10: Early Humans
Neandertals’ brains were at least as large as ours, they displayed certain signs of culture, and they were completely erect.
this chapter focuses on hominins from the Middle Pleistocene (~780k-125k ya), some of whom survived into the Late Pleistocene (~125k-10k ya).
Pleistocene = Ice Age! marked by periodic advances and retreats of massive continental glaciations (climatic intervals when continental ice sheets cover much of the northern continents; associated with colder temps in northern latitudes and more arid conditions in southern latitudes, most notably in Africa).
during glaciations, temps drop dramatically, and ice accumulates as a result of more snow falling each year than melting (creating massive glaciers).
temps fluctuated tho, and periods between glaciations were interglacials (climatic intervals when continental ice sheets are retreating toward the poles, eventually becoming much reduced in size; in northern latitudes, they’re associated with warmer temps, while in southern latitudes, the climate becomes wetter).
in Europe alone, the Pleistocene was associated with at least 15 major and 50 minor glacial advances.
most dramatic effects of glaciations were in Europe and northern Asia, with southern Asia and Africa experiencing less of an oscillation.
at this time, hominins were severely affected as climate, flora, and fauna shifted during glaciations and interglacials.
South also saw some degree of oscillation, with glacials associated with arid climates and interglacials associated with wetness and heavy rainfall. also changes in food availability, but more importantly, changes in migration routes— during glaciations, Sahara expanded, blocking migration in and out of sub-Saharan Africa.
glaciations also affected Eurasian migration routes—as ice sheets expanded, sea levels dropped, more northern regions became uninhabitable, and some key passages between areas were blocked. eg: much of western Europe was cut off from the rest of Eurasia during glacial peaks.
then, during interglacials, the ice sheets shrank, sea levels rose, and certain migration routes reopened.
like Homo erectus, later hominins were widely distributed throughout Old World. Middle Pleistocene sees more evidence from Europe, indicating it was more densely populated than before (evidence has come from England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Greece. Africa likely also continued as the central locale for hominins. also evidence from Asia, especially China.
key point: the hominins right after Homo erectus didn’t widely expand their range; rather, they just kind of replaced H. erectus, with the notable exception of Europe, seemingly.
in most regions, the hominins right after Homo erectus largely replaced them; however, in some areas, especially in S Asia, there was apparently a period of coexistence, lasting up to ~300k yrs in some areas.
earliest premodern humans exhibit traits similar to Homo erectus, including large face, projected supraorbital tori, low forehead, and sometimes, thick neurocranial bones. however, also had more derived features, including larger brains, a more rounded neurocranium (ie, maximum breadth was higher up the sides of the neurocranium), a more vertical nose, and a less angled occipital.
span at least 500k yrs, so they get gradually more and more “human” and less and less like Homo erectus and ancestors.
perpetual taxonomic argument! general consensus is getting more and more to be that these hominins from 850k-200k ya are Homo heidelbergensis, named after 1907 hominin fossil from Germany. Asian fossils seem to represent regional variants.
previously considered hominins of this period “archaic Homo sapiens,” but now experts largely agree it’s not specific enough, and these hominins were different enough from living Homo sapiens that they should represent at least 1 different paleospecies.
still, species is likely our ancestor, as well as the ancestor of Neandertals and Denisovans.
in Africa, premodern human fossils have been found at several sites
Kabwe (Broken Hill) site in Zambia found complete cranium, as well as other cranial and postcranial elements representing several individuals. as with other African premodern specimen, we see both more primitive (enormous supraorbital tori, low neurocranium, and prominent occipital torus) and derived traits (less angulated occipital region, thinner bones of neurocranium, and cranial base is “essentially modern”).
dating indicates Kabwe and other premodern hominin fossils in Africa ranged throughout ~600k-125k ya.
Bodo cranium also important! dated to ~600k ya (Middle Pleistocene), making it one of the oldest H. heidelbergensis finds from Africa. displays interesting pattern of cut marks, similar to butchering marks on animal bones. thus theorized this hominin was defleshed by another hominin, though we don’t know why, whether it be related to cannibalism, ritual, w/e. first evidence of deliberate bone processing of hominins by hominins.
numerous other crania from S and E Africa also show combo of ancestral and derived traits, and all are very similar to the one from Kabwe. most important of the other finds came from Florisbad and Elandsfontein, South Africa and Laetoli, Tanzania.
similarities among all these African fossils indicates they were closely related, almost certainly representing one single species. also quite similar to European finds.
also found even more Middle Pleistocene fossils in Europe than anywhere else (perhaps because researchers have been hunting for them there for far longer than anywhere else)
in Middle Pleistocene, Europe was more widely and consistently occupied by hominins than ever before.
tine range spans full length of Middle Pleistocene and beyond
one of earliest finds is Gran Dolina fossil mentioned in previous chapter, which are clearly not Homo erectus, but researchers argue over whether they’re a new species of hominin or whether they should be considered Neandertal. however, it’s likely Gran Dolina is just one of the earliest well-dated occurrences of Homo heidelbergensis, potentially dating all the way back to 850k ya.
more recent and more completely studied finds of Homo heidelbergensis in buncha Europe, including Steinheim, Germany; Petralona, Greece; Swanscombe, England; Arago, France; and another cave site at Atapuerca, Spain, which is called Sima de los Huesos. like African counterparts, display both ancestral and derived traits, such as increased cranial capacity, less angled occiput, parietal expansion, and reduced tooth size.
