by liberal japonicus
This has been reported in several places.
In a new discovery about this mysterious yet often familiar species, researchers have found ancient evidence of a Neanderthal "fat factory" in what is now Germany.
Operational around 125,000 years ago, the factory would've been a place where Neanderthals broke and crushed the bones of large mammals to extract valuable bone marrow and grease, used as a valuable extra food source.
According to scientists, this is the earliest evidence yet for this type of sophisticated, large-scale bone processing, including both bone marrow and grease: the first confirmation Neanderthals were also doing this some 100,000 years before our species made it to Europe.
"This was intensive, organised, and strategic," says archaeologist Lutz Kindler from the MONREPOS Archaeological Research Center in Germany.
"Neanderthals were clearly managing resources with precision – planning hunts, transporting carcasses, and rendering fat in a task-specific area. They understood both the nutritional value of fat and how to access it efficiently – most likely involving caching carcass parts at places in the landscape for later transport to and use at the grease rendering site."
This had me think of the myth about how Prometheus tricked Zeus into accepting bones and gristle, covered with a layer of fat to make them appear more appealing instead of the edible parts of the offering, which were covered with the stomach and guts. Tossing that on the fire gave the gods food in the form of smoke going up to Olympus. In Aristophanes' play The Birds, in building Cloud-cuckoo land, the birds cut off that smoke to Olympus, forcing the gods to agree to a peace treaty. So I'm wondering if this fat factory connects in some way to Hesiod's explanation of the Prometheus at the Feast of Mekone.
When the gods and men met at Mekone to decide how sacrifices should be distributed, Prometheus sought to trick Zeus. Slaughtering an ox, he took the valuable fat and meat, and covered it with the ox's stomach. Prometheus then took the bones and hid them with a thin glistening layer of fat. Prometheus asked Zeus' opinion on which offering pile he found more desirable, hoping to trick the god into selecting the less desirable portion.
Just as a side note, looking up The Birds in Wikipedia has this
The play begins with two middle-aged men stumbling across a hillside wilderness, guided by a pet crow and a pet jackdaw. One of them advises the audience that they are fed up with life in Athens, where people do nothing all day but argue over laws,
A thread for all things under the sun.
It’s long been pretty clear that the Neanderthals were every bit as intelligent, and culturally complex, as homo sapiens. Just earlier. And were similar enough to us that interbreeding took place. Most of us have chunks of Neanderthal DNA in our genome.
It’s not (that I know of) clear why/how we replaced them. Presumably we had an advantage of some kind. Higher birth rates? Better or more focused disease resistance? More effective aggressive behavior? Something.
It seems that they – being more robust – needed more high quality calories than our own ancestors and that the really lean times came after not in the ice age. But to my knowlege the youngest Neanderthal finds are in regions our ancestors had not yet reached (Gibraltar), so us wiping them out seems not to have been the primary reason. Slightly lower birth rates (for whatever reason) seem to be the main cause. Grey squirrel against red squirrel?
Of course my favorite explanation is that the Neanderthals were still at getting their Maxim guns working properly when our ancestors overran them with mediocre but nonetheless functional clubs.
I’ve been reading about Neanderthals for the escapism. One difference between them and homo sapiens is the lack of visual art and, with a very notable exception, the apparent lack of sites for religious rituals.
Lack of a site doesn’t mean there was no religion and no ceremonies, of course, and Neanderthals did make aesthetic designs both in the form of jewelry (shell necklaces) and in marks on some of their tools–though the marks are just straight lines in limited patterns.
Still there seems to be a difference in mind. What this means, I don’t know.
Was historical iconoclasm maybe just an occasional outburst of Neanderthal ancestry?
the lack of visual art and, with a very notable exception, the apparent lack of sites for religious rituals.
I’m not sure this is so. My understanding is that cave art attributable to Neandethals have been found in the Loire and in Spain. The attribution is based on dating the paint used, which apparently (or allegedly) pre-dates homo sapiens’ arrival in Europe.
The famous individual buried in Shanidar cave surrounded by pollen is often cited as an example of Neanderthal intentional burial practices, indicating symbolic thought and ritualistic behaviors.
Well, I’m up to just under 1500 miles on the electric mountain bike. No problems with it so far (Trek Fuel EXe), and just about to change tires for the first time. Had it in the bike shop once so far to get the suspension serviced – not an inexpensive prospect, but far less expensive than replacing a shock or a fork.
Just did my favorite ride again this week – 18 miles with a bit over 2000 feet of climbing. Went in the morning as soon as the trails open and passed a Great Horned Owl sitting beside the trail and staring at me.
