Local cuisine was on the menu at Cafe Neanderthal

Gazelle prepared “at the Amud” or “at Kebara”?

Kebara’s Neanderthals had fairly wide tastes in meat. The massacred bones found in the cave were mainly a uniform mixture of small ungulated (largely gazelle) and medium size (red deer, fallow deer, wild goats and wild boar), with only some larger game animals.

On the other hand (or shoe), in Amud, archaeologists found that the massacred bones were almost entirely long bone trees – the legacies, in other words – of the gazelle. Apparently, AMUD Neanderthal hunters focused more on the gazelle than on larger prey such as red deer or wild boar, and they apparently preferred leg meat.

And not too fresh, apparently – Kebara’s bones showed less cutting marks, and the brands that were there were generally more straight. Meanwhile, in Amud, the bones were practically congested with cut marks, which crisscrossed on each other and were often curved, not straight. According to Jallon and his colleagues, the difference was probably not a problem of competence. Instead, this can be an indication that the Neanderthals of Amud loved their dried, boiled or even slightly rotten meat.

This is based on comparisons with bones of bones when modern hunters massacre their game, as well as the experiences of archaeologists with stone tools. First, the differences in competence between beginner butchers and advances do not produce the same model of Jallon Cup brands and his colleagues saw Amud. But “it has been shown that decomposing carcasses tend to be more difficult to treat, which often leads to the production of random, deep and winding cup marks”, as Jallon and his colleagues wrote in their recent article.

So, apparently, for unknown reasons for modern archaeologists, the meat from the Amud menu was, we say, a little less fresh than that of Kebara. The said menu was also considerably less varied. All this meant that if you were a Neanderthal from Amud and stopped in Kebara for dinner (or vice versa), your meal may seem surprisingly foreign.