Here\u2019s what you\u2019ll learn when you read this story:<\/p>\n
A new study shows evidence of Neanderthal \u201cfat factories\u201d dating back as far as 125,000 years ago.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
The study found inhabitants of the settlement strategically selected the lakeside location for the factory and harvested bone marrow by breaking open the bones as well as through a process of crushing and heating.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
The fat factory suggests Neanderthals\u2019 grasp of their survivalist diets, and that they were able to understand their environment and plan ahead for hunting and resource-gathering.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Though the assembly line<\/a> is largely credited to Henry Ford<\/a> in 1913, humans understood the mass production practice long beforehand. A new study published in the journal Science Advances<\/a> shows that the Neanderthals<\/a>\u2014our distant cousins\u2014operated \u201cfat factories\u201d to extract bone marrow for their diets as far back as 125,000 years ago. The recent research from Leiden University adds to decades of previous research at the Neumark-Nord archaeological site near Leipzig, Germany.<\/p>\n Around 125,000 years ago, Earth experienced an interglacial period<\/a> with weather much like our climate today. Previous research at Neumark-Nord showed that Neanderthals hunted and butchered straight-tusked elephants in the region. According to a press release<\/a> from Leiden University, there is also evidence of plant use in the area, though it\u2019s rarely preserved. Additionally, previous studies found proof that inhabitants used fire to manage vegetation. Needless to say, Neanderthals have long been underestimated, and the new study does nothing to dissuade that notion.<\/p>\n Archeologists on the recent excavation found that Neanderthals intentionally selected the lakeside location to process the bones<\/a> of at least 172 mammals including deer, horses, and aurochs (a now-extinct species of bovine). According to the study, inhabitants at the site not only broke open large mammal bones to extract the marrow, but they also ground the bones into thousands of fragments and heated them in water to extract calorie-rich bone grease. These findings place estimates of advanced resource collection thousands of years earlier than previously thought.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was intensive, organised, and strategic,\u201d the study\u2019s first author Lutz Kindler said in the press release. \u201cNeanderthals were clearly managing resources with precision\u2014planning hunts, transporting carcasses, and rendering fat in a task-specific area. They understood both the nutritional value of fat and how to access it efficiently\u2014most likely involving caching carcass parts at places in the landscape for later transport to and use at the grease rendering site.\u201d<\/p>\n