How sapiens ere Neanderthals? (Introduction)
by David Turell 
, Wednesday, May 15, 2013, 18:55 (3999 days ago)
Big battles over their cognitive abilities:-http://www.nature.com/news/neanderthal-culture-old-masters-1.12974?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20130516
How sapiens were Neanderthals?
by David Turell , Tuesday, August 13, 2013, 15:53 (3909 days ago) @ David Turell
Now clever bone tools;-http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2013/08/neandertals-were-no-copycats
How sapiens were Neanderthals?
by David Turell , Monday, August 19, 2013, 18:02 (3903 days ago) @ David Turell
Now clever stone hand axes:-http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130819090128.htm
How sapiens were Neanderthals?
by David Turell , Wednesday, July 23, 2014, 16:08 (3565 days ago) @ David Turell
It appears very:-http://hoopermuseum.earthsci.carleton.ca/neanderthal/n-intro.html
How sapiens were Neanderthals?
by David Turell , Thursday, January 15, 2015, 00:56 (3390 days ago) @ David Turell
More than we have realized in the past:-http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150114101528.htm-"A multi-purpose bone tool dating from the Neanderthal era has been discovered by University of Montreal researchers, throwing into question our current understanding of the evolution of human behaviour. It was found at an archaeological site in France. "This is the first time a multi-purpose bone tool from this period has been discovered. It proves that Neanderthals were able to understand the mechanical properties of bone and knew how to use it to make tools, abilities usually attributed to our species, Homo sapiens," said Luc Doyon of the university's Department of Anthropology, who participated in the digs. Neanderthals lived in Europe and western Asia in the Middle Paleolithic between around 250,000 to 28,000 years ago. Homo sapiens is the scientific term for modern man.	- "The production of bone tools by Neanderthals is open to debate. For much of the twentieth century, prehistoric experts were reluctant to recognize the ability of this species to incorporate materials like bone into their technological know-how and likewise their ability to master the techniques needed to work bone. However, over the past two decades, many clues indicate the use of hard materials from animals by Neanderthals. "Our discovery is an additional indicator of bone work by Neanderthals and helps put into question the linear view of the evolution of human behaviour," Doyon said."
How sapiens were Neanderthals?
by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Thursday, January 15, 2015, 06:07 (3390 days ago) @ David Turell
"The production of bone tools by Neanderthals is open to debate. For much of the twentieth century, prehistoric experts were reluctant to recognize the ability of this species to incorporate materials like bone into their technological know-how and likewise their ability to master the techniques needed to work bone. However, over the past two decades, many clues indicate the use of hard materials from animals by Neanderthals. "Our discovery is an additional indicator of bone work by Neanderthals and helps put into question the linear view of the evolution of human behaviour," Doyon said."-Yeah, because that's the only way Dawinian gradualism works.
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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.
How sapiens were Neanderthals?
by David Turell , Thursday, January 15, 2015, 15:51 (3389 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained
"Our discovery is an additional indicator of bone work by Neanderthals and helps put into question the linear view of the evolution of human behaviour," Doyon said." > > Tony: Yeah, because that's the only way Dawinian gradualism works.-There were three developing groups besides us, the Neanderthals, Denisovans and Hobbits. we won, but is this is sign of the IM going wild in an attempt to create sapiens?
How sapiens were Neanderthals?
by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Thursday, January 15, 2015, 16:17 (3389 days ago) @ David Turell
"Our discovery is an additional indicator of bone work by Neanderthals and helps put into question the linear view of the evolution of human behaviour," Doyon said." > > > > Tony: Yeah, because that's the only way Dawinian gradualism works. > >David: There were three developing groups besides us, the Neanderthals, Denisovans and Hobbits. we won, but is this is sign of the IM going wild in an attempt to create sapiens?-More likely a sign of scientist misinterpreting the evidence. There is already enough evidence to show that these 'different species' actually fall within the same range of deviations found in modern humans. All this other is just speculation to make it fit with Darwinian evolution. You wouldn't call an African subhuman because they still use spears and bolo's would you? This is essentially what they are doing here.
