hare

At 7 inches tall, this hare pitcher, hand painted one strand of fur at a time, is so lifelike it nearly twitches its nose.

But instead of Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, the illustrations showed crystal-blue alpine lakes and edelweiss-covered meadows populated with snow larks, mountain hares, and other wildlife of that Swiss ilk.

These comparisons show that the Neanderthal diet in these regions relied heavily on deer, horses and hares, along with marine and coastal foods, pointing to a wide-ranging and adaptable approach to gathering resources.

As fish became harder to find, bears were forced to eat nuts and berries, and that forced the deer and the hares and the squirrels to find other sources of food.

"We have seen hares here now, which we never had a year or two ago, before we started doing this. So it's really exciting..."