Prehistory

The meat cutters called Neanderthal man

       

The Somme has given up one of its greatest secrets: the existence of Neanderthal man in north-west Europe during a freak warm period that occurred between two ice ages. At Caours, near Abbeville, not far from the mouth of the Somme, archaeologists discovered evidence of where our forerunners had cut up animals as large as the rhinoceros and the elephant.

   

The animal bones, found in a geological strata that can be dated to a period 125,000 years ago, show signs of having been sawn through, crushed or stripped of their meat by the use of flint tools. Patrick Auguste, one of the other principal researchers on the site, said “The Neanderthals may have had thicker fingers than us, but they were certainly not clumsy. Their tools were shaped with exceptional skill.”

   

What happened to the Neanderthals remains a mystery. As they thrived in cold weather, and now have been proved capable of existing comfortably during a near-tropical interlude, the second ice-age should not have been fatal to them. Instead, they may have become victims of a new, more deadly species – Homo Sapiens.

From our October 2006 e-newsletter