Recreation of contact between modern humans and Neanderthals
Modern humans were responsible for butchering Neanderthals in the Stone Age, says a leading fossil expert.
The controversial comment follows publication of a study in the Journal of Anthropological Sciences about a Neanderthal jawbone apparently butchered by modern humans.
The bone was covered in cut marks similar to those found when humans stripped the flesh from animals, reports The Guardian.
The study’s leader, now, believes that humans had eaten the flesh, while its teeth may have been used to make a necklace.
Fernando Rozzi, of Paris’s Centre National de la Richerche Scientifique, said: “Neanderthals met a violent end at our hands and in some cases we ate them.”
Neanderthals evolved in Europe around 300,000 years ago. It is believed that they survived several ice ages and interglacial periods before dying out around 30,000 years ago, at almost the same time as human beings arrived on the continent from Africa.
Some scientists believe Neanderthals couldn’t compete with Homo Sapiens for the scarce resources of the times, whereas other researchers believe that Neanderthals were more susceptible to the impact of climate change.
