Neanderthal Hunters Rivalled Human Skill

BBC ^ | 9-23-2003 | Will Knight

[blam]

Neanderthal hunters rivalled human skills

17:34 23 September 03

NewScientist.com news service

Neanderthals were not driven from northern Europe by vastly superior human hunters, suggests an analysis of hunting remains.

The study by Donald Grayson of the University of Washington and Francoise Delpech of the University of Bordeaux challenges a popular theory that the primitive peoples died out because they were far less skillful hunters.

The pair examined the fossilised remains of butchered animals from a cave in southwest France.

Neanderthals inhabited southern France from 65,000 years before the present until roughly 40,000 to 35,000 years ago. Neanderthals disappeared from the region about the time the earliest anatomically modern humans, known as Cro-Magnon appeared.

Precisely why Neanderthals disappeared remains a puzzle. But the idea that early humans were much more intelligent, dexterous and socially sophisticated is being questioned by a growing body of archaeological evidence.

Grayson and Delpech found no difference in the prey caught and butchered by Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon after studying more than 7200 bones and teeth from large hoofed animals.

Nimble-fingered

Both Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon feasted on a wide variety of ungulate species including reindeer, roe deer and horse. In both cases the proportion of different species consumed varied according to climatic changes.

"This study suggests Cro-Magnon were not superior in getting food from the landscape," says Grayson. "We could detect no difference in diet, the animals they were hunting and the way they were hunting across this period of time, aside from those caused by climate change."

Recent analysis of Neanderthal hand bones also shows that they were as nimble-fingered as early humans. Other archaeological evidence indicated that they may have been as intelligent and socially sophisticated as early humans.

Handheld spears

"Clearly they did pretty well for hundreds of thousands of years," says Chris Stringer, an archaeologist at the UK's Natural History Museum. "One has to assume they knew how to get meat when they needed it."

But Stringer adds that modern humans may have had better hunting technology, including harpoons, composite tools and possibly even fishing nets compared to the Neanderthals’ handheld spears.

Neanderthals also appear to have suffered more hunting injuries, he told New Scientist. These factors, combined with particularly difficult environmental conditions, may have given early humans a crucial edge.

"Being able to exploit the environment a little bit more efficiently could in the long run have led to the end of the Neanderthals," Stringer says.

Journal reference: Journal of Archeological Science: (doi:10.1016/S0305-4403(03)00064-5)

Will Knight

[blam]

"I'm looking for something in the 50,000 - 100,000 year old range."

Only 2-5,000 people worldwide survived the Toba eruption 75,000 years ago, there are few human traces for many, many years afterward.

[concentric circles]

Neanderthals were not driven from northern Europe by vastly superior human hunters...

I am not sure that any of the points made here refute the proposition that the Neanderthals were exterminated by cousins who were superior at war making. The authors only argue that both groups successfully brought the same food to the table.

[HP8753]

Helen Thomas is proof that Neanderthals still exist.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

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Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. The Neandertal Enigma by James Shreeve in local libraries "Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127] To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.