Neanderthal Desperation

Neanderthal Desperation

Desperate times call for desperate measures, goes the saying.

This might have been the case for the ancient Neanderthals in the south of France when they had to eat their own kind more than 120,000 years ago, Cosmos magazine reported.

In a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, researchers studied the bones of six Neanderthals found in a cave in southern France’s Rhone Valley, all bearing the trademarks of cannibalistic practices – cut marks caused by tools, dismemberment and gnawed fingerbones.

Researchers noted that the now-extinct early humans were living during the late interglacial period, an era of rapid warming that changed the flora and fauna of the region.

At that time, smaller rodents and reptiles started replacing the big game the ancient inhabitants hunted, which led to periods of malnutrition and sickness.

Eventually, they engaged in cannibalism to survive. But Neanderthal flesh wasn’t as nutritious as that of animals like deer, and hunting other humans would have been fruitless since only a few hundred inhabited western Europe at the time.

“They weren’t doing anything different to what modern humans would do in the same situation,” said archaeologist Michelle Langley, who was not involved in the study.

Survival cannibalism has been documented in recent history, such as during World War II and among the survivors of the crash ofUruguayan Air Force Flight 571 in 1972.