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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.
How sapiens were Neanderthals?
by David Turell , Thursday, January 15, 2015, 19:09 (3389 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained
> Tony: More likely a sign of scientist misinterpreting the evidence. There is already enough evidence to show that these 'different species' actually fall within the same range of deviations found in modern humans. All this other is just speculation to make it fit with Darwinian evolution. You wouldn't call an African subhuman because they still use spears and bolo's would you? This is essentially what they are doing here.-There is more and more evidence that the Neanderthals were quite bright and advanced.
How sapiens were Neanderthals?
by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Friday, January 16, 2015, 15:29 (3388 days ago) @ David Turell
Agreed. They were very clever indeed, and there is mountains of archaeological evidence to support that. But that line of thinking does not fit with Darwinian Gradualism and the arrogance of modern thinking, so we are not allowed to think that they were anything but knuckle-dragging gave dwellers.
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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.
How sapiens were Neanderthals?
by David Turell , Friday, January 16, 2015, 18:20 (3388 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained
Tony: Agreed. They were very clever indeed, and there is mountains of archaeological evidence to support that. But that line of thinking does not fit with Darwinian Gradualism and the arrogance of modern thinking, so we are not allowed to think that they were anything but knuckle-dragging (c)ave dwellers.-I think they are part of a pattern to create humans. Your pattern theory.
How sapiens were Neanderthals?: more evidence
by David Turell , Tuesday, January 20, 2015, 14:20 (3384 days ago) @ David Turell
Latest research. They were technically advanced in some tool making:-http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/research-finds-neanderthals-were-more-thoughtful-than-we-once-imagined/2015/01/19/c848f040-71ac-11e4-ad12-3734c461eab6_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1-"Twisted fibers found on stone tools at another French site suggest that Neanderthals knew how to make string or cordage, and six stone arrowheads recovered there imply that they also used complex projectile techniques — tasks that would require advanced thinking.-"Starting about 200,000 years ago, Villa says, European Neanderthals used tools made with pitch, a glue material that doesn't occur naturally but must be synthesized from tree bark. Modern experiments show that producing pitch with the resources available to Neanderthals requires a high degree of technical knowledge.-"Once thought to be scavengers incapable of hunting, they actually were accomplished big-game stalkers who thrived by hunting a wide range of animals in a variety of environments, the latest research shows.-"Along with the idea that they were scavengers came the notion that Neanderthals ate a very limited diet, consisting mostly of large or medium-size mammals — dietary constraints that would have left them less adaptable to changes in the environment than early modern humans. But research simply doesn't bear this out."
How sapiens were Neanderthals?: more evidence
by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Tuesday, January 20, 2015, 19:16 (3384 days ago) @ David Turell
Still fits with the accounting of Esau. Just sayin..
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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.
How sapiens were Neanderthals?: more evidence
by David Turell , Friday, April 17, 2015, 19:41 (3297 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained
They appear to have used herbs in cooking, based on teeth scrapings:-http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22630174.600-neanderthal-chefs-may-have-spiced-up-menus-with-wild-herbs.html#.VS7alNJ0zVgApril 17, 2015-"The idea that they were partial to a handful of herbs comes from the hardened plaque - or dental calculus - chipped off the teeth of a 50,000-year-old Neanderthal from El Sidrón in Spain. A few years ago, Karen Hardy of the University of Barcelona and colleagues found traces of camomile and yarrow in the calculus - both plants with strong flavours but no nutritional value (Naturwissenschaften, doi.org/h33). They argued that the plants were eaten for medicinal purposes. Self-medication is common in the animal world, says Hardy, and it's very likely Neanderthals did the same.-"Sabrina Krief of the French natural history museum in Paris, thinks differently, based on her observations of wild chimpanzees in Kibale National Park in Uganda. After a hunt, these chimps can eat up to three different types of leaf with their prey (Antiquity, doi.org/3mk). Chimps are thought to self-medicate with leaves, but Krief says some scoff leaves to spice up their food. Her rationale is that all the chimps in a group ate them at the same time, and it's unlikely that every chimp needed the same remedy. Also, different chimp tribes opt for different leaves. -"If chimps flavour their food, why not Neanderthals? The palaeontologists contacted by New Scientist say this is possible but highly theoretical. What is clear is that Neanderthals were not simple carnivores. All hominins must eat carbohydrates to survive, says Hardy. Meat just doesn't provide enough energy.-There's also a limit to the amount of animal protein we should have in our diet - too much meat is not good for us, says Hardy. So at the very least, we know that Neanderthals liked some veg with their steak - though what kind of veg is still up for debate. Remains at a site in Gibraltar suggest they also liked nuts and wild olives."
