Hunting those tasty Neandertals

Numerous Neanderthal bones recovered from archaeological sites bear unmistakable marks of butchery—cut marks from defleshing and fracture patterns consistent with marrow extraction. The larger bones, particularly the femurs and tibias, exhibit characteristic notching and pitting, indicating that someone systematically cracked them open to access the nutrient-rich marrow. Some bones even display signs of "retouching"—secondary modifications indicating they were later repurposed as tools for sharpening stone implements. In other words, whoever consumed these individuals subsequently used their remains as whetstones.

The chronology is particularly striking: these butchered bones date to the period when Homo sapiens first arrived in Europe. The evidence suggests newcomers hunted young Neanderthals and processed them with stone tools using techniques identical to those used for game animals. Neanderthals disappeared rapidly after contact with our species. While various theories attempt to explain this—climate change, genetic bottlenecks, competitive exclusion—the archaeological record points toward a simpler explanation: they were hunted as food.

This interpretation finds support in ethnographic accounts. Societies that practised cannibalism consistently describe human flesh as resembling pork in taste and texture. New Guinea communities famously termed humans "long pig" and consumed them at communal feasts. The notion that such practices served purely ceremonial functions or represented symbolic absorption of an enemy's strength strikes me as a wishful reinterpretation. The more straightforward answer is that people hunted and ate Neandertals because they found the meat tasty and nutritious. Meeting Homo sapiens was very bad news for every one of God's creatures.