How did the Neanderthals survive?

There was a very long period in human history when people lived so primitively that they didn’t even have pottery, anything made of metal was a distant dream and the most advanced piece of technology on the planet consisted of a sharp piece of stone. This level of basic living went on for many thousands of years, as the earliest remains of what is recognized as being the same as modern-day humans were found in Morocco and have been dated to be around 300,000 years old.

Pottery didn’t appear until after the ice age ended around 10,000 BCE, and metal came several thousand years later, but what about those who survived on this earth before humans, and before everything we invented? Those who came before us are known as Neanderthals and existed for over 100,000 years before humans appeared, so who were they and How did the Neanderthals survive?

What is a Neanderthal?

The species known as Neanderthals were very similar to humans in their overall anatomy, but had numerous characteristics that set them apart. The most recognizable was the prominent brow which stuck out much further than a human brow, they were also shorter with a fully grown male standing at just under 5.6″ and women about 6″ less.

(The skull of a Neanderthal, clearly shows the brow protruding further from the skull, and a wider nose)

They had wide hips and broad shoulders, and the bone sizes and density suggest they were naturally stocky and strong in nature. They had wider hips than humans do, making them better at lifting and carrying heavy loads but much slower when needing to run. Their remains have been found mostly across central Europe and spanning as far east as just past modern-day Ukraine. The fossils have mostly been found in a line, shown by the map below, which may be due to them surviving in the ice age and not being able to travel any further north due to glaciers.

What did Neanderthals eat?

Analysis of their bones suggests their diet was very heavily meat-based, and a high number of fractures have been found within the bones of adult males, suggesting that hunting was extremely dangerous. At the time they existed, the wildlife around Europe would have been significantly different, including woolly rhinos, mammoths, and saber tooth tigers. These huge animals would provide enough food for a long time and seemed to be the preference to hunt. No Neanderthal bows have been found and it’s unlikely they were able to make them, which would make hunting anything fast or stealthy very difficult.

The most likely method of hunting would be to simply gang up on something big that can’t hide or run away. The lack of arrows meant that stone spears would have to be thrown or thrust at the animal until it died, but with something like a woolly rhino that weighed an estimated 3.5 tons, this was obviously very dangerous. Bones of large creatures like seals, boar, bears, deer of all kinds, and mammoth bones have been found across many of the dig sites, but very few smaller creatures like rabbits and birds. As for plants there have been no remains found to suggest they knew how to grow anything, but analysis of their teeth shows that plants were also part of their diet, though came secondary to meat.

Neanderthal homes and clothes

Because they lived so long ago, no remains of their homes or clothing fragments have survived. We can only theorize as to how they would have kept warm and the types of homes they lived in. We do know that they had the ability to make fire and numerous fragments have been found across various Neanderthal sites that suggest they used fire regularly. Their homes would most likely be made from sticks and animal skins to cover, as thatching was not used until much later and they didn’t have the ability to cut wood. Any clothes would be made from animal skins because fabric made from any kind of plant material was a long way off.

What happened to them?

The last of the Neanderthals disappeared between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago, but no one knows exactly what happened. What we do know about them is that they always lived in very small groups and didn’t travel far from their homes, living in roughly the same area for their entire lives. Humans on the other hand made an effort to not only breed but to travel and communicate with other groups and civilizations. The rise in the population of humans is thought to be the main reason for the extinction of the Neanderthals, whether it was from direct conflict or the depletion of food sources.

Since they didn’t travel far from where they lived, if food sources were depleted by humans, there’s a good chance they would just stay there and starve while hoping they would come back. The theory of a disease wiping them out is unsupported as its development in nature and distribution would be impossible, so even though we don’t know exactly, the most likely reason would be the development of the human race.