This is exactly what the discovery of several shells in Cueva Bajondillo, in Malaga, confirms. In fact, this find is the oldest evidence of shellfish farming and the consumption of shellfish, as the pieces found date back 150,000 years.
Seafood is an expensive delicacy that very few people disgust. Crabs, barnacles, clams, cockles, prawns, mussels, crabs … the variety is practically endless and currently it is enough to go to the fishmonger to have a good seafood platter. But, when do we hominids begin to enjoy the delights of the sea? Until now, the oldest evidence of shellfish farming dates back to 150,000 years ago, when South African Homo sapiens already ate the “fruits of the sea.” Now, CSIC researchers have found in a cave in Malaga, specifically in Torremolinos, that Iberian Homo neanderthalensis also liked shellfish.
As Francisco Jiménez Espejo, researcher at the CSIC, explains, ” This discovery places Cueva de Bajondillo as the oldest record of this activity in Neanderthals .” And so far, the oldest test did not exceed 50,000 years ago. But as Jiménez Espejo himself points out, it is not only a question of antiquity, as this new finding “has important implications for the knowledge of human evolution. In fact, for many researchers shellfish fishing is a defining practice of modern humans.
This finding shows that at the same time both the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula, Homo neanderthalensis, and the inhabitants of southern Africa, Homo sapiens, had similar eating and hunting and gathering behaviors.
In the research led by the professor of the University of Seville, Miguel Cortés Sánchez, researchers from Portugal, England and Japan have also collaborated. In addition, it makes Cueva Bajondillo a main research center due to its 19 archaeological strata that exceed 150,000 years old and where, until now, remains of settlements from the Middle, Upper, Epipaleolithic and Neolithic have been found.
