Neanderthal." (Continued, below.)
"Importantly, it was covered in cut marks similar to those left behind when flesh is stripped using stone tools. Not every team member agrees. 'One set of cut marks does not make a complete case for cannibalism,' says Francesco d'Errico, of the Institute of Prehistory in Bordeaux. It was also possible that the jawbone had been found by humans and its teeth used to make a necklace, he said. 'This is a very important investigation,' said Professor Chris Stringer, of the Natural History Museum, London. 'This does not prove we systematically eradicated the Neanderthals or that we regularly ate their flesh. But it does add to the evidence that competition from modern humans probably contributed to Neanderthal extinction.'"
Only in France would a Scientist subvert his own work due to culinary objections!
-Peter
H. neanderthalensis != H. sapiens
Nope, but Homo sapiens neanderthalensis is darn close. If you saw one shaved and wearing a suit your first thought wouldn't be "Mmmm, lunch!". Unless you're a cannibal, that is.
Loose lips lose spit.
That robust frame of theirs was probably good for endurance, but those tasty suckers sure couldn't run fast!
Poor neanderthals. Probably thought they were the top of the food chain too, until H.s.s. came along.
Loose lips lose spit.
Clearly, the only decent thing to do is to resurrect the Neanderthal species as soon as we can reconstruct their DNA, then pass the Earth into their custody, along with a bashful apology etched as the introductory paragraph of our Rosetta stones.
If I saw a cow shaved and wearing a suit my first thought wouldn't be "Mmmm, lunch!" either.
I see one every day at my work place.
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
Could someone please tag this with 'nomnomnom'?
Dude, what is UP with your movie already? It seems like you've been pushing this movie you're supposedly making (over at K5 and now, I guess, here too) for at least three years now. Are you seriously ever going to come out with a movie, or are you just jerking off over there?
Not that I really want to watch it, but I'm getting tired of seeing you brag about the fact that you're a hip indie filmmaker in your sig. What a douchebag.
..has more to do with the lack of chimps and gorillas in the US and Europe..
Yeah we ate them all already.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
"Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking. Just a moment."
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
You mean one of your cow-orkers, perhaps?
The Bonobo can understand fairly complex English, read & write simple ideograms, and play Pac-man.
I may be a meat eater, but any species that can run away from ghosts in a virtual maze and knows to chase them after eating power-pellets is off my menu.
Plus how do we know the human ate the neanderthal meat? Maybe they chewed it and spat it out.
--
Slow Poke
"Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking. Just a mooment."