Posted on 08/21/2004 7:25:32 PM PDT by blam
Neanderthal Man 'never walked in northern Europe'
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
(Filed: 22/08/2004)
Historians of the Stone Age fear that they will have to rip up their theories about Neanderthal Man after doubt has been cast on the carbon dating of skeletons by a leading German anthropologist.
Work by the flamboyant Professor Reiner Protsch von Zieten showed that Neanderthal Man existed in northern Europe. Calculations on skeletal remains found at Hahnofersand, near Hamburg, stated they were 36,000 years old.
Yet recent research at Oxford University's carbon-dating laboratory has suggested that they date back a mere 7,500 years. By that time, Homo sapiens was already well-established and the Neanderthals were extinct.
Chris Stringer, a Stone Age specialist and head of human origins at London's Natural History Museum, said: "What was considered a major piece of evidence showing that the Neanderthals once lived in northern Europe has fallen by the wayside. We are having to rewrite prehistory."
But Prof von Zieten, 65, the descendant of a famous 18th-century Prussian general, rejected the evidence from Oxford University last week.
"The new data from Oxford is all wrong," he told Germany's Der Spiegel. He said that the university's scientists had failed to remove shellac preservative from the specimens. As a result, the remains appeared to be much younger.
"Unfortunately, archaeologists and most anthropologists do not study physics or chemistry and therefore they cannot make judgments on carbon dating," he said. "Wrong measurements are made in all laboratories."
Prof von Zieten, who has a penchant for large Havana cigars and Porsche cars, has been considered an expert in carbon-dating techniques since the 1970s. He has tested hundreds of prehistoric bone finds from Europe and Africa over the past 30 years.
Now, however, important remains that Oxford scientists no longer believe are prehistoric include the female "Bischof-Speyer" skeleton, found near the south-west German town of Speyer with unusually good teeth. Their evidence suggests that she is 3,300 years old, not 21,300.
Another apparent misdating involved an allegedly prehistoric skull discovered near Paderborn in 1976 and considered the oldest human remain ever found in the region. Prof von Zieten dated the skull at 27,400 years old. The latest research, however, indicates that it belonged to an elderly man who died around 1750.
Germany's Herne anthropological museum, which owns the Paderborn skull, was so disturbed by the findings that it did its own tests. "We had the skull cut open and it still smelt," the museum's director, Barbara Ruschoff-Thale, said last week. "We are naturally very disappointed."
Concern about Prof von Zieten's carbon-dating estimates arose last year following a routine investigation of German prehistoric remains by the German and British anthropologists Thomas Terberger and Martin Street.
"We had decided to subject many of these finds to modern techniques to check their authenticity so we sent them to Oxford for testing," Mr Street told The Sunday Telegraph. "It was a routine examination and in no way an attempt to discredit Prof von Zieten."
In their report, though, both anthropologists described this as a "dating disaster".
The scandal engulfing Prof von Zieten goes further. Police are investigating allegations that he tried to sell 280 chimpanzee skulls from his university to buyers in America for $70,000 (£38,000).
Prof von Zieten denies the claims, saying that he legitimately obtained the skulls from a Heidelberg ethnologist in 1975. Frankfurt university last month suspended the professor from his post in the anthropology department while it runs its own inquiry.
GGG Ping
Nonsense. I've seen pictures of Michael Moore, Gerhardt Schroeder and Jacques Chirac in northern Europe!
Maybe not, but I've been to Italy and southern France plenty of times.
Dude, he was walking in Cambodia!!!
Anything will smell if it has smelts in it.
And considering present day situation do you really take this as truth?....
LoL's!~
ping
Isn't Neanderthal Man named after a town in Germany?
Another good post.
Thanks for keeping us updated on the good old stuff.
Puzzling gaps in the findings
The chart above was published in the "Spiegel-Online" story referenced in the original post.
The Findings in dark red are from Professor Reiner Protsch von Zieten, those highlighted in yellow are the newest deteriminations. The blue figures are those determined by the placement of the finds in sedimentary layers (to my best interpretation).
According to the original article, the false readings have caused upheaval in areas where new theories were developed based on Protsch's findings. The hybrid theory, basically saying that a neanderthal mated with a homo sapiens, was based on the Hahnöfersand skull. Protsch dated it at 35,000 years, now it's determined to have been a 7,500 year old duck hunter on the Elbe.
Story is here, in German, unfortunately too long for me to want to translate:
"Spiegel-Online"...."Die Regeln mache ich"....August 16, 2004...by Matthias Schulz
longjack
I don't know the latitude of the Neander River valley, but it must be north of the 47th parallel because all of Germany is...that would put the Neanderthal in Northern Europe. Therefore it would appear that the Neanderthal people walked in Northern Europe. But maybe only people who served on Swift Boats in the Neander River are allowed to express an opinion.
Yes. Neander Valley, Germany.
Ha! Never existed in Europe?
I suggest they carbon date half the men in Irish pubs! *LOL*
Thanks for the addition.
No suprise there, glaciers covered most of northern europe during most of the span of neanderthals.
And that would be in Northern Europe, correct?
Are they saying Neanderthal Man never existed in Neanderthal?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.