Neanderthals' Clever Fat Extraction Trick

Near a lake in present-day Germany, a group of Neanderthals set up a clever system to get fat from animal bones. They smashed bones with stone tools and boiled them to get the fat. This was not a one-time thing. It happened over 300 years. They did this to avoid a dangerous condition called protein poisoning. Neanderthals were not dumb. They planned ahead. They hunted animals, stored the meat, and processed the bones in a special area. They chose the longest bones. These bones had the most marrow. They likely used containers made of birch bark or animal skins. They hung these over a fire to boil the bones. The Neanderthals were smart. They knew the value of fat in their diet. They added plants like hazelnuts, acorns, and sloe plums to their fat broth. This made the broth tastier and more nutritious. This discovery shows that Neanderthals were not simple hunter-gatherers. They were master planners. They could organize complex tasks. They could look ahead and make the most of their environment. The site in Germany is the best example of bone-grease rendering from this time. It shows that Neanderthals had a refined sense of ecological adaptation. They were highly skilled big-game hunters. This discovery is exciting. It confirms what many had suspected. Neanderthals valued the fat inside bones. They developed specific strategies to extract and process it.