Posted on 12/15/2008 7:48:15 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Harvard Archaeology Professor Noreen Tuross sought to rehabilitate the image of Neanderthals as meat-eating brutes last week, presenting evidence that, though they almost certainly ate red meat, Neanderthal diets also consisted of other foods -- like escargot.
Evidence from Neanderthal bones collected from the Shanidar cave in Northern Iraq decades ago and analyzed recently by Tuross indicate that at least that particular Neanderthal was not a heavy carnivore. Neanderthals, she suggested, had a varied diet that included meat, but that was not solely or even largely made up of it. One possible alternative food was found in abundance in the cave, she said: land snails...
Tuross' attempt to show the Neanderthal's dietary diversity comes on the heels of studies that examined the concentration of a type of nitrogen atom that increases in animals as they feed up the food chain. One study showed that Neanderthals living in Vindija Cave in Croatia had higher concentrations of this atom than even top predators, leading researchers to conclude that Neanderthals were heavy meat eaters.
Tuross questioned that conclusion, however, saying that scientists don't know why that particular nitrogen isotope concentrates in predators, making it possible that other mechanisms are at work. In addition, she said, studies of Neanderthals on Gibraltar showed they had a varied diet, as do modern humans, who are among the most omnivorous animals on earth.
"Humans are promiscuous in our omnivory. We can eat almost anything and do eat almost anything, in prodigious quantities," Tuross said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.harvard.edu ...
The Neandertal EnigmaFrayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]
by James Shreeve
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Milk. It does a body good.Archaeologist Noreen Tuross has reached some surprising conclusions based on her study of the Neanderthal diet.To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
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Ah. Proof that the french are Neanderthals...
I don’t get her conclusion. Snails are animals therefore escargot is meat.
Today: evidence that the Neanderthals ate escargot. Tomorrow: evidence that they also ate quiche.
I’d eat a crow before I’d eat a snail.
With enough garlic and butter, they aren’t bad.
Of course, as a friend told me, “Chesley, anything will taste good if you put enough butter and garlic on it.”
All that being said, while it ain't ‘cue, escargot has a lot to recommend it.
Chicken is meat, too. So is fish. She’s trying to rebut the idea that Neandertal originated the vegans’ nightmare version of the Atkins Diet. ;’)
They are soooooo tasty. Of course, part of their deliciousness may pertain to the sheer surprise, ‘coz they’re not pretty to look at...
Somebody here on FR said that crow tastes like dove.
I’ve had escargot. Very good (Its the butter)
Now if I can get someone here to try slug? (and no, I won’t believe a solicited response)
With garlic butter?
I’d be more surprised if their diet didn’t include snails. They’re abundant, nourishing and (above all) easy to catch - no chance of being injured by a wounded, rampaging escargot.
I wonder if the fact that snails still form a significant part of the diet of the French and Spanish (I saw large bags of snails at a market in Valencia only a few weeks back) is linked at all to those places being the last refuge of the Neanderthal?
Neanderthal diets also consisted of other foods -- like escargot.
I could live on Escargot w/garlic butter sauce and Moët Brut Champagne.
(That's the only things the Frogs are good for.)
(its funny but besides Escargot (snails), I love baked Clams, and Calamari (squid). But I can't stand 'Fish'.)
Neanderthal diets also consisted of other foods — like escargot.
escargot without garlic, drawn butter and a chilled white wine is just...
snail.
That was a ribetting post.
/rimshot
no chance of being injured by a wounded, rampaging escargotSomebody will figure out a way, just give 'em time.
A Rumination on the Invention of SoupIt was a particularly tough and dangerous world back then. These hunter-gatherers were stuck in the last blast of the Wurm glaciation that killed off so much of their food and so many species. It was every man for himself as they ran fearfully from--and ran hungrily after--woolly mammoths, sabre-tooth tigers, wolves, and other hominids. And yet elderly Neanderthal skeletons have been found in France with teeth worn down below gum level--and deeply crippled skeletons have been found too. Implication: They could only have been kept alive through the compassion of their communities and the brilliance of some nouvelle cuisine chef who could find food alternatives to incredibly indigestible plants, meat tougher than my old aunt's shoes, and all of it cold. I try to put myself under the toque of that Stone Age Julia Child. I imagine him or her using bark to dip and carry water...putting food bits in it and noticing them soften or swell...marking how plants and berries, meat and marrow chunks would infuse the water with color and flavor. I imagine him or her getting the idea of warm broth from the 98.6 degree Fahrenheit mother's milk that kept little Neanderthal babies happy. That's when it hits me: Soup! It's an unbelievable achievement.
March 1, 2002
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