Posted on 12/22/2007 10:07:24 AM PST by blam
Reindeer: It's What Was For Dinner
Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
Once a Staple
Dec. 20, 2007 -- Reindeer meat went from being an occasional treat to everyday fare among prehistoric cavemen who lived in Southwest France and what is now the Czech Republic, two new studies suggest.
In fact, so many nibbled-on reindeer bones were present in their caves that possible calendars circa 26,000 years ago might have been carved on the leftover bones. They may have also been used as counting devices or for ornamentation.
The first study, authored by J. Tyler Faith, analyzed bones found in limestone cave and rock shelters at a site called Grotte XVI at Dordogne near Bordeaux. The numbers and types of bones revealed plenty -- how, for instance, the hunters butchered the meat, how far they traveled to hunt, and details about populations of the animals themselves.
"If an archaeological assemblage of large mammals is dominated by only the most nutritional skeletal parts (thigh bones, for example), it suggests that the other skeletal elements of lower nutritional value (foot bones, skulls, little bones) were probably discarded at the kill site," Faith told Discovery News.
"Conversely, if we see equal frequencies of all types of skeletal elements it suggests that carcasses were transported intact and that minimal butchery was taking place at the kill site," said Faith, a George Washington University anthropologist.
He determined that 64,600 years ago, the cave dwellers -- including Neanderthals -- only brought back the choicest reindeer cuts. The meat seemed to multiply over the years so that by 12,285 years ago, virtually all parts of the reindeer were being eaten, with the animals constituting 90 percent of large mammal game.
This suggests the reindeer population in the region steadily increased over the years, so the cavemen didn't have to travel far out of their homes to get a nutritious reindeer dinner.
"If you don't have to carry the carcass very far, why both investing lots of time butchering it at the kill site and carrying only certain parts of it back home?" Faith said.
By the looks of things in the cave, during the Magdalenian era the dwellers filled themselves on everything from reindeer ribs to roast of reindeer as a result. The findings have been accepted for publication in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Donald Grayson, a University of Washington anthropologist who has also extensively studied the French site, told Discovery News that the new study is "important, insightful and innovative."
The pollen record for the region, which reflects past vegetation, shows ever-decreasing summer temperatures favored more and more reindeer, which thrive under cooler conditions. According to Faith, when temperatures rose sharply after around 12,000 years ago, "reindeer became locally extinct and their southern boundary in Europe retreated northwards."
Before this happened, prehistoric hunters in what is now the Czech Republic were also up to their ears in leftover reindeer bones.
A separate study published in this month's Antiquity describes two decorative art pieces from Predmosti that were carved on bone that likely was reindeer. Rebecca Farbstein, who co-authored the paper with Jiri Svoboda, admitted to Discovery News that "the small size and fragmentary nature of these pieces make interpretation about their meaning speculative."
Farbstein, a researcher in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, and her colleague determined that the bones were covered with a distinctive grid pattern on one side.
Based on a review of other objects from the same time period, the carved bones could indicate that prehistoric Europeans may have marked their time on bone calendars made out of the then-common
One reason why Santa never brought them presents...but not the only one.
We were fed reindeer cold cuts for lunch on a Finnair flight from NY to Helsinki. I didn’t care for it.
Did they forewarn you what it was? On an Iceland air flight they gave us meatballs. I later learned Rudolph was the meat in the ball.
Paging Algore Manbearpig!
Must have been tooooo much exhausting CO2 coming out of raindears!
Stuff tastes good ~ like it was made for the human system.
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Thanks Blam.In fact, so many nibbled-on reindeer bones were present in their caves that possible calendars circa 26,000 years ago might have been carved on the leftover bones. They may have also been used as counting devices or for ornamentation.In fact, so many sated cavemen wanted bragging rights to who'd eaten the most that they invented the first system for counting by carving marks on the bones of their previous meals. ;') |
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those were exactly my thoughts.
The more scarce the food, the more likely you would be to eat everything. The less scarce, the more likely you can be picky.
Interesting; thanks for the ping.
Not funny!
Poor Santa!!
Ping.
:’) You’re most welcome.
I’m looking forward to a nice steak this Christmas Eve.
Come Dasher, come Prancer, come Donner and Blitzen...
Finland, too. We once hosted a Finnish woman who was travelling with a group of Rotarians from there, all over Western Washington state. She had prepared some standard lines in answer to questions, like "What do you eat that is different there?" She started getting shocked looks when she said "Reindeer", to which she answered, "But ours don't fly!!"
There was a show on PBS or something about some folks living in the far northern part of Russia near the Bering strait.
They are TOTALLY dependent on reindeer. The only thing that grows there is like this type of lichen or moss on the rocks. The only thing that will eat the crap is the reindeer.
So they have reindeer herds. And they use EVERYTHING from the animal when they slaughter it, probably even use reindeer spit for baby oil or somesuch.
A go board ?
BBQ that sucka until it tastes good!
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