Public release date: 22-Sep-2003
Contact: Joel Schwarz
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206-543-2580
University of Washington

Bones from French cave show Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon hunted same prey

A 50,000-year record of mammals consumed by early humans in southwestern
France indicates there was no major difference in the prey hunted by
Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon, according to a new study. The paper,
published in the online Journal of Archaeological Science, counters the
idea proposed by some scientists that Cro-Magnon, who were physically
similar to modern man, supplanted Neanderthals because they were more
skilled hunters as a result of some evolutionary physical or mental
advantage.

"This study suggests Cro-Magnon were not superior in getting food from
the landscape," said lead author Donald Grayson, a University of
Washington professor of archaeology. "We could detect no difference in
diet, the animals they were hunting and the way they were hunting across
this period of time, aside from those caused by climate change.

"So the takeover by Cro-Magnon does not seem to be related to hunting
capability. There is no significant difference in large mammal use from
Neanderthals to Cro-Magnon in this part of the world. The idea that
Neanderthals were big, dumb brutes is hard for some people to drop.
Cro-Magnon created the first cave art, but late Neanderthals made body
ornaments, so the depth of cognitive difference between the two just is
not clear."

The study also resurrects a nearly 50-year-old theory first proposed by
Finnish paleontologist Björn Kurtén that modern humans played a role in
the extinction of giant cave bears in Europe. Cro-Magnon may have been
the original "apartment hunters" and displaced the bears by competing
with them for the same caves the animals used for winter den sites.

Grayson and his colleague, Francoise Delpech, a French paleontologist at
the Institut de Prehistoire et de Geologie du Quanternaire at the
University of Bordeaux, examined the fossil record left in Grotte XVI, a
cave above the Ceou River, near its confluence with the Dordogne River.
The cave has a rich, dated archaeological sequence that extends from
about 65,000 to about 12,000 years ago, spanning the time when
Neanderthals flourished and died off and when Cro-Magnon moved into the
region. Neanderthals disappeared from southwestern France around 35,000
years ago, although they survived longer in southern Spain and central
Europe.

The researchers were most interested in the transition from the Middle
to Upper Paleolithic, or Middle to Late Stone Age.

Neanderthals occupied Grotte XVI as far back as 65,000 years ago,
perhaps longer. Between 40,000 and 35,000 years ago, people began making
stone tools in France, including at Grotte XVI, that were more like
those later fashioned by Cro-Magnon. However, human remains found with
these tools at several sites, were Neanderthal, not Cro-Magnon. Similar
tools but no human remains from this time period were found in Grotte
XVI and people assumed to be Cro-Magnon did not occupy the cave until
about 30,000 years ago.

The researchers examined more than 7,200 bones and teeth from large
hoofed mammals that had been recovered from the cave. The animals -
ungulates such as reindeer, red deer, roe deer, horses and chamois were
the most common prey - were the mainstay of humans in this part of the
world, according to Grayson.

He and Delpech found a remarkable dietary similarity over time.
Throughout the 50,000-year record, each bone and tooth assemblage,
regardless of the time period or the size of the sample involved,
contained eight or nine species of ungulates, indicating that
Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon both hunted a wide variety of game.

The only difference the researchers found was in the relative abundance
of species, particularly reindeer, uncovered at the various levels in
Grotte XVI. At the oldest dated level in the cave, reindeer remains
accounted for 26 percent of the total. Red deer were the most common
prey at this time, accounting for nearly 34 percent of the bones and
teeth. However, as summer temperatures began to drop in Southwestern
France, the reindeer numbers increased and became the prey of choice. By
around 30,000 years ago, when Cro-Magnon moved into the region, reindeer
accounted for 52 percent of the bones and teeth. And by around 12,500
years ago, during the last ice age, reindeer remains accounted for 94
percent of bones and teeth found in Grotte XVI.

Grayson and Delpech also looked at the cut marks left on bones to
analyze how humans were butchering their food. They found little
difference except, surprisingly, at the uppermost level, which
corresponds to the last ice age.

"It is possible that because it was so cold, people were hard up for
food," Grayson said. "The bones were very heavily butchered, which might
be a sign of food stress. However, if this had occurred earlier during
Neanderthal times, people would have said this is a sure sign that
Neanderthals did not have the fine hand-eye coordination to do fine
butchering."

In examining the Grotte XVI record, the researchers also found a sharp
drop in the number of cave bears from Neanderthal to Cro-Magnon times.

"Cave bears and humans may have been competing for the same living space
and this may have led to their extinction," Grayson said. He added that
it is not clear if the decline and eventual extinction of the bears was
driven by an increase in the number of humans or increased human
residence times in caves, or both.

"If we can understand the extinction of any animal from the past, such
as the cave bear, it gives us a piece of evidence showing the importance
of habitat to animals. The cave bear is one of the icons of the late
Pleistocene Epoch, similar to the saber tooth cats and mammoths in North
America. If further study supports Kurtén's argument, we finally may be
in a position to confirm a human role in the extinction of a large
Pleistocene mammal on a Northern Hemisphere continent."


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For more information, contact Grayson at (206) 543-5587 or grayson at
u.washington.edu or Delpech at 033-05-56-84-8890 or
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