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The article mentions "rendering fat (from bones)" many times, but doesn't say how neanderthals actually did it? My best guess is they broke the bones into many

by nomilk 5mo ago

The article mentions "rendering fat (from bones)" many times, but doesn't say how neanderthals actually did it? My best guess is they broke the bones into many little pieces, threw them in a fire, and waited for the fire to extinguish and cool, thus producing hardened (rendered) fat. Feels like the most interesting part of the article was omitted!

deafpolygon 5mo ago
It's in there. > At this location, researchers found that Neanderthals not only broke bones to extract marrow but also crushed large mammal bones into tens of thousands of fragments to render calorie-rich bone grease through heating them in water.
- nomilk 5mo ago
  AFAIK Neanderthals didn't have clay pots - how would they hold the water to heat it and put the bone pieces in? EDIT: I asked claude and it doesn't know for sure but guessed "stone boiling into an organic container — animal stomach, hide, or a bark vessel — remains the most plausible explanation for how they heated the water."
  - card_zero 5mo ago
    One point here is that you can boil water over a fire in a flammable container. Here, this isn't about boiling, but similar: "Because the Neanderthals had no pots, we presume that they soaked their seeds in a fold of an animal skin," says Chris Hunt, a genuine (checks) expert in cultural paleoecology. https://archaeologymag.com/2022/11/neanderthals-cooked-surprisingly-tasty-dishes/ https://archaeologymag.com/2022/11/neanderthals-cooked-surpr...
  - deafpolygon 5mo ago
    They can use skulls of animals, shells of tortoises in direct heat (though not in direct flame). If they were harvesting megafauna like elephants, presumably their skulls are large. It's not implausible to assume that they were capable of controlling heat to the point where they can get the amount of heat needed to boil just water/heating up water to get marrow out. Animal stomach, bladder can be heated to boil water indirectly (fire to heat stone, stone to heat said vessel).
ahazred8ta 5mo ago
You can make a wooden basin or waterproof pit. Fill it with water, drop in hot stones from a fire. This is common in preceramic cultures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot_boiler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot_boiler -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_boiling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_boiling

by nomilk 5mo ago

deafpolygon 5mo ago

It's in there. > At this location, researchers found that Neanderthals not only broke bones to extract marrow but also crushed large mammal bones into tens of thousands of fragments to render calorie-rich bone grease through heating them in water.

nomilk 5mo ago
AFAIK Neanderthals didn't have clay pots - how would they hold the water to heat it and put the bone pieces in? EDIT: I asked claude and it doesn't know for sure but guessed "stone boiling into an organic container — animal stomach, hide, or a bark vessel — remains the most plausible explanation for how they heated the water."
- card_zero 5mo ago
  One point here is that you can boil water over a fire in a flammable container. Here, this isn't about boiling, but similar: "Because the Neanderthals had no pots, we presume that they soaked their seeds in a fold of an animal skin," says Chris Hunt, a genuine (checks) expert in cultural paleoecology. https://archaeologymag.com/2022/11/neanderthals-cooked-surprisingly-tasty-dishes/ https://archaeologymag.com/2022/11/neanderthals-cooked-surpr...
- deafpolygon 5mo ago
  They can use skulls of animals, shells of tortoises in direct heat (though not in direct flame). If they were harvesting megafauna like elephants, presumably their skulls are large. It's not implausible to assume that they were capable of controlling heat to the point where they can get the amount of heat needed to boil just water/heating up water to get marrow out. Animal stomach, bladder can be heated to boil water indirectly (fire to heat stone, stone to heat said vessel).

ahazred8ta 5mo ago

You can make a wooden basin or waterproof pit. Fill it with water, drop in hot stones from a fire. This is common in preceramic cultures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot_boiler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot_boiler -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_boiling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_boiling