The exploitation of crabs by Last Interglacial Iberian Neanderthals:
the evidence from Gruta da Figueira Brava (Portugal)
Mariana Nabais, Catherine Dupont & João Zilhão 2023
Front.Environ.Archaeol. 7.2.23 Zooarchaeology 2
doi org/10.3389/fearc.2023.1097815

Hominin consumption of small prey has been much discussed over the past decades.
Such resources are often considered to be unproductive in the mid-Paleolithic, due to their limited meat yield (low energy return),
but ethnographic studies suggest:
small prey (incl. shellfish) are a reliable, predictable, by no means marginal resource,
there is increasing evidence for their inclusion in mid-Paleolithic diets & even earlier.

Gruta da Figueira Brava features a MIS-5c-5b Hn occupation, that left behind substantial, human-accumulated terrestrial & marine faunal remains,
these are capped by reworked levels, that contain some naturally accumulated, recent Holocene material: the remains of small crab spp & echinoderms.
The brown crab Cancer pagurus predominates in the intact mid-Paleolithic deposit,
reconstruction of its carapace width (based on regression from claw size) shows a preference for rel.large individuals.
The detailed analysis of the Cancer pagurus remains reveals:
complete animals were brought to the site, where they were roasted on coals, then cracked open to access the flesh.

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Why Mesolithic Populations Started Eating Crabs on the European Atlantic Façade Only Over the Past 15 Years?
Catherine Dupont & Yves Gruet 2022 Open Archaeol.8:670-695
doi 10.1515/opar-2022-0255

Mesolithic populations from coastal areas are known as hunter-gatherer-fishers. This way of life is visible in the landscape, owing to large accumulations of shells: shell-middens.
These anthropogenic refuse heaps are composed of high proportions of marine resources,
yet studies dedicated to marine components are rel.recent.
Efforts have been made to record marine molluscs,
but other minorities are still invisible as a result of the small sizes of archaeological remains.

Crustaceans are one of these minorities: this article will focus on crabs.
Why are these decapods persistently ignored by most of archaeologists?
Is this due to the scant presence of their remains in Mesolithic shell-middens?

An overview of published data on crabs is presented here for the Mesolithic on the European Atlantic façade.
The proportions of shell-middens comprising these crustaceans is evaluated + quantities & identified spp.
We endeavour to identify the potential impact of excavation methods & sampling on our knowledge of this marine resource.
We present the methods developed to extract data from small archaeological crab remains:
from a fragment of a crab finger extremity, we can identify the species, and estimate the original size of crabs.
This methodological challenge has a major impact on our knowledge of past maritime populations.

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Neandertal pachy-osteo-sclerosis can biologically only be explained by frequent diving (POS He>>Hn>>Hs=0):
very heavy occipital bone (POS) + very large paranasal air sinuses (& probably large nose)
= frequent back-floating: consumption of shellfish incl. crabs cf. sea-otters.

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[email protected] wrote:

The exploitation of crabs by Last Interglacial Iberian Neanderthals:
the evidence from Gruta da Figueira Brava (Portugal)
Mariana Nabais, Catherine Dupont & João Zilhão 2023 Front.Environ.Archaeol. 7.2.23 Zooarchaeology 2
doi org/10.3389/fearc.2023.1097815

Neanderthals exploiting marine resources is well attested.

i'm guessing that the Neanderthals we descend from were the coastal
population. They would have been the best suited to survive catastrophes
and of course the first to breed with arrivals from elsewhere.




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The exploitation of crabs by Last Interglacial Iberian Neanderthals:
the evidence from Gruta da Figueira Brava (Portugal)
Mariana Nabais, Catherine Dupont & João Zilhão 2023 Front.Environ.Archaeol. 7.2.23 Zooarchaeology 2
doi org/10.3389/fearc.2023.1097815

Neanderthals exploiting marine resources is well attested.
i'm guessing that the Neanderthals we descend from were the coastal population. They would have been the best suited to survive catastrophes
and of course the first to breed with arrivals from elsewhere.

Probably all Hn were coastal, but only seasonally: Hn pachy-osteo-sclerosis (POS) leaves no doubt: they frequently dived for shallow-aquatic foods, but Hn POS was only half that of H.erectus, and Hn is often found inland along rivers: I'd think most if
not all Hn seasonally followed the Meuse, Rhine etc. inland, perhaps following the salmon trek?
The combination in Hn of a large nose surrounded by very large paranasal air sinuses + a very heavy occiput (POS++ in dorsal skull) indicates regular back-floating: opening & eating shellfish & crabs.
In any case, only incredible imbeciles believe Hn ran after bovids.

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[email protected] wrote:

Probably all Hn were coastal, but only seasonally:

They don't appear to have covered nearly the range of Hss.

Hn pachy-osteo-sclerosis (POS) leaves no doubt: they frequently dived for shallow-aquatic foods,
but Hn POS was only half that of H.erectus, and Hn is often found inland along rivers: I'd think
most if not all Hn seasonally followed the Meuse, Rhine etc. inland, perhaps following the salmon trek?

The evidence for salmon that I've seen is a little too young for comfort. Anything under 50k years old and i have my doubts. They were probably
mixed blood at best.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101006094057.htm

I've seen estimates of about 42k or order but this pretty much ends things
for Neanderthals. But there's plenty of evidence that heavy interbreeding
had long since begun. The so called Cro Magnons were a hybrid of Hn and
so called "Moderns." There's plenty of evidence for them by 50k or so,
casting anything afterwards into doubt.

...this is the stuff Wolpoff famously talked about, starting back before
anyone was allowed to.




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