Neanderthal Diet Study Reveals Varied Menu Beyond Meat, From Grains to Medicinal Plants

Research into Neanderthal diets challenges the long-held stereotype of brutish carnivores, revealing a complex and adaptable people who survived Pleistocene Eurasia by exploiting a wide range of food sources. Neanderthals were stockier than Homo sapiens, with builds suited to cold climates and confrontational hunting, requiring a much higher caloric intake than modern humans. A study by Hardy et al. suggests they needed between 3,100 and 6,700 calories daily, more than professional rugby or football players with similar BMIs. Their menu included woolly mammoths, rhinos, straight-tusked elephants, giant deer, aurochs, stags, and even apex predators like bears and lions. However, analysis of bones and teeth shows diets varied by region: evidence from Spy Cave in Belgium indicates wild sheep and woolly rhinos, while El Sidron Cave in Spain shows mushrooms, pine nuts, and moss. Neanderthals cooked tubers, pulses, and processed grains, making food more digestible. They also used medicinal plants: chamomile and yarrow from El Sidron, Penicillium mold for diarrhea, and poplar bark containing salicylic acid for dental pain. Coastal populations in Gibraltar ate mollusks, fish, seals, and dolphins. The findings suggest Neanderthals were fearsome predators, opportunistic scavengers, and foragers with adaptable regional food systems.