Combe Grenal is a cave site that was used during the Upper Pleistocene period. It is located 14 miles (22 km) southeast of Les Eyzies in the Dordogne region of southwestern France. This cave site offers evidence of prehistoric habitation by Neanderthal man.
A French archaeologist by the name of Francois Bordes was a renowned expert on the European Paleolithic Period. Bordes excavated at Combe Grenal between 1953 and 1967. He exposed 43 feet (13 meters) of deposits that were divided into 64 layers. Unique stone tools and important data pertaining to the climate, plants, and animals of the region were discovered. The earliest layers, which date from about 125,000 years ago, contain Acheulean hand axes and flake tools. The remaining 55 layers range from 75,000 to 35, 000 years ago. This site shows repeated occupation by people. His excavations at Combe Grenal and other sites in southwestern France helped to reconstruct the cultural activities of more than 100,000 years. His specialty was Neanderthal culture.
Neanderthals were hunters and gatherers that existed during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic period. Their remains were discovered in Duesseldorf, Germany in the Neander Valley in 1856. The first discovery of Neanderthal fossils were made in 1829 when fragments of a Neanderthal child's skull was found in Belgium.
The average height of Neanderthal was about 5 feet. Their bodies were most likely muscular and stocky with very strong legs, perhaps due to wandering or traveling. They had low brow ridges, their front teeth were larger than modern humans. Neanderthal's average brain size is larger than some modern humans. Evidence shows that they lived between 130,000 and 35,000 years ago, dating back to the fourth glaciation, the Wurm. Neanderthal's life was difficult and they probably lived to be 40 or 45 years of age.
Paleoanthropologists debate as to whether Neanderthal mainly hunted or whether they were mainly scavengers. An archaeologist by the name of Lewis Binford, known as the "Father of New Archaeology," is one who feels that they were scavengers rather than hunters. Binford's assumption of this is based on the evidence found at the Combe Grenal site.
Lewis Binford's theories of Neanderthal social structure are controversial. He suggests that Neanderthal males and females basically led separate lives, and may have lived in separate places, and ate different foods. Mating may have occurred between foraging trips. Binford's basis for this theory was his analysis of a series of hearths found at Combe Grenal. One hearth was called the "nest" because it contained a bed of soft sedimentary material, simple tools, and animal marrow bones. The other hearths, that were 9 to 30 feet away, contained more elaborate stone tools with scrapers and rock flakes.
The site showed evidence of fires, through carbonized sediments, burning at a much higher rate then in the "nest." The tools found at the hearth were made of materials available at a great distance from the cave, along with the remains of animals found in distant areas of the river valley. Traces of pollen found on the flake tools suggested to Binford that Neanderthals main food may have been aquatic plants found in nearby streams. Staying within an area for long periods of time posed a threat to Neanderthal because this meant depleting the food supply which caused bouts of starvation, malnourishment, and eventually the demise of Neanderthal man.
Sources
Grolier Encyclopedia, Combe Grenal
Grolier Encyclopedia, Francois Bordes
Website: http://thunder.indstate.edu/~ramanank/other.html **Hunting and Diet
Website: http://thunder.indstate.edu/~ramanank/lifeways.html **Lifeways
Website: Neanderthal
Website: Lewis R. Binford
Linda Robinson