Archaeologists have identified a “fat factory” at Germany’s Neumark‑Nord 2 site, where Neanderthals processed bone grease around 125,000 years ago. Researchers found thousands of bone fragments deliberately broken and heated in water to extract marrow and fat, a labor‑intensive technique previously attributed only to later Homo sapiens. The discovery pushes back complex resource management by tens of millennia and suggests they exploited seasonal animal migrations.

Excavations revealed remains of at least 172 large mammals—deer, horses, aurochs and even straight‑tusked elephants—clustered with flint tools and hammer stones. The bone‑crushing operation required gathering sufficient mass to make rendering worthwhile, indicating coordinated hunting, carcass transport, and a dedicated processing zone. Such systematic behavior suggests Neanderthals understood fat’s caloric value and staged its extraction strategically.

The find builds on decades of work at the broader Neumark‑Nord complex, first uncovered in the 1980s, and follows earlier evidence of elephant hunting and fire use at the same locality. By demonstrating large‑scale bone‑grease production, the study forces a reevaluation of Neanderthal diet breadth and their capacity for organized, landscape‑level subsistence planning. These insights reshape how scholars view Neanderthal ingenuity.