How sapiens were Neanderthals?: Cannibalism
by David Turell , Tuesday, July 12, 2016, 00:57 (2846 days ago) @ David Turell
Adding to previous findings, a large group of Neanderthal bones showing cannibalism:-http://www.livescience.com/55343-neanderthal-cannibalism-northern-europe.html?utm_source=listrak&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160711-ls ??-Archaeologists pieced together 99 Neanderthal bone fragments, finding evidence of cannibalism.- Neanderthal bones uncovered in a Belgium cave show unmistakable signs of butchery, and scientists said they are the first evidence of Neanderthal cannibalism in northern Europe.-Archaeologists pieced together 99 bone fragments to identify five distinct Neanderthals, four adults and a child, who lived between 40,500 and 45,500 years ago. Markings on the bones included indentations from hammering (likely to remove bone marrow), and cut marks from carving the flesh away from the bone. Also in the cave were the remains of horses and reindeer, which had been similarly butchered.-"Similarities in anthropogenic [human-created] marks observed on the Neanderthal, horse and reindeer bones … suggest similar processing and consumption patterns for all three species," the scientists wrote in their research.-The Neanderthal remains provide "unambiguous evidence" of cannibalism, the researchers said. Other Neanderthal bones have also shown signs of cannibalism, but the Belgian site is the farthest north to do so — showing regional variability of Neanderthal mortuary behavior. The other discoveries were in France, Portugal and Spain, where scientists found a group of Neanderthals, including an infant, who may have been cannibalized by another group of Neanderthals.-This skeletal illustration shows where marks were found on Neanderthal bones from Troisième caverne of Goyet in Belgium that suggest both cannibalism and that the bones were used as stone tools or as a means of sharpening stone tools (retoucher traces).?-This skeletal illustration shows where marks were found on Neanderthal bones from Troisième caverne of Goyet in Belgium that suggest both cannibalism and that the bones were used as stone tools or as a means of sharpening stone tools (retoucher traces). Beyond cannibalism, it appears that the Neanderthals also used their peers' remains as tools. A few of the bones bore markings that suggested they'd been used to help sharpen stone tools.-This new research adds to the overall understanding of Neanderthals' relationship with the dead, as their behavior toward the deceased varied from preparing burials to using the bodies for food or creating tools, the researchers noted.-An analysis of DNA within the Neanderthal mitochondria (energy-making organelles in cells that carry their own DNA) suggested that the Belgian Neanderthals were genetically similar to other Neanderthal communities living in Germany, Spain and Croatia. This suggests the Neanderthal population in Europe at the time was small, as there was "only modest genetic variation despite large geographic distances when compared to modern humans," the scientists wrote.-Comment: H. sapiens has cannibalism also.
