2023-11-21 23:00:00
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The climate change that occurred end of the Riis glaciation It caused drastic changes in the lives of the species that inhabited the planet. One of the most dramatic examples occurred in the Moula-Guercy cave, south of Francia, where sudden global warming forced a group of neanderthals to resort to cannibalism to survive.
The penultimate Pleistocene ice age had ended just ten millennia ago, The ice had retreated from much of Europe., the global temperature had risen several degrees and the level of the oceans had risen several meters. The ecosystem alteration caused a geographical redistribution of flora and fauna. Large mammals migrated in search of colder climateswhich made the groups of neanderthalshunter gatherers, will stay without its usual prey and they had to resort to cannibalism to avoid dying of hunger.
This is the dramatic sequence described in a study published in the journal Journal of Archaeological Science by researchers Alban Defleur, from the ENS of Lyonand by Emmanue Desclaux, from the Lazaret Departmental Laboratory of Prehistory, in Nice.
The last Neanderthals
The Moula-Guercy cave is a Pleistocene site occupied by Neanderthals more than one hundred thousand years ago. Its excavation has been carried out since 1991 and in it remains of six Neanderthals have been foundvestiges of contemporary fauna and associated lithic tools.
Las evidence of cannibalism among hominids they were already revealed in a 1999 article published by the magazine Science. In it, its authors – among whom was also Alban Defleur – identified in the bones of the hominids cuts destined for cutting. The incisions “indicate that individuals were boned and disarticulated“to take advantage of its meat and extract the marrow they concluded in the text.
Video: Neanderthals used skulls of large herbivores as hunting trophies
Pure Neanderthal survival
Los “environmental disorders”Defleur and Desclaux suggest in this new article, caused “the prey depletion at the beginning of the Late Pleistocene”, which contributed to the “increased cannibalistic behavior in Neanderthals”. The rapid increase in temperatures during the last interglacial period – which lasted between 128,000 and 114,000 years ago – caused a redistribution of all living beings on the European continent.
The researchers found remains of large mammals in the layers before the interglacial period what were replaced by reptiles and rodents typical of warmer climates. This meant a great disorder in the way of life of the Neanderthals in the area, who saw their main source of food disappear.
Climate change caused prey depletion at the beginning of the Late Pleistocene and that in turn contributed to cannibalistic behavior in Neanderthals.
According to Defleur and Desclaux, the temperate forest is a habitat in which groups of hunter-gatherers, such as Neanderthals, have difficulties adapting. The researchers suggest that the increase in temperatures recorded in the interglacial era caused the changes in the environment that would end up modifying the behavior of the Neanderthals andThey would explain cannibalism as a survival practice and not as a religious ritual.
Cannibalism has been documented in hominids on other occasions throughout Europe during the last 100,000 years but the Moulan-Guercy cave is the site where this practice is best documented.
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