Is Cannibalism the Reason for Neanderthal’s Extinction?

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Discussion
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The Neanderthal was placed as a species of the Homo genus and was called the “Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis”. It is believed that which Neanderthals’ inhabited Europe and parts of western and central Asia. However, they disappeared from Asia earlier than Europe. Studies have found that they did not reach extinction in Europe until 30,000 years ago (Tattersall and Schwartz, 1999, 7117–7119). Ever since their discovery, it has been a subject of debates on their position in the human family tree and also regarding their extinction. They had specific differences from the modern day man in their physical appearance. Their cranial capacity was larger when compared to modern humans. They were short and heavily built. Researchers have pointed out that their brains may have been larger. Additionally, the brain size is linked to ‘a mutation in the microcephalin gene’, which is also seen in the Homo sapiens genetic pool (Evans et al., 2005).

Discussion

There are several reasons that are pointed out for the extinction of Neanderthals’. Some say it is the diseases caused by pathogens, others say it is the drastic climatic conditions that made their survival difficult, interbreeding was yet another reason pointed out and a few of them say it is the cannibalism that caused the extinction. This paper tries to answer the question is cannibalism the reason for Neanderthals’ extinction?

Archaeologists have found evidence that Neanderthal humans were cannibals. For instance, a team of French and American archaeologists were able to trace out human bones that were found amongst the bones of other animals. This suggests the humans were killed, eaten and disposed of in a similar way to the other animals. Besides, they also found the 100,000-200,000 year old bones at the cave site of Moula-Guercy. From the shape of the remains found it appeared that a group of Neanderthals removed the flesh of at least six individuals before breaking their bones apart with a hammer and anvil mainly to take out the marrow and brains (News in Science, 1999).

According to the researcher Alban Defleur from the Université de la Méditerranée at Marseilles it is the work at the Moula-Guercy cave that established the fact for the first time to demonstrate the existence of the practice of cannibalism by European Neanderthals”. However, his team was unable to find out the reason as to why cannibalism was practiced. Defleur believes “it’s doubtful they were eaten for survival since there was an abundance of natural food sources at the site”. However, they were also not able to link it to mortuary ritual either since there was no evidence that the bones were cut and broken as in a mortuary ritual. The researchers found that the Neanderthal bones were found scattered in amongst deer bones which also showed similar cut marks and breaks (News in Science, 1999).

Though there were several researchers who claimed that Neanderthals practised cannibalism they could not gather much evidence. Even if at several European sites, Neanderthal bones possessed markings that some archeologists interpreted as signs of cannibalism, there were critics who believed that the marks may have been caused by other activities, such as the gnawing of the bones by other animals, cleaning the bones in preparation for burial or even mishandling of the bones by archaeologists. However, in the case of the Moula-Guercy site the evidences of cannibalism were established. As the researchers cautiously mapped the position of the bones in addition to taking thorough notes of stone tools used by them, animal remains and sediment layers in which the bones were buried.

To be more precise the researchers could retrieve 78 Neanderthal bones that were found belonging to at least six individuals of different age. The researchers studied the remains and found that all the skull and limb bones were broken apart with only the hand and foot bones remaining intact and several other body parts such as tough, muscles etc. damaged using the tools. They also found that cuts and fractures on the deer bones that were very similar to the ones that were found in the Neanderthal body. This suggests that the deer were butchered in a similar way and strongly demonstrating that the Neanderthals practised cannibalism (News in Science, 1999). Defleur and his team ended up on cannibalism after they saw cut marks on human bones. In fact they also found that the bones without marrow were not damaged. This shows that they ate marrow which was a good source of protein and fat.

Additionally, they found that bones bear few signs of burning or roasting, suggesting that although the Neanderthals had fire, they ate raw flesh or hacked it off the bone before cooking. According to White another researcher “the circumstantial forensic evidence [of cannibalism] is excellent. No mortuary practice has ever been shown to leave these patterns on the resulting osteological assemblages” (Culotta, 1999, 18 – 19).