How sapiens were Neanderthals?: Burials symbolism
by David Turell , Thursday, October 06, 2016, 18:18 (2759 days ago) @ David Turell
A burial site of a Neanderthal infant has symbolic elements:-https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23230934-800-cave-fires-and-rhino-skull-used-in-neanderthal-burial-rituals/-"The remains of a series of small fires discovered within a dolomite hillside 93 kilometres north of Madrid, Spain, could be the first firm evidence that Neanderthals held funerals.-"The blackened hearths surround a spot where the jaw and six teeth of a Neanderthal toddler were found in the stony sediment. Puzzlingly, within each of these hearths was the horn or antler of a herbivore, apparently carefully placed there. In total, there were 30 horns from aurochs and bison as well as red deer antlers, and a rhino skull nearby.-"Archaeologists believe the fires may have been lit as some sort of funeral ritual around where the toddler, known as the Lozoya Child, was placed around 38,000 to 42,000 years ago.-"Enrique Baquedano, director of the Regional Archaeological Museum of Madrid, and his colleagues described the discoveries at the meeting of the European Society for the study of Human Evolution in Madrid on 16 September. They think the cave may have been used by Neanderthals as a specific place to mourn and remember the dead. Baquedano said the position of the remains and stone tools found at the site, known as Des-Cubierta Cave, do not appear to be arranged as we would expect if it had been a dwelling. “They may therefore have been of ritual or symbolic significance.”-"Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London said there have been previous suggestions that Neanderthals may have dug graves for their dead and some graves of babies at sites in Syria and Israel include the remains of animal horns - but the new discovery seems far more deliberate.-“'It's certainly difficult to explain the presence of the horns, and that of a rhino skull, without invoking the agency of Neanderthals,” he said."-Another view:-http://toddcwood.blogspot.com/2016/10/neandertal-infant-burial-in-spain.html-"If this is a Neandertal burial site, it continues to develop our understanding of the humanness of Neandertals.  They were not sub-human or even non-human.  They were simply disadvantaged people scattered from the ruins of civilization at Babel.  They made art and tools, and it looks increasingly likely that they mourned their dead."-Comment: No question, they are quite human.
How sapiens were Neanderthals?: wooden tools
by David Turell , Tuesday, February 06, 2018, 14:05 (2271 days ago) @ David Turell
The Neanderthals used fire to harden wooden tools:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/archaeology/neanderthals-used-fire-to-fashion-tools
"Neanderthals living in the Tuscany region of Italy used fire in addition to stone to make tools, archaeologists have revealed.
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"The finds were located in the lowermost of seven archaeological soil layers, and radiometrically dated to about 171,000 years old.
"The wooden tools were all made from a species of tree called boxwood (Buxus sempervirens), recognised as a heavy and dense wood. Formed into blunt points at one end with bulbous handles at the other, the metre-long implements were possibly made as digging implements, although the researchers don’t rule out a secondary use as weapons.
"Similar multi-purpose artefacts, the researchers note, are found even today among many hunter-gather societies.
"The points and shafts show grooves and cut marks indicating that stone tools were used to chisel and scrape them into shape. But what interested Aranguren and her colleagues was evidence of surface charring.
"Microanalysis suggested that fire had been deliberately and carefully applied in the manufacturing process, perhaps to reduce the physical effort needed to scrape and shape the wood.
"The discovery of the sticks is regarded as significant for two reasons. The first is that wood, while thought to have been very widely used throughout prehistory, is rarely found in archaeological contexts because of its natural tendency to rot away.
The second is that it constitutes the oldest proof yet that Neanderthals learned to control fire.
“'Poggetti Vecchi offers the earliest evidence of pyrotechnology in the fabrication of wooden tools, providing us with significant insight into the behaviour and abilities of early Neanderthals toward human modernity,” the archaeologists conclude."
Comment: More evidence that the Neanderthals were more advanced than previously thought.
How sapiens were Neanderthals?: new found cave art
by David Turell , Friday, February 23, 2018, 21:24 (2254 days ago) @ David Turell
Newfound cave art in Spain shows Neanderthals produced art over 64,000 years ago, before sapiens arrived:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-cave-paintings-clinch-case-for-neand...
"Once upon a time, in the dim recesses of a cave in what is now northern Spain, an artist carefully applied red paint to the cave wall to create a geometric design—a ladder-shaped symbol composed of vertical and horizontal lines. In another cave hundreds of kilometers to the southwest, another artist pressed a hand to the wall and blew red paint around the fingers to create a stenciled handprint, working by the flickering firelight of a torch or oil lamp in the otherwise pitch darkness. In a third cave, located in the far south, curtainlike calcite formations were decorated in shades of scarlet.
