For lots of millennia during the Middle Palaeolithic, from around 150,000 to 45,000 years back, the Neanderthals made Combe-Grenal in France their house. These ancient humans hunted the regional animals, whose remains have actually been discovered at the site. The region underwent regular changes in environment and ecological conditions throughout the Neanderthals tenancy, impacting the behavior of the regional wildlife.
The authors analyzed almost 400 specimens of hunted animals from the site, consisting of bison, aurochs, red deer, and reindeer, using wear on the animals teeth to infer their diet plans throughout the last days of their lives.
Neanderthals were a types of antiquated humans that resided in Europe and Asia from around 400,000 to 40,000 years back.
The remains of hunted animals at Combe-Grenal, France, showed that they were regularly sourced from open tundra-like habitats.
A research study carried out by Emilie Berlioz of CNRS/Universit é Toulouse Jean Jaurès and colleagues, and published in the journal PLOS ONE, has actually discovered that Neanderthals in Combe-Grenal, France, favored hunting in open environments and preserved this method regardless of durations of climatic modification. This research study belonged to the ANR DeerPal task and provides valuable insight into the hunting practices of Neanderthals in this region.
For lots of millennia during the Middle Palaeolithic, from around 150,000 to 45,000 years back, the Neanderthals made Combe-Grenal in France their home. These ancient humans hunted the regional animals, whose remains have been found at the website. The area underwent regular changes in environment and ecological conditions during the Neanderthals occupancy, affecting the habits of the local wildlife.
Dental molds for oral microwear analysis, targeting at figuring out the paleoenvironments exploited by Neanderthal populations. Credit: Aurora Diaz Obregon, CC-BY 4.0
In this study, Berlioz and associates examined the environment preferences of species hunted by the Neanderthals to investigate whether these environmental shifts affected Neanderthal hunting techniques.
The authors analyzed almost 400 specimens of hunted animals from the website, consisting of bison, aurochs, red deer, and reindeer, using wear on the animals teeth to infer their diet plans during the last days of their lives. The animals were found to have actually fed predominantly on plants growing in an open, tundra-like environment. This pattern was constant throughout the numerous centuries taped at Combe-Grenal, suggesting that these hunted animals continued to prefer an open-habitat feeding ecology, even throughout times of significant climate variations.
From oral elements to paleoecological reconstructions. Credit: Emilie Berlioz, CC-BY 4.0
As a result, Neanderthal hunters “remained in the open”, and were not required to switch to hunting tactics adjusted to close encounters in forested environments. In Combe-Grenal, these results put into point of view the link typically established between the advancement of the production of lithic tools and the adjustment of searching techniques of human populations in reaction to environmental modifications
This details is necessary to understanding the influences of local environmental changes on material culture or human history. Further examination of similar data at other websites will enable researchers to examine whether this pattern applies at different times and in different areas.
The authors add: “Dental microwear texture analysis of ungulate victims at Combe-Grenal shows Neanderthal searching strategies were untouched by climatic and ecological oscillations throughout millennia.”
Recommendation: “A long-lasting viewpoint on Neanderthal environment and subsistence: Insights from the dental microwear texture analysis of hunted ungulates at Combe-Grenal (Dordogne, France)” by Emilie Berlioz, Eugénie Capdepon and Emmanuel Discamps, 18 January 2023, PLOS ONE.DOI: 10.1371/ journal.pone.0278395.