Is Neandertal Technology Still in Use Today?

Those primitive Neandertals may not have been so primitive after all.  Some 50,000 years ago, they were using a highly crafted bone tool virtually identical to a tool in use by human leather-workers today.

The tool is called a lissoir, was made by Neandertals living in southwestern France long before the arrival of the people we like to call “anatomically modern humans.”  The discovery, reported in the August 16, 2013 online issue of PNAS, is sure to fuel the debate over the cultural sophistication of the Neandertals.

Caption: Four views of the most complete lissoir found during excavations at the Neandertal site of Abri Peyrony.  Credit: Image courtesy of the Abri Peyrony and Pech-de-l’Azé I Projects.

Ever since their discovery over 150 years ago, Neandertals have been seen as “cavemen,” primitive in every respect compared to us “modern” humans who replaced them.


But in recent decades, the cultural achievements of Neandertals have been recognized.  Even so, the debate continues.  Did they learn more advanced technology from the modern human invaders of Europe and Asia, or did they develop it on their own?  The new findings lends support to the view that Neandertals were able to create and invent on their own. 

Neandertals were very likely the first to use sophisticated bone tools in Europe.  The tool found in France was made from the rib bone of red deer or possibly reindeer.  Making it required breaking, grinding, and polishing.  It shows evidence of being used to work leather, much like similar tools today.  When rubbed against an animal hide, it makes the leather soft, shiny, and more water resistant.

"For now the bone tools from these two sites are one of the better pieces of evidence we have for Neandertals developing on their own a technology previously associated only with modern humans", explains Shannon McPherron of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig according to a press release from the Institute. 

Tools like this first appear in Africa much earlier.  But this new finding raising intriguing questions.  Did “modern” humans bring this technology from Africa and pass it to Neandertals prior to 50,000 years ago? Is there a technology transfer around the same time as modern/Neandertal interbreeding?  Or did Neandertals invent this technology on their own and transfer it to the modern humans who began to arrive in Europe around 40,000 years ago? 

"If Neandertals developed this type of bone tool on their own, it is possible that modern humans then acquired this technology from Neandertals. Modern humans seem to have entered Europe with pointed bone tools only, and soon after started to make lissoirs. This is the first possible evidence for transmission from Neandertals to our direct ancestors," says Marie Soressi of Leiden University in The Netherlands, part of the team of researchers who made this discovery.

"Lissoirs like these are a great tool for working leather, so much so that 50 thousand years after Neandertals made these, I was able to purchase a new one on the Internet from a site selling tools for traditional crafts," says Soressi. "It shows that this tool was so efficient that it had been maintained through time with almost no change. It might be one or perhaps even the only heritage from Neandertal times that our society is still using today."

Neandertals at this time were making sophisticated stone tools.  But these tools were made of bone because bone can is more adaptable for certain uses.  According to McPherron, "here we have an example of Neandertals taking advantage of the pliability and flexibility of bone to shape it in new ways to do things stone could not do."

The deeper question that lies behind this research is whether “modern humans” burst on the scene suddenly as a unique phenomenon of evolution, or whether the process of becoming human is more gradual and more widely distributed than we once thought.  

The research reported here was conducted by teams from Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.  The article, entitled “Neandertals made the first specialized bone tools in Europe,” appears in the August 16, 2013 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
 

Neandertal Medicine

Neandertals not only ate their vegetables. They used specific plants—even ones that tasted bitter—to treat their ailments. That’s the latest finding from the international team of researchers studying Neandertal remains at in El Sidrón archeological site in northern Spain. Discovered in 1994, El Sidrón has yielded thousands of samples from at least 13 Neandertal individuals.

Using newer techniques of microanalysis, the team studied the dental plaque recovered from teeth of five individuals dating about 50,000 years ago. Lodged in the plaque were tiny microfossil remains of various plants, providing evidence that Neandertals supplemented their diet of meat with a wide range of grain, herbs, and vegetables. The study is published this week in Naturwissenschaften (The Science of Nature).

CAPTION: Researchers working in El Sidrón Cave. Credit: CSIC Comunicación.

"The varied use of plants we identified suggests that the Neanderthal occupants of El Sidrón had a sophisticated knowledge of their natural surroundings which included the ability to select and use certain plants for their nutritional value and for self-medication. While meat was clearly important, our research points to an even more complex diet than has previously been supposed," according to Karen Hardy, a leader in the research team, according to a press release from the University of York.

