Archaeologists have uncovered surprising facts about Neanderthals that challenge previously accepted ideas, thanks to a series of artifacts found during an excavation in Spain. “Our surprising findings at Abric Pizarro show how adaptable Neanderthals were,” lead author Sofia Samper Carro wrote in the study.
Located in the Southern Pyrenees, Abric Pizarro is home to many caves and rock structures belonging to an extinct species of human ancestor. It is one of the few archaeological sites in the world dating back between 100,000 and 65,000 years. During their excavations, researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) found hundreds of thousands of artefacts that challenge what many people believed about Neanderthals.
The artifacts discovered, which include stone tools and animal bones, contradict the commonly held belief that Neanderthals were poor hunters and not particularly intelligent. In particular, the tools show that Neanderthals were able to adapt quickly to their changing environments and produced weapons to hunt specific animals.
“The findings reveal that Neanderthals were able to adapt to their environment, challenging the reputation of archaic humans as slow-walking cavemen and shedding light on their survival and hunting skills,” the study said.
“Our analysis of the stone artifacts also reveals diversity in the types of tools produced, indicating Neanderthals' ability to exploit available resources in the region,” Carro wrote in an article for The Journal of the American Journal of Science. ScienceTechnologyDaily.
He also noted that “cut marks” were found on animal bones, indicating that Neanderthals “were able to hunt small animals”. This contradicts earlier ideas that Neanderthals only hunted large animals such as horses and rhinos.
“The animal bones we found show that they successfully exploited the surrounding fauna, hunting red deer, horses and bison,” Carro explained. “They also ate freshwater turtles and rabbits, implying a level of planning rarely considered for Neanderthals.”
These findings are particularly significant given that this period of Neanderthal life is not well documented in the historical record. Carro and his team believe that the newly found artefacts provide invaluable insights into Neanderthal daily life.
“The unique site at Abric Pizarro provides insight into Neanderthal behavior in a landscape where they roamed for hundreds of thousands of years,” Carro said. “They clearly knew what they were doing. They knew the area and how to survive for long periods of time.”
“One of the most interesting things about this site is having this unique insight into when Neanderthals were solitary, living in harsh conditions, and how they developed before modern humans emerged,” Carro concluded.