Humans occupying two caves in northern Israel approximately 60,000 years ago butchered their game in different ways despite living in similar environments and using similar tools, suggesting the development of distinct cultural traditions, according to a study published Thursday.

The results, which appear in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, may further hone the modern understanding of ancient Neanderthals, who rather than being efficiency-driven brutes may have clung to ideas passed down from generation to generation through shared experience and teaching, creating differentiation between groups of cave-dwellers.

“For a long time, Neanderthals were viewed as very practical, focusing on achieving what they needed in the most efficient way,” Anaëlle Jallon, PhD candidate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and lead author of the study, told The Times of Israel over the phone. “Now we are starting to realize that there were more subtleties, there were cultural aspects.”

A team of Israeli and international researchers analyzed cut marks on nearly 350 animal bone fragments from the Amud and the Kebara caves in northern Israel and documented how the cuts resulted from different processing techniques.

The cuts had been made by early humans using rudimentary stone tools to prepare meat for cooking or consumption. Different tools and different techniques would produce different patterns visible on the bones.

Distant from each other by roughly 70 kilometers (43 miles), Amud in the Upper........

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