Reconstructing the Neanderthal diet: Recent advances in Archaeological Research

Lecture by Dr. Mario Mata-González

Since the discovery of the first Neanderthal fossils, especially during the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, Neanderthals were conceptualized as brutish and unintelligent creatures. Nevertheless, our understanding of what being Neanderthal means has shifted radically during the last four decades, and archaeological and paleoanthropological researchers have demonstrated over and over again that Neanderthals were successful, highly adaptable, and innovative humans. We now know that they spread across a vast territory, from the Atlantic coasts of Europe to the Altai Mountains in east-Central Asia, and they existed between ca. 400–35 kya.

The reconstruction of diet (food that is consumed) and subsistence strategies (how food is procured, processed, consumed, discarded, etc.) represent key aspects to better understand how Neanderthals adapted to different environments and faced ecological constraints. Using Neandertals as case studies, during my talk I will present a review of numerous archaeological subfields and scientific methods that allow us to reconstruct hominin diets and subsistence strategies, including zooarchaeology, archaeobotanical, stable isotopes, dental microwear, and dental calculus. By doing so, I aim to illustrate the potential of using Archaeological Sciences to study past hominin behavior in new ways that may have seemed unimaginable a few decades ago.