"Though nothing of the artists themselves remains to establish their identity, archaeologists have long assumed that cave painting was the sole purview of Homo sapiens. Another group of large-brained humans, the Neandertals, lived in the right time and place to be the creators of some of the cave art in Europe. But only H. sapiens had the cognitive sophistication needed to develop symbolic behavior, including art. Or so many experts thought.
"Now, dates obtained for the images in these three Spanish caves could put that enduring notion to rest. In a paper published this week in Science, researchers report that some of the images are far older than the earliest known fossils of H. sapiens in Europe, implying that they must have instead been created by Neandertals. The findings open a new window into the minds of these oft-maligned cousins of ours. They also raise key questions about the origin of symbolic thought, and what, exactly, distinguishes H. sapiens from other members of the human family.
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"For a long time arguably the most significant point of distinction between Neandertals and modern humans seemed to be that Neandertals did not make or use symbols. Whereas H. sapiens left behind jewelry, sculptures and cave paintings—all products of symbolic thought—no such items could be unequivocally attributed to Neandertals. In recent years, however, evidence for Neandertal symbolic behavior has been accumulating from sites throughout Europe. In Gibraltar a Neandertal engraved a hashtag symbol in the bedrock of a cave. In Croatia, Neandertals harvested eagle talons and made them into necklaces. At sites in Gibraltar and Italy Neandertals hunted birds for their feathers, perhaps to wear as ceremonial headdresses and capes. In Spain, Neandertals made shell jewelry and mixed sparkly paint that they may have used as a kind of cosmetic. In a cave in France, Neandertals erected semicircular walls of stalactites, possibly for some ritual purpose. The list goes on.
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"Their efforts were richly rewarded: the analyses show that all three caves contain paintings dating to at least 64,800 years ago. Neandertals across Spain were thus making rock art more than 20,000 years before modern humans set foot in Europe.
"Outside researchers praised the new study. “Wow!” says Genevieve von Petzinger, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Victoria whose research focuses on prehistoric symbols. She notes that when Pike and his collaborators raised the possibility of Neandertal artists in 2012, they got a lot of static from their peers who argued that there was no reason to credit Neandertals over modern humans for the El Castillo images. “This is the mic drop,” Petzinger says of the newly dated paintings. “At 65,000, there’s no way it’s modern humans.”
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"Could the ancient paintings instead signal that H. sapiens reached Europe earlier than the fossil record indicates? After all, recent discoveries elsewhere in the world have suggested that our species originated and began spreading out of Africa thousands of years earlier than previously thought. “It’s possible,” Higham allows, “but there is no evidence for it yet.”
"If Neandertals had cave painting traditions, then researchers will need to grapple with the question of whether their behavior actually differed from that of modern humans in any meaningful way. One school of thought holds that moderns were able to displace the Neandertals by virtue of superior intellect and symbolic capabilities, including language."
Comment: it certainly seems the Neanderthals wee more 'sapiens' than thought, but the point that humans might have arrived earlier needs to be settled. Findings in Israel point to an arrival there about 70,000 years ago.
How sapiens were Neanderthals?: new found shell art
by David Turell , Friday, February 23, 2018, 21:33 (2254 days ago) @ David Turell
Another article covers more new findings, decorated shells dated 115,000 years ago:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/archaeology/neanderthals-and-early-modern-humans-were-cognit...
"Hoffman is also lead author of a second study, published in the journal Science Advances, analysing a collection of 120,000-year-old painted and perforated seashells found in another Spanish location, called Cueva de los Aviones.
"Dating evidence reveals that the artefacts, like the paintings, were fashioned many millennia before the arrival of Homo sapiens, meaning that they, too, were the work of Neanderthals.
"Hoffman and colleagues note that similar finds in Africa, attributed to modern humans, have been uncontroversially accepted as proxies for symbolic behaviour.
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"By carefully teasing out the relationship between the sediment layers at the site, then applying thorium-uranium dating techniques, Hoffman’s team came up with a much more reliable – and much earlier – date. The shells all dated to within a 5000-year period, between 115,000 and 200,000 years ago.