Just ordered a 529 Garage shield to put on my bike to protect it from theft. Have it registered at project529.com in case it goes missing.
Been doing a bit of research for gravel/ bikepacking bikes or a dropbar MTB that I might want to pick up if we are forced to retire and move someplace more flat. If there is anything good to be said for getting a full suspension emtb, it’s that once you shell out for that, the price of a fancy modern gravel bike seems completely reasonable and the mechanicals seem dead simple.
Thinking of getting some bike mechanic training for retirement. Might volunteer at a community bike shop.
Meanwhile, in “stuff that pisses off nous”:
https://www.propublica.org/article/newtok-alaska-climate-relocation
Federal auditors have warned for years that climate relocation projects need a lead agency to coordinate assistance and reduce the burden on local communities. The Biden administration tried to address those concerns by creating an interagency task force led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Interior Department. The task force’s report in December also called for more coordination and guidance across the federal government as well as long-term funding for relocations.
But the Trump administration has removed the group’s report from FEMA’s website and, as part of its withdrawal of climate funding, frozen millions in federal aid that was supposed to pay for housing construction in Mertarvik this summer. The administration did not respond to a request for comment.
These fucking people…
I can’t wait for the ocean to swallow Mar-A-Lago like a bad case of reflux.
I can’t wait for the ocean to swallow Mar-A-Lago like a bad case of reflux.
Personally, I’d like to see the site become a sewage treatment plant. (A real one, not a metaphor.) Give the cult a focus for pilgrimages.
But your alternative does have merit. Not to mention a high probability.
Maybe some of Musk’s space vehicles could drop on it for starters (after installing Grok as steering software).
IN response to Russell up thread. The books I read about Neanderthals attributed the care art to homo sapiens but scientific knowledge is always evolving! It is easier for me to believe that they did have religious art than to believe that their one and only ceremony was the apparent shrine built out of stalagmites.
Yes, I remember now that there were a few burials that indicated some ceremony.
There are also burials that indicated people eating other people, but that also can be done for ceremonial reasons.
Far fewer men self-identify as Neanderthal than the number of women claiming they’re married to one…
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jul/13/are-a-few-people-ruining-the-internet-for-the-rest-of-us
Neanderthals would never act this way.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democrats-put-previous-misgivings-hit-trump-jeffrey-epstein-files-rcna218608
This makes me a little queasy, but maybe it’s the sort of thing Democrats need to do right now.
A somewhat different case of Plus ça change…:
One of the favorite obsessions of the MAGA-verse, for the past decade, has been the Epstein Files. Trump used it to smear his opponents. And to demonstrate how he was in sync with the common folks against the Elites. He regularly demanded that they be made public.
But then, Trump’s Attorney General, after saying shortly after taking office that she had the file on her desk, announced that there was nothing there that warranted publication. And Trump posted various suggestions that it was old news and people should just move on.
No surprise: while a few cultists followed directions, a substantial majority are having none of it. They want to see those files. They are demanding to see them. (And, incidently, demanding that the AG be fired for not publishing them.)
A lot of us have wondered what would hit the MAGAts hard enough to wake them up. Which, we innocently assumed, was what would get them to abandon Trump. Lots of discussion of economic pain, loved ones dying for lack of medical care, other real stuff. Somehow nobody (that I saw) suggested that one of the conspiracy theories would turn around and bite him.
My guess is that, if they’d just published them, no matter how damning the contents the true believers would have come up with a conspiracy theory to explain it all away. SStereotypically,it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up.
I wonder, do they really have NOTHING? Otherwise I would have expected a highly redacted version giving the impression that only Dems and some GOPsters fallen from grace were on the list. Or something like the ‘total exoneration’ stuff as with the reports about the scandals of His Orangeness during his first term totally misrepresented by his henchcritters.
The current
a) nothing incriminating to see in those files and
b) it’s all fabricated by Biden and Obama to incriminate His Orangeness
does not make sense even in the MAGAverse.
If the files were really as toxic as they made it look until recently, they should have known it and been prepared to distort it to their advantage and, if there was nothing, what would have stopped them to go on with insinuations and fakes:’The previous administrations tampered with the evidence, so no original files, but here is what we found out…’?
Well, clearly the Epstein files show that the suicide was faked: Epstein SURVIVED, Trump gave him a pardon and put him in the Witness Protection Program.
Epstein is now working in a truck-stop diner in Nebraska, along with Elvis.
Too bad there isn’t a Weekly World News to report on this. Oh well.