Neandertals disappeared from Europe and Asia somewhere around 30,000 years ago, often sharing regions with modern humans for thousands of years. Only recently has it become clear that they depended heavily on plants as well as meat for their food.

"The evidence indicating this individual was eating bitter-tasting plants such as yarrow and camomile with little nutritional value is surprising. We know that Neanderthals would find these plants bitter, so it is likely these plants must have been selected for reasons other than taste," said Dr Stephen Buckley, a member of the research team.

The clear implication of the study—that Neandertals recognized the medicinal value of certain plants—provides further evidence of the sophistication of Neanderthal culture and technology. The full scope of Neandertal cultural interaction with modern humans remains an open question.

"El Sidrón has allowed us to banish many of the preconceptions we had of Neanderthals. Thanks to previous studies, we know that they looked after the sick, buried their dead and decorated their bodies. Now another dimension has been added relating to their diet and self-medication," according to Antonio Rosas, also on the research team.

CAPTION: Microscopically visible material entrapped in dental calculus samples – filamentous and cocci bacteria. Credit: Karen Hardy/Naturwissenschaften.

The article, "Neanderthal medics? Evidence for food, cooking and medicinal plants entrapped in dental calculus," is published in the current issue of Naturwissenschafen.

Art in an Age of Neandertals

The oldest confirmed date for cave art has just been pushed back again. New research re-dates paintings in caves in northern Spain to a staggering 40,800 years ago, right at the time when anatomical modern humans (AMHs) like us were just arriving in the region and encountering Neandertals.

In fact, this art is so ancient that it raises the haunting possibility that Neandertals were the painters. If so, then modern humans are not the only form of humanity to create cave art. For now, however, the question of who painted this art is a matter of speculation, something that might be settled by further research.

In work published in the June 15, 2012 issue of Science, researchers studied 50 paintings in eleven caves in the northernmost part of Spain, including the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Altamira, El Castillo and Tito Bustillo. The work was conducted by an international team led by Alistair Pike of the University of Bristol.

The Corredor de los Puntos, El Castillo Cave, Spain. Red disks here have been dated to 34,000-36,000 years ago, and elsewhere in the cave to 40,600 years, making them examples of Europe's earliest cave art. Image courtesy of Pedro Saura.

This research comes on the heels of a re-dating of cave painting in France, recently pushed back to 37,000 years. The latest study adds almost another 4,000 years to the confirmed date of the oldest art. What’s the combined effect of the two studies? In just the past month, our view of the antiquity of art has jumped by nearly 10,000 years, prompting us to wonder how much further back it might go. After all, it is known that AMHs mixed pigments as far back as 100,000 years ago.

Using a new method called uranium-thorium dating, Pike’s research team took a closer look at an old find. They extracted tiny samples of naturally forming deposits that covered the paintings. By dating the deposits, scientists are able to discover the date before which the paint was applied. The date of more than forty thousand years ago, therefore, is a minimum date, suggesting that some of the paintings—here or elsewhere—may be even older.

The specific painting that exceeds 40,800 years is a simple red disk, seemingly primitive when compared to paintings made later in the same caves. More striking are the handprint paintings on the wall of El Castillo cave, made by blowing paint and common in early cave art but now dated to 37,300 years ago.

Commenting on the age of the oldest painting, Pike pointed out the tight fit between the painting and the arrival of AMHs in northern Spain: “Evidence for modern humans in Northern Spain dates back to 41,500 years ago, and before them were Neanderthals. Our results show that either modern humans arrived with painting already part of their cultural activity or it developed very shortly after, perhaps in response to competition with Neanderthals – or perhaps the art is Neanderthal art,” Pike said in a press release issued by the University of Bristol.

The Panel of Hands, El Castillo Cave, Spain. A hand stencil has been dated to earlier than 37,300 years ago and a red disk to earlier than 40,600 years ago, making them the oldest cave paintings in Europe. Image courtesy of Pedro Saura.

Pike also speculated further on the possibility that researchers may someday identify some European cave art as Neandertal. He suggested that perhaps, “cave painting started before the arrival of modern humans, and was done by Neanderthals. That would be a fantastic find as it would mean the hand stencils on the walls of the caves are outlines of Neanderthals' hands, but we will need to date more examples to see if this is the case."

The article in entitled “U-series dating of Palaeolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain” and appears in the June 15, 2012 issue of the journal Science.