Though there was enough of food to eat, Neanderthals practiced cannibalism and the reason for this is still a mystery. According to few researchers as a major ice age brought freezing cold down to much of southern Europe tens of thousands of years ago, starving Neanderthal families huddled in their caves may have resorted to cannibalism. In fact the sliced and butchered bones of Neanderthal people were dug out from a cave called El Sidron in the Asturias region of Spain by a research team led by a paleoanthropologist, Antonio Rosas.

This researcher carefully studied the remains of four young adults, two teenagers, one youngster and an infant and found that all bore intentional cut marks that were made by the common stone tools that were used including saw-toothed knives, skin scrapers and a single hand ax. Similar to the observations of Defleur and his team, Rosas also could evidenced that some of the skulls of the Neanderthals were skinned, their leg joints were dismembered, and other long bones were broken. Rosas also said that this might have been done most probably to extract the fat and protein from the rich marrow.

However, the most sticking observation made by Rosas and his team is that the cave held no remains of animals that might have preyed on Neanderthals. Besides, the team found merely seven animal bones from one large browsing elk and a fox. After examining the bones carefully Rosas pointed out there were no tooth marks on the Neanderthal bones that could have been made by a beast of prey. This team of researchers also tried to go deep into various aspect of Neanderthal life. They found that the growth patterns in the tooth enamel of the cave’s inhabitants show obvious signs of periodic nutritional stress or in other words they underwent period of starvation. They traced out that dental hypoplasia was a common problem faced by the Neanderthals and it is a sigh of nutritional deficiency and severe malnutrition. Additionally the ecological conditions with the unusually cold winters of the time, their survival was very difficult and therefore these people must have eaten whatever was at hand to avoid starvation, including the flesh of their fellow hominids (Perlman, 2006).

According to another study by Dr Petitt Neanderthals were excellent hunters. However the fact of whether they hunted every day of their lives or whether it was just a summer outing was still a question. Further it has been difficult to evaluate the variety of Neanderthal diets. The reason behind this is that although animal bones are often preserved in caves, easily rotted food like vegetables, fruit and grains rarely remain. However, researchers measured the ratios of the different types (isotopes) of carbon and nitrogen found in Neanderthal bones. They concluded that plants and animals have contrasting isotopic ratios. Later the researchers calibrated the analyzed by comparing the Neanderthal bone ratios with those from contemporaneous animals such as at the top (bears) and bottom (bison) of the animal food chain. They concluded that the ratios showed that the Neanderthals were top-level predators, getting about 90% of their protein from meat. In fact there are earlier reports that point out that such percentages corresponds to cannibalism (BBC News Online, 2007).

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that though still there is only few evidence that Neanderthals practiced cannibalism, this must not have been the only factor behind their extinction. A combination of factors such as cold climate, pathogenic diseases, malnutrition etc. must have played their role in the extinction of this species. Cannibalism may be just one of the factors responsible for their extinction.

References

BBC News Online, (2007) Meaty appetites may have caused Neanderthal extinction, Web.

Culotta, E. (1999) Neanderthals Were Cannibals, Bones Show. Vol. 286, No. 5437. 1999, pp. 18 – 19. Web.

Evans et al., (2005). Microcephalin, a Gene Regulating Brain Size, Continues to Evolve Adaptively in Humans; Science, 2005: Vol. 309. no. 5741, pp. 1717 – 1720.

News in Science, (1999) Grisly find confirms Neanderthal cannibalism, Web.

Perlman, D. (2006). Neanderthal cannibalism a mystery Was it ritual, or were they just starving? Web.

Tattersall I, Schwartz JH (1999). Hominids and hybrids: the place of Neanderthals in human evolution. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. Vol. 13: pp 7117–7119.

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Is Cannibalism the Reason for Neanderthal’s Extinction?

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