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Did Early Humans Rely on Consuming Carrion?
Archaeology Magazine ^ | November 7, 2025 | editors / unattributed

Posted on 11/10/2025 10:05:45 AM PST by SunkenCiv

According to a statement released by the Spanish National Research Centre for Human Evolution (CENIEH), Ana Mateos and Jesús Rodríguez and their colleagues think that scavenging for carrion was vital to the survival of early hominins. It had been previously suggested that although eating carrion requires less effort than hunting, it carries the risks of consuming pathogens from spoiled meat and being attacked by hungry predators. Yet ecological research indicates that carrion is more widely available than had been thought, and tends to be available when other food sources are scarce. Acid in the human stomach may have acted as a defense against pathogens and toxins. Humans can travel for long distances without expending a lot of energy, Mateos reasoned, making it possible to search for carrion. The ability to communicate and organize with others would have also assisted the search, while predators could be driven away from a carcass by throwing projectiles or stones, added Rodríguez. "Today we know that carrion plays a fundamental role in ecosystems and that all carnivorous species consume it to a greater or lesser extent. Moreover, many current human hunter-gatherer groups continue to practice scavenging, as one more eating behavior," Mateos concluded. For more about the importance of scavenging to human evolution, go to "Marrow of Humanity."

(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: dietandcuisine; godsgravesglyphs; hotsauce; huntergatherers; scavengers
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To: Omnivore-Dan

Correct about bear meat.


41 posted on 11/11/2025 4:51:34 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear
But you have fun!

I have never even thought about eating a dead decaying carcass. However, I can think of many istances where people have eaten other dead humans out of necessity, and I doubt that they succumbed to that need until the corpses began to decay some what depending upon the conditions the bodies had been in before they made the decision to consume the dead humans.

I merely said, that I suppose it could have been the reality for early man to eat dead animals they came across.

Thanks goodness, neither you nor I have ever had to face that situation to make that decision.

I guess I have said things that you disagree with, for you to post this stupidity.

Enjoy your life, and be thankful that you never faced such decisions in order to stay alive.

You might even be shocked at what you might do to take food out of the mouths of other animals when faced with a situation that pushes one to go beyond what they normally would never engage in.

42 posted on 11/11/2025 12:29:57 PM PST by Robert DeLong
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To: Robert DeLong
I will not go near already dead things because either what ever took it down is still in the area or the animals with bone crunching teeth who follow them are there. Which is something early man would have known and man now has clearly forgotten.

I know you think it is like what you see along the highway in areas that have been cleared of predators.

It isn't.

But you do you.

43 posted on 11/11/2025 12:49:57 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (It's like somebody just put the Constitution up on a wall …. and shot the First Amendment -Mike Rowe)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear
I know you think it is like what you see along the highway in areas that have been cleared of predators.

More nonsense. Early man did not have roads, ao why would I think that. At best they might have had foot paths.

Early man was a gether for the most part, and what they gathereed were things that grew from the earth.

But at some point in time they also ate meat. That meat may have died on its own, and was not the victim of a predator. Those deaths were most likely eaten at the point of the kill, or in some instances yaken back to the pack or their offspring.

So, no that was not like what I was thinking about at all.

Furthermore, I only said that it may be a possibility. Since I wasn't around then, I have no way of knowing, and I'm not sure anyone else can defintively provide an answer with peoof to back up their assertion either one way or the other.

At best I can only provide a guess, aand in many years on this earth, I have found out that things pondered might be possible in theory, regardless of what my personaly belief may be.

An exmaple of this might be beings from other planets visiting this earth. I personally do not believe in this. Yet in theory it may be true, I have no proof in either direction as to what the truth really is.

There are indeed compelling things that support either belief, yet there still remains no definitive proof that I have seen.

44 posted on 11/11/2025 2:28:44 PM PST by Robert DeLong
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To: Omnivore-Dan

It is legal in Tennessee to eat roadkill.


45 posted on 11/11/2025 5:42:12 PM PST by Paperpusher (Gal 5:15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.)
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To: Salamander

XLNT!..................


46 posted on 11/12/2025 5:13:40 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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