The “updated” menu of Neanderthals has been named: from turtles to foxes

“Our ancestors adapted to different environmental conditions”

New research has brought a better understanding of the daily lives of prehistoric people. The diet of Middle Paleolithic man appears to have been more varied than previously thought.

In a newly published study, archaeologists from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoecology at the University of Tübingen show that the diet of early Middle Paleolithic humans was more varied than previously thought.

How reports Arkeonews, researchers analyzed ancient animal remains from Ghar-e Buf, a Middle Paleolithic site in the southern Zagros Mountains (Iran) that was inhabited between 81,000 and 45,000 years ago. The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Their results suggest that turtles were important food supplements for Middle Paleolithic hominids, and the inhabitants of Ghar-e-Bouf also occasionally consumed carnivores and possibly birds.

Back in the Upper Paleolithic, the earliest period of the Paleolithic, the ancestors of modern humans effectively hunted small and large mammals. “According to various studies, hominins of the subsequent Middle Paleolithic – the period between 300,000 and 45,000 years ago – fed mainly on ungulates. However, there is growing evidence that, at least sometimes, turtles, birds, hares, fish and carnivorous mammals were also on the menu of Neanderthals and their relatives,” explains Mario Mata-Gonzalez, first author of the new study and doctoral student at the University of Tübingen.

“Reconstructing the feeding habits of early hominins is one of the main goals of archaeozoological research, which sheds light on how our ancestors adapted to and interacted with different environmental conditions,” he states.

Together with other researchers, Mata-Gonzalez conducted the first comprehensive and systematic analysis of diet at a late Pleistocene site in the southern Zagros Mountains, dating back between 81,000 and 45,000 years.

“The Zagros Mountains are not only the largest mountain range in Iran, but are also considered a key geographic region for the study of human evolution in Southwest Asia during the Middle Paleolithic, particularly due to their heterogeneous topography and high environmental diversity,” adds He.

To date, archaeozoological finds in the mountains have been almost exclusively limited to ungulates. However, excavations at Ghar-e-Bouf indicate that the diet of local hominins also included carnivorous mammals and turtles.

“More than 75% of the fauna in Ghar-et-Bouf are ungulates – from small to very large species. We mainly found the remains of wild goats and gazelles. But we were also able to document smaller numbers of wild boar, red deer, horses and wild cattle,” explains Mata-Gonzalez. “In addition to ungulates, turtles are the most common species, whose fossils we were able to find in a large excavation area of ​​about 18 square meters.”

The research team was also able to identify the bones of various bird species and several remains of carnivores, such as a red fox and a large carnivorous cat, likely a leopard. Cuts and processing marks on some fossil bones indicate early humans. According to the study, the turtles were fried in their shells before being eaten, which is how researchers interpret burn marks on the outer surfaces of fossil turtle shells.

Study author Professor Nicholas J. Conard from SHEP concludes: “The faunal remains from Ghar-e-Bouf provide the first evidence that small game animals such as turtles and birds, as well as carnivores, were used by hominins in the southern Zagros mountains. Even if some of these species were eaten only sporadically, our findings suggest that hominins from the Zagros region had a more varied diet during the Middle Paleolithic than previously thought. This is consistent with findings in other parts of Eurasia.”