For a long time, the evolutionary narrative has told us a story of superiority in which the Homo sapiens He survived because he was smarter, more adaptable and above all because he was capable of long-term planning. At his side were the neanderthalswho were seen as a group of opportunistic hunters who lived from day to day without planning anything. But science has been committed to rewriting this history for years.
The Spanish case. 115,000 years ago, long before our species set foot on the Iberian Peninsula, Neanderthals already inhabited the Cave of the Planes in Cartagena and even collected shellfish to feed themselves. But they did not do it in any way or at any time, but rather they had a perfectly designed collection calendar.
This is the conclusion to which a team has arrived where the University of Burgos and the International Prehistoric Research Center of Cantabria participated, without the need for a time machine, but ‘only’ needed an analysis of oxygen isotopes.
How they have done it. Here the researchers analyzed the remains of shells of two very specific species, such as the Phorcus turbinatus popularly known as caracolillo, and the Patella ferruginea. The interesting thing about these is that, as the mollusks grow, the carbonate in their shells traps oxygen isotopes whose proportion varies depending on the temperature of the sea water at that exact moment.
By analyzing these layers, scientists found an authentic “prehistoric thermometer”, achieving unprecedented resolution, as they discovered the exact time of year in which the mollusk was collected and consumed.
The results. What was seen is that 78% of the consumption of these mollusks occurred in the coldest months, between November and April. On the contrary, during the summer, consumption plummeted to a mere 5%. And here the question is practically obligatory: Why did Neanderthals prefer to go into the coast in the middle of winter to search for shellfish?
The answer suggests that during winter and autumn, due to their reproductive cycle, these mollusks have more meat, a better texture and, therefore, a better flavor. But also, by avoiding summer, Neanderthals avoided the rapid decomposition of food due to heat and, much more importantly, they avoided the feared “red tides” that were a proliferation of toxic microalgae that make shellfish poisonous during the warm months.
The inferiority complex. The truly important thing about this study is not the discovery that Neanderthals ate shellfish, but rather the irrefutable demonstration that they carried out planned seasonal harvesting. Until now, it was thought that the ability to understand annual cycles and diet planning was a consequence of a cognitive advantage of our species, but now we see that Neanderthals were more advanced than we thought.
Images | Marc Tremblay wirestock at Magnific
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