Study: Neanderthals Cooked and Ate Their Veggies

I thought this was an interesting discovery.

Though previous studies found no traces of vegetables in Neanderthal bones, these researchers found fossilized grains of vegetable material in their teeth. Some of the grains appear to have been cooked.

I have always said that I think we will find more and more that what we considred ancient civilizations is more middle civilization. More findings are coming out all the time that our very ancient ancestors were more civilized then we give them credit for.

Now the article doesn't explain if they simply gathered the grains and vegetables, or actually harvested them. They may not know. But it does seem that the neanderthals did have a varied diet that is similar to homo sapiens.

Study: Neanderthals Cooked and Ate Their Veggies

Great find thanks for posting! I love learning more about Neanderthals, the more we learn about them the more similar they are to us.

Did they invent pots made from woven fibers or leather or would they have prepared their foods by direct heat like a flat stone? I assume direct heat since it would be a stretch to assume that neanderthals would have come up with boiled water in a container.

If you clicked on that article and read the one about Neanderthal jewelry, that one is pretty interesting too. It points out how Neanderthals were the first to make jewelry, and it seems like they even painted some of the shells they used for it. They also made tools, and some kind of "tar-like" stuff to adhere pointed stones to sticks, to make weapons, or tools, I guess. Neanderthals also had burials, and in burial, it was discovered that they buried someone with flowers. So, it's pretty cool to think of that kind of thing, I think. Thanks for the link!

S&F I love anything about Neanderthals because its becoming very clear they were our equals not some brutish ape man that we were taught at school (not that I actually learnt anything about prehistory at school). Fascinating stuff!

It makes me wonder what parts of our oral history come from or include Neanderthal oral history

Originally posted by idontlikepunk
If you clicked on that article and read the one about Neanderthal jewelry, that one is pretty interesting too.

I love the Jewellery link!!!

I dont know how to do an off site quote but this is from TIME

João Zilhão of the University of Bristol, along with several colleagues, has uncovered Neanderthal jewelry from two caves in southern Spain dating to about 50,000 years ago. "This," says Zilhão, "is 10,000 years before modern humans arrived. There is no question that Neanderthals are their makers."

TIME LINK

Nixie, there's already a thread on this:
Neanderthals cooked and ate vegetables
From December 28th? 2010.

Man I hate being a threadkiller.

Interesting to see they had more than what we think of as intelligence.