Bones of a family of 13 people found in Spain shows that their deaths were far from natural: fractured skulls and accurate cuts reveal that they died violently into the hands of another group of Neanderthals. And then things got even worse.
Thirty thousand years ago, humans became the last surviving human species. Our sister species, Homo NeanderthalensisHe had resisted more time than all the others, but finally also disappeared.
Only Homo sapiens remained. The fate of Neanderthals is the most real approach that we will have to know what it is like to see a human species to be brought to extinction – without being disappeared, of course.
So what happened?
It’s a macabre story, perhaps better illustrated by an episode that comes up in BBC’s new series, presented by PaleoAnthropologist Elala al-shamhi.
Throughout the series, Al-Shamahi visits important fossiliferous sites that tell different chapters of human history-but it was one in particular, in northern Spain, that arrested the attention of the executive producer Paul Overton.
“What most marked me, probably, was the darkest: The cave of El Sidrón, which tells the story of the end of the Neanderthals, ”Overton told.“ remains of 13 members of a murdered family and cannibalized, and there is also evidence of consanguinity. ”
“It is a very disgusting placeand a very morbid story, but I find it amazing that it was discovered and documented. When we knew, we thought, ‘This is crazy’, and the people who knew the site were deeply invested in what they had found. ”
Known as “Bone tunnel”The El Sidrón Cave was, in a while, a vital habitat for Neanderthals trying to survive the Ice Age – something we, we, Homo sapienswe could not do it in Europe, where we extinguish while neanderthals resisted.
However, this resistance would not last forever.
It was one capeleologist who first alerted archaeologists For the cave, after finding a human jaw during an exploration.
Later, scientists discovered 2,500 Neanderthal bones in the same place – remains of 13 individuals of varying ages and sexes, who confirmed to be a family.
Your deaths were far from natural. Fractured skulls and accurate cuts show that they died violently into the hands of another group of Neanderthals.
And then, things got even worse: The bones had parallel cuts typical of those who remove meat from the bone, and there were other clear signs of cannibalism, as Fractures made to access the tutano “And it is known that the Neanderthals greatly valued fat.”
Cannibalism practices are much older than you think. Two recent discoveries, also in Spain, revealed that 800,000 years ago humans, and bones found at El Mirador site showed signs of.
Life was already difficult for this family before they were devoured. Suffered from Congenital anomalyssuch as retention of milk teeth and holes in the vertebrae – signs that reproduction between close relatives was increase defects that affected health.
The teacher Lives Rasilla Framefrom the Universidad de Oviedo, describes these anomalies to al-Shamahi as a “silent killer”That went from generation to generation, weakening a species already declining.
E, to aggravate even morea species that had already disappeared from the region again presented itself at the scene: the return of Homo sapiens.
What followed was a intense competition for resources and intersections that reduced Neanderthals to a handful of distinct populations until, after 400,000 years on Earth, disappeared. It’s a hard story, but let’s face it, also fascinating.
“The fact that it is a family group that was killed It soon creates a connection-it hits us immediately, ”said Overton.“ It also shows the critical state of the Neanderthals at that time: They were eating each otherand the population was so small that Consanguinity caused genetic deformitieswhich reveals that they were declining. ”
“So this story has always stayed with me. And when we filmed it, the atmosphere was so loaded… the place has an amazing atmosphere. It’s an amazing place, but has a lot to tell”Concludes Overton.
