Neanderthal Hunting: Methods, Prey and Dangers

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NEANDERTHAL HUNTING


To keep their stocky bodies going in a cold climate, Duke University paleoanthropologist Steven Churchill estimates that a typical Neanderthal male needed to burn 5,000 calories a day, almost what cyclists competing in the Tour de France burn each day. To achieve this end some scientists argue Neanderthal needed to hunt large and medium-size game such as horses, deer, bison and wild cattle.

Studies of nitrogen levels found in a 33,000-year-old Neanderthal jawbone and skull, indicate that Neanderthals mostly ate animals, not plants. An inference that can be drawn from this is that Neanderthals were active hunters not scavengers and thus had an organized society that could hunt large animals. If they were scavengers they would more like have had to eat other kinds of food to tide them over when they couldn't find meat.

Scientists believe that Neanderthals initially competed with wolves, hyenas, lions and other predators for easy kills such as newly born calves and later developed strategies for hunting larger prey in groups.

Neanderthal tools were found with mammoth bones at the site of an ancient water hole in southern England. The mammoth bones showed the presence of carcass beetles and carnivore bites which suggests that maybe the Neanderthals scavenged rather than hunted the mammoths.

Neanderthal Hunting Methods

The presence of large numbers of reindeer bones at the Les Pradelles site in southwest France has led some scientists to believe that Neanderthals engaged in organized hunting and butchering. Describing the significance of another large Neanderthal butchering area, French archaeologist Alain Tuffreau told National Geographic, "Many of the bones belonged to young adult aurochs. They were very strong and dangerous. Animals of that age don't normally die together in such large numbers. For humans to kill such big animals before bows and arrows were invented, they needed a group and a strategy."

20120205-Grorten_18_ies.jpg Neanderthals had wide shoulders and hips and generally had a body that was more suited for short powerful burst rather than endurance running, which has led some scientists to theorize they were primarily ambush hunters. Hunting large animals was dangerous business and this seems have been borne out by the large numbers of healed fractures found on Neanderthals upper limbs and skulls. Goring were probably relatively common occurrences.

Based on evidence of wounds and injuries and the stone points they used, scientists believe Neanderthals attacked their prey directly by thrusting knives and spears instead of throwing things at that at them. "They were unable to conceive of projectiles," French archaeologist Jean-Michel Geneste told National Geographic. "We don't know why." Some scientists theorize they relied more on thrusting weapons because they mostly hunted in dense forests, where setting up ambushes and fighting at close quarters makes more sense than trying to throw something through trees and bushes.

"Surrounding and confusing prey is a classic predatory tactic," Steve Kuhn of the University of Arizona told National Geographic. "A few cooperating hunters could have exploited natural landscape features like bogs and deep stream banks that put large animals at a disadvantage. They probably killed at close range with wooden spears that perhaps had a sharp stone point." Wooden spears had been used in Europe since 400,000 years ago.

Neanderthal Hunting Weapons — Mainly Spears

Archaeology magazine reported: A rare leaf-shaped spearpoint found in Hohle Fels Cave in Germany has provided researchers with new clues about Neanderthal hunting practices. The finely crafted 3-inch blade was fashioned from a piece of chert more than 65,000 years ago. It would have been secured to a wooden shaft using plant-based glue and animal sinews. Rather than hurling it, Neanderthal hunters thrust the spear into the sides of large game such as reindeer and horses. While being sharpened, the tip broke, which likely led the hunters to discard it. [Source: Archaeology Magazine, November 2021]

Using advanced imaging technology and ballistics testing, researchers have been able to gain new insight into Neanderthal hunting techniques. The investigation focused on two perforated fallow deer bones, a pelvis and a vertebra, found at the 120,000-year-old site of Neumark-Nord in Germany. The results demonstrated that the man-made circular holes were actually caused by close-range thrusting spears, rather than by hurled projectiles. This suggests that Neanderthals were capable of devising sophisticated hunting strategies that allowed them to get up close to their prey. [Source: Archaeology magazine, September-October 2018]

Neanderthals Adapted Hunting Methods


Archeologists have suggested that Neanderthals may have been more versatile and adaptable hunters than previously thought. Dan Vergano wrote in USA Today: “Neanderthals have long been seen as homebodies who stuck to hunting near their caves, but a Journal of Archaeological Science review of their tools and butchery sites in southwestern France suggests they got around when it came to hunting reindeer and bison starting about 75,000 years ago. From roughly 350,000 to 80,000 years ago, the stone blade technology associated with Neanderthal sites belong to dual-faced butchering tools intended for single use, surrounded by remains suggesting hunters moved around chasing non-migratory species such as red deer and roe deer. [Source: Dan Vergano, USA Today, June 14, 2011 |==|]

