A 1991 study set the precedent for Neanderthal diets: they were hypercarnivores that consumed extraordinarily high amounts of meat. This conclusion was drawn from isotopic analyses of Neanderthal remains. Their bones had extremely high levels of nitrogen locked within them, which reflected high protein consumption. This conclusion was largely unchecked due to a couple of reasons. First, it confirmed various negative perceptions of Neanderthals that existed at that time. Also, there were limited botanical remains present at Neanderthal sites, fostering little reason to debate the conclusion that Neanderthals were hypercarnivores.
At least until recently. Newer studies began to question and erode away at previous conclusions about Neanderthals, leading us to realize that there were not dumb brutes. A Neanderthal site in Israel provided evidence of botanical food remains, suggesting that Neanderthals at least had access to those food options. Additional research showed botanical remains were present in plague and tartar build up on Neanderthal teeth. The crucial line of evidence, however, was the study of 50,000 year old Neanderthal coprolites (poop), which showed definitive evidence of plant consumption among Neanderthals. It also, however, reinforced the high nitrogen levels, further supporting the notion that Neanderthals were hypercarnivores.
This concept continued on for several more decades until archaeologist John Speth of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor published his work. Drawing upon ethnohistorical evidence Speth stated that human populations in the past, from foragers to horticulturalists, regularly consumed rotten meat. These populations not only did not shy away from rotten meat but in some cases preferred it. There are reports of how some would purposefully manipulate the meat to encourage it to enter into a rotten state before consuming it. In both cases (consuming meat that became rotten with or without manipulation) there was also the consumption of maggots that were present on the rotten meat remains.
There are various contemporary foraging and northern European populations who continue to consume rotten or fermented meat, so it is not a trend that has completely disappeared despite legitimate health concerns over consuming rotten food. Speth noted that because these populations were exposed to the consumption of rotten meat at an early age they very possibly developed gut microbes that enabled them to consume the rotten meat safely.
He went even further to suggest that rotten meat may have been a part of hominids’ diets. There had been substantial evidence that various early hominids were meat scavengers before they were hunters. These hominids would remove the limbs of animals that were taken down by larger beasts, consuming the meat left on the bones and breaking open the bones to consume raw marrow. There is no guarantee that these opportunistic scavenging options occurred among fresh kills (chances are they were more often not fresh). This meant that the consumption of rotten meat and maggots present on the meat was something that existed throughout human history.
Speth, however, had not tested his ideas upon publication of his work. Melanie Beasley, who was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, decided to do just that. She utilized the human remains present at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s Body Farm to collect maggots, and she tested the maggots chemical composition to determine what she would find. She ultimately realized that the maggots were high in nitrogen, meaning that hominid populations that showed high nitrogen levels in their bones may not have been hypercarnivores. These individuals may have been consuming maggots, which created the high nitrogen levels in their bones. Beasley argued that there are three lines of evidence to support the conclusion that Neanderthals were consuming maggots: First, it was inevitable that maggots would show up during the meat processing procedures that Neanderthals used to butcher their prey. Second, Neanderthals may have utilized meat storage procedures for very large prey (e.g., mammoths or whales) and maggots would have turned up during meat storage, particularly as Neanderthals did not have access to refrigeration (as is common today). Thirdly, she cited Speth’s ethnohistoric research concerning modern foraging groups consumption of maggots as part of their diets and their lack of qualms in doing so.
Ultimately, her fellow scholars liked her ideas and conclusions as it accounts for the extraordinarily high nitrogen levels in Neanderthal bones. This also accounts for the current contradictory evidence concerning Neanderthal diets, which show that they were indeed consuming balanced diets full of vegetables, shellfish, cooked grains. Lastly, as Speth also pointed out, Neanderthals would have gone extinct much sooner had they relied on an almost exclusively meat diet. The consumption of too much lean meats (with little to no supplementation of fats and other dietary needs provided through plant consumption) would have led to the nutritional deficiency known as “rabbit starvation.” This is the result of consuming meat products that have little to no fat (be it from meat or other products such as fruits, vegetables, and dairy) will in the long term cause irreparable harm to the body, eventually leading to death. Ultimately, no one can survive on a diet almost exclusively made up of lean meats, striking yet another blow to the ever popular and super unhealth “Paleodiet”.
References
Bower, B. (2023, March 20). A surprising food may have been a staple of the real Paleo diet: rotten meat. ScienceNews.
Duerstock, H. (2015, February 15). Proof is in the Poop. Retrieved from ASU: Ask a Biologist: https://askabiologist.asu.edu/plosable/proof-poop-what-neanderthals-ate
Gibbons, A. (2025, March 19). Neanderthals may have eaten maggots as part of their diet. Science.
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