2023-10-16 10:50:35
Excavations in the Oliveira Grotto – JOAO ZILHAO
MADRID, 16 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Findings in a Portuguese cave provide certainty that Neanderthals ate cooked foods regularly, confirming that they were as skilled as the Homo sapiens who came later.
“In this study we show that there is no doubt that Neanderthals could make fire and that fire was a central element in their daily life,” he explains. it’s a statement Diego Angelucci, archaeologist at the University of Trento and co-author of the study, published in PLOS ONE.
The work documents and compares the remains of structured fires found in the same place: the Oliveira Grotto in central Portugal, one of the most important European archaeological sites of the Middle Paleolithic. The exceptional thing about this cave is that The excavations were carried out systematically and with great precision for more than 20 years, between 1989 and 2012.
The work was directed by an international group of archaeologists supervised by Angelucci himself and by João Zilhão (University of Lisbon) and Mariana Nabais (IPHES, Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution, Tarragona).
The cave is part of the Almonda karst system, a wide network of caves located at different heights above a large spring that have been inhabited in different periods of Prehistory. The oldest layers of the Oliveira Grotto, which includes several passages, date back to about 120,000 years ago, the most recent to about 40,000: It is believed that Neanderthals inhabited this place between 100,000 and 70,000 years ago.
“For us, Almonda is a gift that keeps on giving because of the variety and quantity of artifacts and remains we have found over the years: from remains dating from the Lower Paleolithic to the carved stones of the Mousterian culture, there is truly everything “says Angelucci.
In this case, however, what caught the attention of archaeologists were the remains of fire pits intentionally built and used in the cave. In an excavation area of about 30 square meters and six meters deep, archaeologists found around a dozen hearths at different stratigraphic levels. The unmistakable circular basin-shaped structures were filled with remains.
Findings found inside and near homes show that cave dwellers used to cook their food. “We found burnt bones, burnt wood and remains of ash. And the rock below – continues Angelucci – has been reddened by the heat: This is a crucial detail because it tells us that the structure is in a primary position. And it has always been there. Fire is a fundamental element in your daily life. It makes the place comfortable and helps with socialization. It brings back that basic idea of ’home’ that maybe could also apply to them.”
What did Neanderthals eat? “We were able to discover what they ate and even the cooking techniques they used. We found remains and burned bones of goats, deer, horses, aurochs (extinct bulls), rhinoceroses and cooked turtles, which were probably placed on their shells and stewed on hot stones. “
Despite the excavations, archaeologists could not determine how Neanderthals made fire.
“Maybe they did like in the Neolithic, hitting flint rocks against another rock to throw sparks on a tinder, such as a dry nest. This is a prehistoric technique that was discovered by studying Ötzi, the ice man. However, so far, we have found no evidence of this.”
However, the excavation of a sequence covering an interval of 30,000 years has allowed archaeologists to compare the data with other sites in the same area, which instead date back to the Upper Paleolithic and refer to a more recent period, in the that the presence of Homo sapiens was attested. “We have not found differences: similar ways of inhabiting these places, of frequenting the caves to live there. Skills are also a sign of intelligence. Therefore, rather than different species, I would speak of different human forms”, he concluded.
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