“About 75,000 years ago however, the Neanderthal toolkit expanded, with reused blade flakes predominating at specific kill sites used to target migratory species such as reindeer and bison, the study authors find: “The repeated use of a specific site at a precise time of the year for the exploitation of a particular taxon is evidence of hunting activities that were scheduled according to a year-round pattern for the exploitation of gregarious and migratory prey. The specific hunting locations would have acted as satellites of the principal living sites, to which high utility resources (meat, grease, marrow and skin) were transported. Meat procurement was embedded in a mobility strategy that directly echoed the structure of the technological system. It is also indicative of the emergence of specialized and seasonally scheduled subsistence strategies.” |==|

“Why the change? Perhaps climate shifts altered the woodland home of the deer to plains, friendlier homes for bison and reindeer. “During the cold periods of the Upper Pleistocene, a greater dependence on meat consumption and an increased ungulate biomass associated with a proliferation of large migrating herbivore herds, particularly reindeer and bison, likely favored the emergence of new hunting strategies.” “ |==|

Neanderthal Hunting Camp in Spain?

A study by CENIEH researcher suggests that Neanderthal groups at the Navalmaíllo Rock Shelter site (Pinilla del Valle, Madrid) indicate that they mainly hunted large bovids and cervids (wild oxen and deer). Abel Moclán, a researcher at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), the lead author of a paper published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, which undertook a zooarchaeological and taphonomic study of the 76,000-year-old site.. [Source: CENIEH August 24, 2021]

According to CENIEH: Thanks to the taphonomic study, it has been possible to characterize the site as a “hunting camp”, meaning that it was used by these hominins as a staging post between where they caught their prey and the place of final consumption, at which the entire group would have made use of the resources the hunting parties obtained at different times.

Covering over 300 square meters, this is possibly the region’s largest Neanderthal camp, and evidence had previously been found of different activities undertaken by these hominins here, such as manufacturing stone tools or the use of fire, at different moments, although little had been known about how important the faunal remains encountered were.

“We’ve been able to show with a high degree of certainty that the Navalmaíllo Neanderthals mainly hunted large bovids and cervids, which they processed there and then carried to a second place of reference. This point is very interesting, as this type of behavior has been identified at very few sites in the Iberian Peninsula. To do all this, we used very powerful statistical tools such as Artificial Intelligence”, says Moclán.

Neanderthals Likely Killed and Butchered Cave Lions


Neanderthals had big teeth

Marks on the ribcage of a 48,000-year-old cave lion skeleton in Germany suggest the animal was killed by Neanderthals. Isaac Schultz wrote in Gizmodo: A team of paleoanthropologists and archaeologists scrutinized the remains of four lions excavated in 1985 in Siegsdorf, Germany, and phalanges (finger) and sesamoid (joint) bones from three lion specimens excavated from Einhornhöle, Germany, in 2019. The former showed evidence of being punctured by a wooden-tipped spear — a known weapon of Neanderthals — and the latter three had cut marks that suggested they were butchered in a way to keep the animals’ claws preserved on the fur. The team’s research is published today in Scientific Reports. [Source: Isaac Schultz, Gizmodo, October 13, 2023]

There’s no evidence of modern humans — or any other hominin, for that matter — living in the region at the time these lions died and were manipulated, Russo said, leaving Neanderthals as the sole party that could be responsible. Evidence for human manipulation of lion remains goes back much further than 48,000 years. In 2010, a team of researchers published evidence of lion butchery and possible skinning in Spain a staggering 350,000 years ago. But explicit evidence that the predators were hunted has been harder to come by. The recent study also indicates that the lions’ claws were kept attached to the pelt, suggesting that the pelt had some ornamental value — it wasn’t just stripped off the creature to get at its meat.

“These interactions encompassed not only the cultural use of lion body parts but also the ability to hunt them,” Russo added. “Initially, this behavior was exclusively attributed to our species, Homo sapiens. However, Neanderthals were the first in the hominin lineage to gain the upper hand over predators, pioneering cultural relationships with them” The phalanges interrogated in the recent paper are much more ancient than the nearly complete skeleton that indicated the lion was hunted; those paw bones date to at least 190,000 years ago, which the researchers state in the paper is the “earliest example of the use of cave lion skin by Neanderthals in Central Europe.”Thus, the researchers concluded, the cave lion had some symbolic or aesthetic value to Neanderthals, as well as the obvious practical value that its meat and hide would provide.

