Early Humanity Feasted On Neanderthal Flesh
Scientists have long wondered what happened to the Neanderthals, the early people who evolved in Europe 300,000 years ago, made complex stone tools and survived several ice ages, before disappearing 30,000 years ago, just as modern human beings arrived in Europe from Africa. According to new fossil evidence, the answer is: we ate them!
Researchers in France have found a prehistoric Neanderthal jawbone with indications that the flesh and tongue were stripped out in a manner similar to early homo sapiens’ butchering of deer carcasses. This suggests that humans killed Neanderthals, dragged their corpses back to the caves, and feasted on their flesh before turning their teeth and skulls into jewelry and 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.