"The date range is significant on more than one level. It clearly shows that the artefacts were made before the arrival of modern humans in the area. Also, however, it makes them older than the earliest human symbolic material found anywhere in the world.
Hoffman and colleagues note that the earliest South African artefacts so far discovered date to about 79,000 years ago. A shell bead found at Grotte des Pigeons, Morocco, is estimated to be 82,000 years old, and perforated shells found at Qafzeh Cave in Israel are thought to be 92,000 years old.
"The Spanish find, say the researchers, “substantially predates … anything comparable known in Africa or western Asia to date”.
"This, combined with the painting evidence, they conclude, “leaves no doubt that Neanderthals shared symbolic thinking with early modern humans and that, as far as we can infer from material culture, Neanderthals and early modern humans were cognitively indistinguishable.'”
Comment: One wonders now why the Neanderthals did not survive with this much evidence of cognition.
How sapiens were Neanderthals?: fire makers
by David Turell , Friday, July 20, 2018, 14:29 (2107 days ago) @ David Turell
Making fire at will is an advanced activity compared to finding naturally occurring fire and saving it for use later. There is strong evidence the Neanderthals could make fire:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/archaeology/neanderthals-used-flint-and-pyrite-to-spark-fires
"Ample evidence from the Middle Paleolithic, which spans 300,000 to 50,000 years ago, has shown that Neanderthals regularly used fire. However, it was unclear whether they collected natural fire, or produced it themselves.
"The familiar fire-starting method of producing a shower of sparks over tinder by striking steel against flint first originated in the Iron Age. Prior to this, ample evidence suggests humans used an iron-containing mineral called pyrite to strike flint. Indeed, flint tools that had most likely been used for this purpose have been found at numerous Homo sapiens archaeological sites throughout Eurasia.
"However, no dedicated fire-making tools had ever been found at Neanderthal sites. Any flint tools that had been discovered appear to have been used for other things, such as animal butchering.
"Nevertheless, there were hints that Neanderthals had an interest in fire making. For example, there is evidence that late Neanderthals collected manganese dioxide (MnO2), a mineral that when crushed to a powder can lower the combustion temperature of woody tinder, making it easier to light.
"In the new study, archaeologist Andrew Sorensen at Leiden University in the Netherlands and his colleagues re-examined some flint tools that had been found at multiple Neanderthal sites across France. Using a technique called microwear analysis, they identified macroscopic and microscopic striations that suggest the flint tools had been repeatedly struck with a hard mineral.
"The researchers then conducted an experiment to see if they could produce similar markings on replica flint tools by using them in a number of different tasks, including fire-making via striking with pyrite fragments. They found that not only was it possible to produce sparks by striking the replica flint with pyrite, but the markings produced by this process were the closest match to the markings found on the Neanderthal flint tools.
"Taken together, these findings represent strong evidence that Neanderthals systematically used tools to make fire. This in turn has interesting implications for the understanding of Neanderthal cognition."
Comment: The Neanderthals are getting smarter and smarter in the latest views.
How sapiens were Neanderthals?: Very
by David Turell , Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 17:02 (1871 days ago) @ David Turell
The latest findings show that Neanderthals see really quite equal to early H. sapiens:
https://mail.yahoo.com/d/folders/1/messages/AO7YBqwDgmt7XIjjCgFrSKUYGfQ?.partner=sbc&am...
"it’s now clear that Neanderthals weren’t any less ‘evolved’ than us. Nor is there much decisive evidence that they were fundamentally less social or less inclined to mingle with those outside their tribe. They simply travelled on their own path, running roughly in parallel to ours, albeit with different twists and turns in the trail. They were not parochial cul-de-sac Europeans, but instead lived across immensely varied lands well into Asia – even towards the shores of the Pacific, if some Chinese stone tools are any indicator. They were capable hunters and knowledgeable gatherers; artisan crafters across a range of materials. Weathering multiple glacial cycles, they survived extreme climate change as rapid and severe as the worst predictions for the coming centuries.
