New Scientist
Image: Abri Peyrony and Pech-de-l’Azé I Projects
Two Stone Age humans watch intently as their teacher works on a fragment of rib. With a final flourish the tool is complete, and one student moves in for a closer look. Communication is difficult in the absence of a common language, but not impossible. “Now you try,” gestures the Neanderthal teacher.
The scene may not be as far-fetched as it might seem. A team of archaeologists has found evidence to suggest that Neanderthals were the first to produce a type of specialised bone tool, still used in some modern cultures today. The find is the best evidence yet that we may have – on rare occasions – learned a trick or two from our extinct cousins.
Neanderthals evolved in Europe 200,000 years ago, about the same time that our species first appeared in Africa (see diagram). Modern humans had made it to Europe by about 44,000 years ago, and the two species lived side-by-side for about 5000 years.
During that time, Europe’s Neanderthals suddenly began making relatively sophisticated tools, similar to those produced by our species. This suggests one obvious conclusion, says Shannon McPherron at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany: “Neanderthals were being influenced by the modern humans.”
Perhaps that is not the full story, though. McPherron and Marie Soressi at Leiden University in the Netherlands, with colleagues, have just finished excavating two sites in south-west France that are 45,000 and 51,000 years old. As such, they slightly predate the accepted first appearance of our species in Europe.
At both sites, the team found specialised tools made of polished bone, similar to those still used in some cultures today to process animal hides and make leather. Unless humans arrived in Europe earlier than we thought, the sophisticated bone tools can only have been fashioned by Neanderthal hands, says McPherron. “We’ve added a whole new component to Neanderthal behaviour.” Read more on newscientist.com…
