The entrance of Amud cave. Credit: Anaelle Jallon.

A new study has found Neanderthals at two nearby caves butchered the same prey in different ways, suggesting local food traditions.

A new study from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem reveals that Neanderthals living in two nearby caves in northern Israel butchered their food in noticeably different ways.

The findings provide rare insight into the social and cultural complexity of Neanderthal communities.

Neanderthals lived in the nearby caves of Amud and Kebara between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, using the same tools and hunting the same prey.

But due to the research lead by Anaëlle Jallon from the Institute of Archeology, and with colleagues from the Natural History Museum of London, studying the cutmarks on the remains of their prey have found that the two groups seem to have butchered their food in visibly different ways, which can’t be explained by the skill of the butchers or the resources or tools used at each site.

These differences could represent distinct cultural food practices, such as drying meat before butchering it.

Jallon, who is a PhD candidate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said: “The subtle differences in cut-mark patterns between Amud and Kebara may reflect local traditions of animal carcass processing.

“Even though Neanderthals at these two sites shared similar living conditions and faced comparable challenges, they seem to have developed distinct butchery strategies, possibly passed down through social learning and cultural traditions.

“These two sites give us a unique opportunity to explore whether Neanderthal butchery techniques were standardised.

“If butchery techniques varied between sites or time periods, this would imply that factors such as cultural traditions, cooking preferences, or social organisation influenced even subsistence-related activities such as butchering.”

Written in the bones

Amud and Kebara are close to each other: only 70km apart. Neanderthals occupied both caves during the winters between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, leaving behind burials, stone tools, hearths, and food remains.

Both groups used the same flint tools and relied on the same prey for their diet — mostly gazelles and fallow deer – but there are some subtle differences between the two.

The Neanderthals living at Kebara seem to have hunted more large prey than those at Amud, and they also seem to have carried more large kills home to butcher them in the cave rather than at the site of the kill.

At Amud, 40% of the animal bones are burned and most are fragmented. This could be caused by deliberate actions like cooking or by later accidental damage.

At Kebara, 9% of the bones are burned, but less fragmented, and are thought to have been cooked. The bones at Amud also seem to have undergone less carnivore damage than those found at Kebara.

To investigate the differences between food preparation at Kebara and at Amud, the scientists selected a sample of cut-marked bones from contemporaneous layers at the two sites.

They examined these macroscopically and microscopically, recording the cut-marks’ different characteristics.

Similar patterns of cut-marks might suggest there were no differences in butchery practices, while different patterns might indicate distinct cultural traditions.

The cut-marks were clear and intact, largely unaffected by later damage caused by carnivores or the drying out of the bones.

The profiles, angles, and surface widths of these cuts were similar, likely due to the two groups’ similar toolkits.

However, the cut-marks found at Amud were more densely packed and less linear in shape than those at Kebara.

Cooking from scratch

The researchers considered several possible explanations for this pattern. It could have been driven by the demands of butchering different prey species or different types of bones — most of the bones at Amud, but not Kebara, are long bones — but when they only looked at the long bones of small ungulates found at both Amud and Kebara, the same differences showed up in the data.

Experimental archaeology also suggests this pattern couldn’t be accounted for by less skilled butchers or by butchering more intensively to get as much food as possible.

The different patterns of cut-marks are best explained by deliberate butchery choices made by each group.

One possible explanation is that the Neanderthals at Amud were treating meat differently before butchering it: possibly drying their meat or letting it decompose, like modern-day butchers hanging meat before cooking.

Decaying meat is harder to process, which would account for the greater intensity and less linear form of the cut-marks.

A second possibility is that different group organisation — for example, the number of butchers who worked on a given kill — in the two communities of Neanderthals played a role.

However, more research will be needed to investigate these possibilities.

Jallon said: “There are some limitations to consider. The bone fragments are sometimes too small to provide a complete picture of the butchery marks left on the carcass.

“While we have made efforts to correct for biases caused by fragmentation, this may limit our ability to fully interpret the data.

“Future studies, including more experimental work and comparative analyses, will be crucial for addressing these uncertainties — and maybe one day reconstructing Neanderthals’ recipes.”

The study is published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.