Cooking Like Cavemen: What Neanderthal Food Tells Us About Their Lives

[Grim Reaper 6]

Understanding Neanderthal diets is crucial to understanding how these incredibly adaptable hominins lived and thrived for hundreds of thousands of years in wildly varied environments. However, it is difficult to ascertain what Neanderthals ate since food preparation, especially for smaller items like birds, leaves few archaeological traces. In a new study published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, scientists tried cooking like Neanderthals to investigate what food preparation could look like in the archaeological record.

“Using a flint flake for butchering required significant precision and effort, which we had not fully valued before this experiment,” said lead author Dr Mariana Nabais of the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social in Spain. “The flakes were sharper than we initially thought, requiring careful handling to make precise cuts without injuring our own fingers. These hands-on experiments emphasized the practical challenges involved in Neanderthal food processing and cooking, providing a tangible connection to their daily life and survival strategies.”.

https://scitechdaily.com/cooking-like-cavemen-what-neanderthal-food-tells-us-about-their-lives/.

Experimental replication of early human behaviour in bird preparation: a pilot-study focusing on bone surface modification and breakage patterns:  https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-archaeology/articles/10.3389/fearc.2024.1411853/full

[Piney]

Working with flint tools for the first time is like working with a razor with blades on all four sides.

I shredded my hands when I first learned knapping. 

[Grim Reaper 6]

14 minutes ago, Piney said:

Working with flint tools for the first time is like working with a razor with blades on all four sides.

I shredded my hands when I first learned knapping. 

I tried to make flint tools myself when I was young, and like you say I also shredded my fingers also!

[Piney]

1 minute ago, Grim Reaper 6 said:

I tried to make flint tools myself when I was young, and like you say I also shredded my fingers also!

I was teaching some SAS guys and @Commander CMG who played dumb with me starts making fish hooks. 

😅

[Grim Reaper 6]

10 minutes ago, Piney said:

I was teaching some SAS guys and @Commander CMG who played dumb with me starts making fish hooks. 

😅

That’s funny Piney, sounds like he certainly played you!

[Piney]

2 minutes ago, Grim Reaper 6 said:

That’s funny Piney, sounds like he certainly played you!

I played him too. I out tracked most of his South African trackers. 

[Grim Reaper 6]

5 minutes ago, Piney said:

I played him too. I out tracked most of his South African trackers. 

That’s hilarious my friend I beat that made him laugh!

[Still Waters]

13 hours ago, Grim Reaper 6 said:

.In a new study published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, scientists tried cooking like Neanderthals to investigate what food preparation could look like in the archaeological record.

Experimental replication of early human behaviour in bird preparation: a pilot-study focusing on bone surface modification and breakage patterns:  https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-archaeology/articles/10.3389/fearc.2024.1411853/full

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