According to a study carried out from the University of Murcia, the Neanderthals They lived in much more diverse environments, including temperate forests and Mediterranean landscapes. The plants were source of food, shelter and ecological stability.
The study carried out by in the south of Spain, financed with 150 thousand euros by (AEI), proposes a profound change in the way in which the lives of Neanderthals and other hominids are visually and scientifically reconstructed, placing the vegetation and landscape at the center of the narrative through scientifically based paleoart.
The result is not only a new iconography, but also a scientific tool capable of generating discussion, identifying gaps in knowledge and reviewing established hypotheses.
“We do not represent a single plant that is not corroborated by the fossil record. We translate data such as pollen frequency, species ecology and their association in the landscape into evidence-based visual scenes, with a very limited creative scope”, highlighted Carrión.
In addition to its clearly informative and artistic content, The images allow us to pose new questions that arise from the elements represented and the hypotheses that were previously accepted.
In the case of Neanderthals, traditionally represented in steppe landscapes, with a predominant image of animals from that time, this is a zoocentric vision of the past, with large animals, hunting scenes and open and hostile landscapes, which is being called into question by Carrión’s work.
This study shows that Neanderthals inhabited much more diverse environments, including temperate forests and Mediterranean landscapes.
“Neanderthals have always been portrayed as a species associated with cold, treeless steppes. But paleoecological data indicate that they lived for thousands of years in forested and semi-forested landscapes, which is also in line with what we know today about their anatomy and hunting methods,” explained the researcher.
Drawing as a form of “additional verification”
The visual reconstructions developed in this project show how vegetation influenced the availability of resources, mobility, subsistence strategies and the behavior of hominids.
The plants were not merely a setting, but a source of food, shelter, microclimate and ecological stability.
In contrast to the images of Neanderthals, historically conditioned by prejudices inherited from the 19th century, which present them as primitive figures condemned to evolutionary failure, this research highlighted their cognitive sophistication, their symbolic capacity and their role as ecological actors fully integrated into their landscapes.
Far from being a decorative illustration, paleoart is presented here as a methodological extension of paleoecology.
“When we see a complete scene, like a snapshot of the past, we can identify flaws in the scientific process or gaps in the fossil record,” the researchers pointed out.
This way, the drawing becomes a form of “additional verification”.
This approach allowed, for example, a reassessment of the location of glacial refuges, traditionally considered restricted to the extreme south of Europe.
The data indicated the existence of forest refuges also in interior and mountainous areas, with important implications for understanding migrations and the persistence of human populations.
