2023-05-11 11:15:27
A study has revealed details about the lifestyle that Western European Neanderthals followed 95,000 years ago and how that lifestyle differed from that of anatomically modern humans who lived in the same area just 13,000 years ago.
The research has been carried out by an international team of experts led from the University of Southampton in the UK.
Bethan Linscott (of the University of Southampton and now Oxford), João Zilhão of the University of Lisbon in Portugal and their colleagues examined the chemical fingerprints under the dental enamel of these prehistoric humans from the area of the cave system of Almonda, near Torres Novas in central Portugal, in order to unravel what they lived on.
The strontium isotopes in rocks gradually change over millions of years due to radioactive processes. This means that they vary from place to place based on the age of the underlying geology. As rocks age, isotopic “footprints” are passed to plants through sediments and work their way up the food chain to human tooth enamel.
In this study, the archaeologists used a technique that lasers samples tooth enamel and performs thousands of individual strontium isotope measurements from the crown of a tooth. Samples were taken from two Neanderthals, from around 95,000 years ago, and from a more recent human who lived around 13,000 years ago, during the Magdalenian period.
One of the teeth analyzed in the study, seen from different angles. It belonged to a Neanderthal. (Photos: João Zilhão)
The scientists also analyzed the isotopes present in the dental enamel of the animals found in the cave system. Along with strontium, they measured oxygen isotopes, which vary seasonally from summer to winter. This allowed them to determine not only where the animals usually lived, but also in what seasons they were available for hunting.
The team determined that large game-hunting Neanderthals likely hunted wild goats in summer, while horses, red deer and an extinct form of rhinoceros were available year-round within a radius of about 30 kilometers around the cave system.
The Magdalenian individual showed a different subsistence pattern, with seasonal movements of about 20 kilometers from the Almonda caves to the banks of the Tagus River, and a diet that included rabbits, deer, wild goats, and freshwater fish.
The researchers also determined the extent of the territory through which each human group habitually circulated, and found large differences. The Neanderthals obtained their food in approximately 600 square kilometers, while the Magdalenian individuals did so in a much smaller territory, of about 300 square kilometers.
The study is entitled “Reconstructing Middle and Upper Palaeolithic human mobility in Portuguese Estremadura through laser ablation strontium isotope analysis“. And it has been published in the academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). (Source: NCYT de Amazings)
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