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"A new array of methods, and a growing awareness of bias due to outdated excavation and collection standards, brought our perception of Neanderthals into much sharper resolution. In the decades since, evidence from hundreds of sites has been meticulously parsed and amassed, revealing the Neanderthals as top-level team hunters. They took on mighty beasts including bears, rhinos and possibly mammoth, using finely honed wooden spears for close-quarters jabbing; others were likely thrown like javelins. The myth of speedy critters such as birds or rabbits being out of reach has been crushed, while seafood was at least sometimes on the menu. Strand-line gathering was practised, whether for shellfish or the odd washed-up marine mammal, and maybe freshwater fish.
"Plants supplemented this varied carnivorous diet. Neanderthals made their living across a huge geographical area, from North Wales down to Palestine, and eastwards nearly halfway across Siberia, so it’s no wonder we find preserved morsels of figs, olives, pistachios and date palm in caves across the Mediterranean and West Asia. In archaeological sediments and on stone tools, remnants of tubers (wild radish, water lily) and seeds (wild cereal, peas and lentils) have also been discovered. All this tells us that Neanderthals were very likely chowing down on cooked food more diverse than meat. Perhaps food was as important to social identity tens of millennia ago as it is for us today.
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'Just recently, scientists applied a dating technique measuring the radioactive decay of uranium-thorium in the minerals encrusting the paintings, thereby revealing a minimum age. The results were startling: the oldest ranged from 67,000-52,000 years, appearing some 20,000-7,000 years before we believe that H sapiens arrived in Europe. For many scholars, this represents strong evidence that Neanderthals were responsible.
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"Over 174,000 years ago, it seems that Neanderthals walked into the isolated chamber and carefully built these large circular structures. More than 400 pieces from the central parts of the stalagmite columns were placed in layers, some balanced on top of each other, others standing in parallel. Many had been extensively burned, and blazes had been kindled in the small piles. At least some of the fuel was bone, potentially including bear, which isn’t easy to set and keep alight. So far there are no artifacts, and no explanation for the rings, but these structures would have taken time and planning to create, and the foresight to provide sufficient illumination underground. Research is ongoing – most excitingly, to see what lies beneath the floor, entombed in calcium carbonate – but Bruniquel has already opened a vista onto a Neanderthal mind as elaborate as our own.
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"However it happened, the science is clear: to produce the amount of DNA surviving today, taking into account complex processes of selection against Neanderthal genes and less fertile hybrids, there must have been an awful lot of sex between the communities.
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"it turns out the Neanderthals and Denisovans were close contemporaries, living in the same region for thousands of years. During protein sampling aimed at locating more hominins among unidentified bones from the cave, one stood out. Researchers had chanced upon a bone fragment from a girl, probably a teenager, who was a first-generation hybrid: her mother a Neanderthal, her father a Denisovan. Even more incredibly, her paternal ancestry revealed an even older genetic record of mixing between these populations, hundreds of generations before.
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"Yet their relatedness to us is hardly the most interesting thing about them. Instead of a cautionary tale of a disreputable cousin, they are a uniquely precious mirror that refracts, rather than reflects. Far from some primitive offshoot, Neanderthals should be more accurately understood as another of nature’s experiments in humanity."
Comment: this article shows H. sapiens chauvinism clouded our proper and present view of Neanderthals. Not much different than early sapiens
How sapiens were Neanderthals?: Very. new info
by David Turell , Thursday, April 09, 2020, 21:47 (1478 days ago) @ David Turell
They could make string:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stone-age-string-strengthens-case-for-neande...
"In the new study, published today in Scientific Reports, Hardy and his co-authors describe a 6.2-millimeter-long fragment of string that their team found at the same rock shelter —in a layer dated to between 52,000 and 41,000 years ago, when Neandertals occupied the site. Analyses of the fragment show that it is made of fibers that were probably harvested from the inner bark of a conifer tree. The fibers were twisted clockwise to form yarn, and then three lengths of the yarn were twisted in the opposite direction to make string.
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"Exactly what the string was used for is uncertain. But it was found adhering to a sharp-edged stone flake, leading the authors to suggest that it might have been applied to attach the flake to a handle of some sort. Alternatively, they suppose, the string might have had nothing to do with the stone flake and instead have been part of a net or bag.