Neanderthals Didn’t Drive Mammoths Off a Cliff

“Researchers have found that the plateau that ends at the cliff edge was so rocky and uneven that mammoths and other weighty beasts would never have ventured up there. Even if the creatures had clambered so high, the Neanderthals would have had to chase them down a steep dip and back up the other side long before the animals reached the cliff edge and plunged to their doom. "I can't imagine a way in which Neanderthals would have been able to force mammoths down this slope and then up again before they even got to the edge of the headland," said Beccy Scott, an archaeologist at the British Museum. "And they're unlikely to have got up there in the first place." \^^/

“Hundreds of thousands of stone tools and bone fragments have been uncovered at the Jersey site where Neanderthals lived on and off for around 200,000 years. The site was apparently abandoned from time to time when the climate cooled, forcing the Neanderthals back to warmer territory. Scott and her colleagues drew on a survey of the seabed that stretches away from the cliff to reconstruct the landscape when the Neanderthals lived there. The land, now submerged under higher sea levels, was cut with granite ravines, gullies and dead-end valleys – a terrain perfect for stalking and ambushing prey. "The site would have been an ideal vantage point for Neanderthal hunters. They could have looked out over the open plain and watched mammoths, woolly rhinos and horses moving around. They could see what was going on, and move out and ambush their prey," said Scott. Details of the study are published in the journal Antiquity. |=|

“The researchers have an alternative explanation for the bone heaps. Neanderthals living there may have brought the bones there after hunts, or from scavenged carcasses, and used them for food, heating and even building shelters. Older sediments at the site are rich with burnt bone and charcoal, suggesting the bones were used as fuel. The heaps of bones were preserved when Neanderthals last abandoned the site, and a fine dust of silt blew over and preserved the remains. |=|



It had previously been suggested that Neanderthals drove mammoths off a cliff on what is now the British island of Jersey. Research published in 2014 said that new evidence makes the case that it would have been impossible to stampede mammoths to their deaths at site in Jersey.Ian Sample wrote in The Guardian: ““Heaps of mammoth and woolly rhino bones found piled up at the foot of a cliff were thought to be the grim results of Neanderthals driving the beasts over the edge. The piles of bones are a major feature at La Cotte de St Brelade on Jersey, one of the most spectacular Neanderthal sites in Europe. But the claim that they mark the remains of mass slaughter has been all but ruled out by a fresh investigation. [Source: Ian Sample, The Guardian, February 28, 2014 \^^/]

Hyenas Hunted Neanderthals and Devoured Them in an Italian Cave

Fossilized remains of nine Neanderthals in the Guattari Cave in San Felice Circeo in Rome indicate they were devoured there by hyenas, presumably after being hunted by the animals, the Italian Culture Ministry announced in May 2021.. Some of the bones, which included skullcaps and broken jawbones, could be over 90,000 years old. They are believed to have belonged to seven adult males, one female, and one young boy. [Source: Sophia Ankel, Business Insider, May 9, 2021]

Business Insider reported: “Scientists from the Archaeological Superintendency of Latina and the University of Tor Vergata in Rome believe the bones come from different time periods. The oldest remains are thought to date from 90,000 to 100,000 years ago. The other eight Neanderthals' remains are believed to date from 50,000 to 68,000 years ago. The researchers also found traces of hyenas alongside the human remains. They also found remains of rhinoceroses, giant deer, wild horses, and vegetables.

“According to the ministry statement, many of the bones "show clear signs of gnawing," which led experts to believe the Neanderthals were attacked by hyenas, which dragged them to the cave and consumed them, Deutsche Welle reported. "Neanderthals were prey for these animals," said Mario Rolfo, a professor of archaeology at Tor Vergata University, according to The Guardian. "Hyenas hunted them, especially the most vulnerable, like sick or elderly individuals."

“This is not the first time researchers have discovered fossils in the Guattari Cave. A Neanderthal skull was discovered there in 1939 by the anthropologist Alberto Carlo Blanc. Excavations of a new part of the cave that hadn't been explored yet began in 2019. "It is a spectacular find," said Rolfo, according to The Guardian. "A collapse, perhaps caused by an earthquake, sealed this cave for more than 60,000 years, thereby preserving the remains left inside for tens of thousands of years."

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Nature, Scientific American. Live Science, Discover magazine, Discovery News, Ancient Foods ancientfoods.wordpress.com ; Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, AP, AFP and various books and other publications.

Last updated April 2024


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