What we eat helps shape who we are. That’s why paleoanthropologists are so fascinated by ancient diets; they hold clues to how early humans survived and evolved.
One key ingredient? Fat. For hunter-gatherers, especially those who relied heavily on meat, animal fats were a vital energy source. In fact, some foragers went to great lengths to get it, boiling bones for hours just to extract every last drop of bone grease.
This intense fat-harvesting method, known as resource intensification, was once thought to be unique to Upper Paleolithic humans (around 50,000 years ago). But new evidence suggests the practice might have been more widespread, hinting that our ancestors were not just hunters but clever fat-finders too.
Wil Roebroeks, Leiden University
A new study, published in Science Advances, presents archaeological data from the lake landscape of Neumark-Nord (Germany). It suggests that our distant cousins, the Neanderthals, ran “fat factories” from bones long before modern humans thought of it.
Around 125,000 years ago, these clever hominins set up camp by the water and systematically processed the bones of at least 172 large animals, including deer, horses, and even aurochs. But they weren’t just after meat; they were after fat.
By crushing bones and boiling them to extract grease, Neanderthals tapped into a rich energy source, using techniques once thought to belong only to much later human groups.
Kindler, LEIZA-Monrepos
The Neumark-Nord site in central Germany is turning out to be a prehistoric goldmine, and not just for bones. Spanning about 30 hectares (74 ac), this ancient landscape has been under the microscope since the 1980s, thanks to pioneering archaeologist Dietrich Mania. From 2004 to 2009, a team excavated the Neumark-Nord 2 site year-round, even training over 175 international students in the process.
And what they’ve uncovered is nothing short of revolutionary.
In 2023, the team revealed that Neanderthals hunted and butchered straight-tusked elephants – 13-ton giants that could feed a village with over 2,000 daily portions. They also used fire to manage vegetation, showing a level of environmental control once thought beyond their reach.
Kindler, LEIZA-Monrepos
Now, with the discovery of a “fat factory” where Neanderthals rendered grease from hundreds of mammal bones, the picture of their world becomes even richer. They weren’t just surviving; they were strategically managing resources, from deer and elephants to plants and fire.
“What makes Neumark-Nord so exceptional is the preservation of an entire landscape, not just a single site,” said Wil Roebroeks, an author on the new study. “ There’s even some evidence of plant use, which is rarely preserved. This broad range of behaviors in the same landscape gives us a much richer picture of their culture.”
Neanderthals weren’t just occasional hunters; they were full-scale meat managers. The research reveals that during a warm phase of the Last Interglacial period, these early humans were routinely “harvesting” massive numbers of herbivores.
And the pattern doesn’t stop at this one site. Other nearby sites like Rabutz, Gröbern, and Taubach show similar signs of large-scale hunting. At Taubach alone, researchers found cut-marked bones from 76 rhinos and 40 elephants, a staggering testament to Neanderthal hunting prowess.
These findings reveal a bold new image of Neanderthals: not just surviving, but thriving as strategic, large-scale foragers who knew how to work the land, and its megafauna, for all it was worth.
The study is published in Science Advances.
Source: Leiden University
