Revealed, the house-proud Neanderthals

Visitors of the Museum for Prehistory in Eyzies-de-Tayac look at a Neanderthal man ancestor's reconstruction. Archaeologists say the discovery of a talon necklace means Neanderthal man had an eye for beauty.

Visitors of the Museum for Prehistory in Eyzies-de-Tayac look at a Neanderthal man ancestor's reconstruction. Archaeologists say the discovery of a talon necklace means Neanderthal man had an eye for beauty.

Published Jul 5, 2013

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London - Neanderthals were a house-proud race who liked to return to home comforts, cave excavations have revealed.

Our ancestors used a network of small caves for occasional hunting expeditions before returning to a larger base they called home.

Hunting spoils would probably be eaten in the smaller caves, leaving the bigger base free from messy scraps and bones.

Excavations at four sites in Gibraltar unearthed stone tools and camp fires featuring the remains of seals, ibex and red deer dating back more than 24 000 years.

The scientists, from Gibraltar Museum and Oxford University, were able to determine which site was used for what purpose.

Among the tools found were hammers, scrapers and shucks for opening shellfish.

The population would have foraged locally along a coastal plain.

Their varied diet included wild boar, rabbits, dolphins, birds, tortoises, fish and pine nuts.

Gibraltar was inhabited by Neanderthals for 100 000 years, with radiocarbon dating suggesting they lived on the Rock as recently as 24 000 years ago.

The peninsula was the final stronghold of the early descendants of man and is where one of the first discoveries of Neanderthal skeletal remains was made in the 19th century. - Daily Mail

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