hunter-gatherers
Eclipses for the ancestors
Culture shapes our experience of these astronomical events, and would have done so for Neanderthals and other ancestral hominins.
![Solar eclipse with bright point of sunlight just emerging from the moon's edge at right of image](/content/images/size/w1460/2024/03/jongsun-lee-F-pSZO_jeE8-unsplash.jpg)
Bison bones show butchery practices 400,000 years ago
In the Gran Dolina cave site, ancient people left a bone bed of bison killed in two seasons and butchered at the site with expedient tools.
![Panoramic image of excavation at Gran Dolina with archaeologists at work.](/content/images/size/w1460/2022/09/gran-dolina-2012-excavation-panorama-wikidata.jpg)
Neandertals hunted dangerous prey. How they killed them.
With deep experience in the hunt, Neandertals could anticipate the behavior of many of the most dangerous prey animals.
![A faunal mandible surrounded by other bone fragments on an excavated surface](/content/images/size/w1460/2023/10/faunal-bones-in-excavation-mauran-france-c-farizy-in-bachellerie-et-al-2011.jpg)
Different transport strategies for different large prey species at Abric Romaní
Interpreting the record of prey exploitation at a rock shelter site over thousands of years provides a window into past economics.
![Two red deer does and a fawn standing within a misty fog layer with a rising sun in the background](/content/images/size/w1460/2022/09/red-deer-mist-morning-simon-wilkes-unsplash.jpg)
High adult mortality in some contemporary hunter-gatherers
A brief review of a paper describing the causes of high mortality among young adults of the Hiwi people.