Nutritional ecology and the human demography of Neandertal extinction

Hockett, Bryan; Haws, Jonathan

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2004.11.017

Cited by 117 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…Based on these perceived dietary differences, several authors have suggested that the interaction between Neanderthals and modern humans would have been strongly influenced by their food acquisition strategies and related behaviors (Hockett and Haws, 2005;Kuhn and Stiner, 2006;O'Connell, 2006;Shea and Sisk, 2010). In these views, the foraging intensity of modern humans constrained the Neanderthals in the pursuit of their own subsistence strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In short, both groups competed for the same large game, but modern humans had two benefits: reduced costs associated with hunting due to their complex technology, and the ability to get more kinds of food, including lower-ranked plant foods, due to their social structure. This would have provided them with not only more calories per unit of land, but also a more balanced nutrition and concomitant reduced maternal and infant mortality, leading to increased population sizes (Hockett and Haws, 2005). Between competitive pressure from modern human groups and a worsening climate during the Last Glacial (Müller et al, 2011), Neanderthals may have been unable to obtain enough calories by focusing on diminishing supplies of large game, and this may have contributed to their extinction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Plant foods and the dietary ecology of Neanderthals and early modern humans

Henry

Brooks

Piperno

2014

Journal of Human Evolution

199

135

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant foods and the dietary ecology of Neanderthals and early modern humans

Henry

Brooks

Piperno

2014

Journal of Human Evolution

199

135

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“…Animals such as bison, wild cattle, horse, reindeer, red and fallow deer, ibex, wild boar, and gazelle are commonly found (Shea and Brooks 2000). Neanderthal sites from the Mediterranean region also preserve evidence for consumption of other food sources, such as shellfish, birds, and marine mammals (Stiner 1994;Barton 2000;Currant 2000;Hockett and Haws 2005;Stringer et al 2008). Plant remains in Neanderthal sites are relatively rare, but probably this is a bias due to the poor preservation of such fragile remains in the fossil record.…”

Section: Technology Diet and Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Neanderthals

Harvati

2010

Evo Edu Outreach

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“…In reality the required values would have varied enormously depending on the age, condition and species of the animals involved; deer is generally much lower (see Diem 1962). 12 condition and susceptibility to disease, amplifying the problems of simply surviving at all (Hockett and Haws 2005, Trinkaus 1995;Pettitt 2000). Consuming the stomach contents of ruminants to access essential vitamins and minerals is one well-touted solution to this problem, and Owen (2002) has shown that a surprisingly large number of vegetal resources are available and indeed exploited by modern Alaskan hunters (including the leaves and stems of dwarf willow which have added medicinal properties), but these again require either early access to carcasses or are highly seasonal.…”

Section: Firementioning

confidence: 99%

Things to do in Doggerland when you're dead: surviving OIS3 at the northwestern-most fringe of Middle Palaeolithic Europe

White

2006

World Archaeology

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Publisher's copyright statement:Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Abstract and IntroductionThis paper examines Neanderthal survival skills in Britain. Its starting point is that there are major tensions between the three main sources of relevant informationarchaeological, palaeoanthropological and palaeoenvironmental data and their subsequent interpretation -that make our understanding of Neanderthal survival much more precarious than is generally supposed. The paper is speculative, and proffers questions not answers. It challenges us to look past the often mute material record, and to equip Neanderthals with a number of logically prerequisite but generally archaeologically invisible survival tools and practices, beyond the welltrodden paths of mobility, hunting and planning. Opening GambitThe British Middle Palaeolithic is largely an archaeology of absence. Having abandoned the region during the hostile conditions of the OIS6 glaciation, Neanderthals did not reappear on the British landscape until OIS4/3 (ca 60kya), some 120,000 years later (Ashton 2002;Currant and Jacobi 2002;White and Jacobi 2002). With very little else to discuss for this period, British specialists have quite understandably devoted much attention to the reasons for this hiatus, and in doing so have become rather adept at finding environmental, ecological, adaptive, and social reasons as to why Neanderthals kept away for so long (e.g., Gamble 1986Gamble , 1987Gamble , 1992Ashton 2002;Ashton and Lewis 2002). But as new discoveries and improved understandings of old sites enhance our knowledge of the Late Middle Palaeolithic occupation of Britain, it is time to shake off this obsession with absences and barriers and attend to a different question: just how did Neanderthals actually survive the still inhospitable conditions they would have encountered upon their return, particularly the British winters?The question of survival strategies is particularly apposite given recent conclusions that the classic Neanderthal morphology would not have given them the degree of biological buffering previously thought (Aiello and Wheeler 2003). As a result a conflict between: a) the harsh and treeless environments inferred for OIS3 Britain and; b) the tenacious image of culturally and intellectually challenged Neanderthals (Speth 2004) -so often denied basic tools and seen as relying on physical robusticity alone -is thrown sharply into relief. Many of the issues raised here go well beyond Britain in OIS3, but this provides a usefu...

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Nutritional ecology and the human demography of Neandertal extinction

Cited by 117 publications

References 73 publications

Plant foods and the dietary ecology of Neanderthals and early modern humans

Plant foods and the dietary ecology of Neanderthals and early modern humans

Neanderthals

Things to do in Doggerland when you're dead: surviving OIS3 at the northwestern-most fringe of Middle Palaeolithic Europe

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