"Specific usage aside, the manufacture of the string attests to cognitive sophistication in Neandertals, Hardy and his colleagues contend. Harvesting the fibers would have required intimate knowledge of the growth and seasonality of the trees. And producing string after one has the raw material is itself mentally demanding, requiring the maker to keep track of multiple, sequential operations at the same time.
***
"Outside researchers are intrigued by the new work. “I’m not 100 percent convinced” that the find is, in fact, a piece of string, says archaeologist Marie Soressi of Leiden University in the Netherlands, noting that she finds the photographs that accompany the team’s paper “difficult to understand.” But the new work constitutes “by far the best evidence” that the Neandertals at Abri du Maras made string, she says."
Comment: Neanderthals are getting smarter and smarter.
How sapiens were Neanderthals?: Very. new info
by David Turell , Friday, May 08, 2020, 23:42 (1449 days ago) @ David Turell
They selected only certain bones for scrapping leather:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200508112856.htm
"The Neanderthals left behind a tool called a lissoir, a piece of animal rib with a smoothed tip used to rub animal hides to make them into leather. These lissoirs are often worn so smooth that it's impossible to tell which animal they came from just by looking at them.
***
"The results show that the bones used to make lissoirs mostly came from animals in the cattle family, such as bison or aurochs (a wild relative of modern cattle that is now extinct). But other animal bones from the same deposit show that reindeer were much more common and frequently hunted for food. So the Neanderthals were choosing to use only ribs from certain types of animals to make these tools.
"'I think this shows that Neanderthals really knew what they were doing," Martisius said.
"'They were deliberately picking up these larger ribs when they happened to come across these animals while hunting and they may have even kept these rib tools for a long time, like we would with a favorite wrench or screwdriver."
"Bovine ribs are bigger and more rigid than deer ribs, making them better suited for the hard work of rubbing skins without wearing out or breaking.
"'Neanderthals knew that for a specific task, they needed a very particular tool. They found what worked best and sought it out when it was available," Martisius said."
Comment: They have to be thinking smartly to make the choices they did
How sapiens were Neanderthals?: new burial study
by David Turell , Tuesday, February 18, 2020, 19:43 (1529 days ago) @ David Turell
Further pursuit of a burial site in Iraq:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2233918-50000-year-old-remains-suggest-neanderthal...
"Neanderthals really did bury their dead. Archaeologists in Iraq have discovered a new Neanderthal skeleton that appears to have been deliberately buried around 50,000 years ago.
“We are quite confident,” says Emma Pomeroy at the University of Cambridge.
"The first evidence that Neanderthals buried their dead emerged after archaeologist Ralph Solecki excavated Shanidar cave in northern Iraq in the 1950s and 1960s. The cave eventually yielded the remains of 10 Neanderthals, including one dubbed Shanidar 4, which was found with clumps of pollen – suggesting the body had been deliberately placed in a grave and flowers scattered on it. The finding was one of several lines of evidence that has led to a reassessment of Neanderthals as highly intelligent and not the shambling brutes of earlier portrayals.
"However, the “flower burial” suggestion has been controversial. “There are burrowing rodents that use the cave and they sometimes take flowers into their burrows,” says Pomeroy. Some of the workmen helping with the dig also carried flowers. “Enough doubt was cast that people became quite sceptical.”
***
"Pomeroy’s team found multiple lines of evidence that the Neanderthal was deliberately buried, including that fact that the sediment layer around the body is visibly different to the layer below. “The one containing the bones is much darker,” says Pomeroy.
***
"It isn’t clear if the remains belong to a new individual or to one of the previous finds, several of which are incomplete. Pomeroy says the body was probably accidentally cut in half by the original excavators, who removed the flower burial in a large block of rock.
"Modern humans were burying their dead at least 100,000 years ago, says Pomeroy. We don’t know whether Neanderthals devised the behaviour themselves or if they learned it from humans, but we do know Neanderthals and humans encountered each other around the time of the Shanidar burials."
Comment: Still battling against the ape man view of Neanderthals.