Neanderthals had animal fat 'factories' up and running 125,000 years ago

Oscar Jaeger
The Telegraph
Sun, 06 Jul 2025 19:43 UTC

© Scherjon, Leiza-Monrepos

An artist’s impression of the ‘fat factory’ run by Neanderthals in Germany Credit:

Archaeological research finds marrow-rich bones in clusters, suggesting extinct species of human rendered fat in intelligent way

Neanderthals living 125,000 years ago may have mass-produced grease from animal bones in "factories", a study has found.

They may have been rendering fat from crushed animal bones in the Neumark-Nord region in central Germany, according to archaeological research, published in Science Advances.

While many bones that contained less marrow were spread out across the archaeological site, researchers observed that many of the marrow-rich bones were located in clusters - sites they call "fat factories".

© Lutz Kindler, Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser, et al

Examples of hammerstone-induced impact damage on long bones

The process required careful planning, specialised tools and detailed knowledge of nutrition.

Its use challenges long-held assumptions about Neanderthal capabilities, the study, commissioned at Leiden University in The Netherlands, found.

Prof Wil Roebroeks, the study's co-author said: "This attitude that Neanderthals were dumb - this is another data point that proves otherwise."

© Kindler et al., Sci. Adv. 11, eadv1257

Location of Neumark-Nord (Germany). The site’s position is depicted relative to the maximum extent of the Saalian and Weichselian glaciations

Dr Lutz Kindler, the study's first author, added: "Neanderthals were clearly managing resources with precision - planning hunts, transporting carcasses and rendering fat in a task-specific area."

Prior to this finding, the earliest evidence of this kind of fat rendering dated back to only 28,000 years ago, thousands of years after Neanderthals disappeared from the fossil record.

Comment: Live Science adds:

The research, published Wednesday (July 2) in the journal Science, reveals that these archaic human relatives had a process for extracting grease from animal bones — and it may have saved them from a lethal condition.

The condition, known as protein poisoning or rabbit starvation, happens when humans eat too much protein and don't get enough fat or carbohydrates. Neanderthals would have likely been at high risk of protein poisoning, as they largely ate meat.

And from PhysOrg:

While the scientists found no preserved containers or direct evidence that the bone fragments were boiled, they note that high concentrations of the heated bone fragments were found near charcoal and a water source. They also mention the possibility that organic perishable containers, made out of deer skin or birch bark, might have been used to process food.

It is still unclear how long the site was used, or whether bones had been saved in advance for later processing, but the evidence found at this site still provides some eye-opening insights into the sophistication of Neanderthal adaptability and survival methods. More evidence is needed to determine when these "fat factories" became common or whether this was a more isolated event.