Neandertals may have hunted and eaten outsiders, chilling cannibalism study finds

A cave in Belgium has revealed unsettling evidence that Neandertals selectively cannibalized outsiders, focusing on women and children. The victims werent from the local group and appear to have been treated like prey, with bones butchered for meat and marrow. This suggests the behavior wasnt ritual, but practical-or possibly linked to intergroup conflict. The discovery paints a darker, more complex picture of Neandertal life during their final millennia.