To understand more about Neanderthal small-game cooking techniques, a group of scientists went to the birds.
They recreated how early humans butchered, prepared, and roasted pigeons, based on archeological evidence dating back 90,000 years from sites in Portugal. The chef-scientists reported their findings in in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.
“Studying a variety of small prey can give us a better understanding of the diverse diet of Neanderthals and their adaptability to different environments and food sources,” says Mariana Nabais of the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social in Spain, and lead author of the article.
The inspiration for the menu arose from the Middle Paleolithic sites of Figueira Brava and Oliveira in Portugal. Archeologists had found bird bones with burn stains and cut marks there, but wanted to rule out other causes before saying definitively that Neanderthals were responsible.
“It's often challenging to determine whether these marks were ...
