ArticleDie Naturwissenschaften2012
Neanderthal medics? Evidence for food, cooking, and medicinal plants entrapped in dental calculus.
Article in Die Naturwissenschaften, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 82 papers.
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Who cites it
82 citing papers in PubMed, 387 citations in OpenAlex.
- Activation of Extraoral Bitter Taste Receptors by Herbs and Spices in the Regulation of Incretin Signaling and Glucose Metabolism.Nutrition reviews · 2026Review
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- Health and lifestyle in the Iron Age Italian community of Pontecagnano (Campania, Italy, 7th-6th century BCE).PloS one · 2026Article
- Thermal desorption GC/MS on human dental calculus detected minute millet consumption in medieval Ukraine.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- [Archaeological Research on Periodontal Disease].Sichuan da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Sichuan University. Medical science edition · 2025Review
- Insect applications to open wounds by chimpanzees in the wild: first insights from East African chimpanzees.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Neanderthals, hypercarnivores, and maggots: Insights from stable nitrogen isotopes.Science advances · 2025Article
- Human Digestive Physiology and Evolutionary Diet: A Metabolomic Perspective on Carnivorous and Scavenger Adaptations.Metabolites · 2025Review
- Inter-species differences in wound-healing rate: a comparative study involving primates and rodents.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Direct evidence for processing Isatis tinctoria L., a non-nutritional plant, 32-34,000 years ago.PloS one · 2025Article
- Antiparasitic activity of Colombian Amazon palm extracts againstFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Late pleistocene exploitation of Ephedra in a funerary context in Morocco.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Plants against cancer: towards green Taxol production through pathway discovery and metabolic engineering.aBIOTECH · 2024Review
- Microparticles from dental calculus disclose paleoenvironmental and palaeoecological records.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Proportion of Over-The-Counter Medicines Containing a Plant Component and Those with Synthetic Substances Administered among Children in a Bulgarian Population.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- First archaeological evidence for ginger consumption as a potential medicinal ingredient in a late medieval leprosarium at St Leonard, Peterborough, England.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Microbiology of the built environment: harnessing human-associated built environment research to inform the study and design of animal nests and enclosures.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2023Review
- Applications of some advanced sequencing, analytical, and computational approaches in medicinal plant research: a review.Molecular biology reports · 2023Review
- Human consumption of seaweed and freshwater aquatic plants in ancient Europe.Nature communications · 2023Article
22 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
17 authors at 7 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Neanderthals disappeared sometime between 30,000 and 24,000 years ago. Until recently, Neanderthals were understood to have been predominantly meat-eaters; however, a growing body of evidence suggests their diet also included plants. We present the results of a study, in which sequential thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) and pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) were combined with morphological analysis of plant microfossils, to identify material entrapped in dental calculus from five Neanderthal individuals from the north Spanish site of El Sidrón. Our results provide the first molecular evidence for inhalation of wood-fire smoke and bitumen or oil shale and ingestion of a range of cooked plant foods. We also offer the first evidence for the use of medicinal plants by a Neanderthal individual. The varied use of plants that we have identified suggests that the Neanderthal occupants of El Sidrón had a sophisticated knowledge of their natural surroundings which included the ability to select and use certain plants.
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Registered trials
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