Sima de los Huesos (literally “pit of bones”) find is especially interesting. from cave in same area as Gran Dolina, but slightly younger at ~500k-400k ya. (other dating methods have suggested they could be as old as 600k ya.) found remains for at least 28 individuals, including 17 crania. over 4k fossil fragments recovered, meaning it accounts for over 80% of all Middle Pleistocene hominin remains in the world. “Paleoanthropologists interpret the hominin morphology as showing several indications of an early Neandertal-like pattern, with arching browridges, projecting midface, and other Neandertal features.” recent analysis of mtDNA indicates closer relationship to Denisovans than Neandertals, ancient humans, or modern humans, so they (the fossilized ppl from this site) might’ve been ancestral to Neandertals and Denisovans (and us!).
Swanscombe find is a partial skull from ~300k-259k (?) ya. shows considerable brain expansion.
Asian finds!
also both ancestral and derived characteristics.
Chinese researchers suggest early Chinese hominins share certain ancestral characteristics from Homo erectus from Zhoukoudian, such as sagittal ridge and flattened nasal bones. also say lotta these features are present in modern-day Asian Homo sapiens, and say it points to “substantial genetic continuity.” ie, they say Chinese hominins evolved separately from those in Europe and Africa and are a separate lineage. still being debated.
most complete skull of later Middle/early Late Pleistocene fossils in China is Dali, with cranial capacity of 1120cm3. displays traits of both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens (ie, ancestral and derived).
also found partial skeleton in Jinniushan in N China, dated to ~200kya. cranial capacity fairly large at 1260cm3, and walls of neurocranium are thin (both modern features, and both somewhat unexpected in an individual so ancient (assuming dating is correct). thus some researchers believe this might be very early Homo sapiens.
still debating how to classify these hominins, but most ppl think they’re regional variants of Homo heidelbergensis.
“The Pleistocene world forced many small populations into geographical isolation. Most of these regional populations no doubt died out. Some, however, did evolve, and their descendants are likely a major part of the later hominin fossil record. In Africa, H. Heidelbergensis is hypothesized to have evolved into modern H. sapiens. In Europe, H. Heidelbergensis evolved into Neandertals and likely Denisovans as well. Meanwhile, the Chinese premodern populations may all have met with extinction. Right now, though, there’s no consensus on the status or the likely fate of these enigmatic Asian Middle Pleistocene hominins.”
Acheulian technology carried through to Middle Pleistocene from Homo erectus. little change until near end of period, when it grew slightly more sophisticated. bone remained practically unused. stone flake tools persisted like in the past, but perhaps with more variety.
later premodern humans in Africa and Europe invented Levallois technique to control size and shape of flakes, resulting in “turtle-back” profile. required “several complex and coordinated steps,” suggesting increased cognitive abilities.
continued to live in both caves and open air. perhaps increased use of caves in this time, tho.
hominins seem to have been able to use and control fire at this time, but still heavily debated.
these hominins built temporary structures.
evidence they exploited many food sources, including fruits, veggies, seeds, nuts, and bird eggs (during their various seasons), as well as marine life (including shellfish), which was a new development.
still huge debates regarding hunting capabilities. most researchers have found little evidence to support it, but there have been more recent findings that have challenged this notion, like the discovery of some wood spears from ~300kya in Schoningen site in Germany in 1995 that seem to have been thrown to hunt larger animals (also found bones of >50 horses at that site; these finds are super well-preserved because, based on research of the site, they were submerged within the sediments of an ancient lake that was once there).
transitional period in hominin evolution in Europe lasted well into Late Pleistocene (post-125kya).
Neandertals
known for ~150yrs now, but fit a very weird place in human evolutionary history.
very similar to Homo sapiens but super different at the same time, so generally classified as subspecies Homo sapiens neanderthalensis (as opposed to us, Homo sapiens sapiens), although still heavily debated because anthropology lol.
recent evidence of inbreeding with Neandertals suggests they never achieved full speciation, which is clear evidence that they were a subspecies of Homo sapiens.
fossils found from as far back as 130kya, but today, we’re focusing on populations during last major glaciation that ran from 75k-10kya.
evolutionary roots of Neandertals in west Europe dates back very far, apparently, based on 400k+ya remains from Sima de los Huesos.
most Neandertal fossils found in Europe. called “classic Neandertals.” other variants, such as those from eastern Europe and western Asia and those from the interglacial period just before the one we’re discussing today, were not as robust as the ones we’re about to discuss, perhaps because the climate wasn’t as cold as Europe was in the last glaciation.
key features of classic Neandertals include
big brains, even larger than modern humans’ (average is 1520cm3, while ours is between 1300-1400cm3). perhaps due to metabolic efficiency of larger brain during cold weather, as we see in the Inuit, eg. (note: this bigger brain size is also correlated with larger body size, too, in modern humans; thus they be just all-around bigger.)
cranium is long, large, low, and bulging at sides. when viewed from side, occipital bone is somewhat “bun-shaped,” but the “marked occipital angle typical of many H. erectus crania is absent.” forehead rises more vertically, but still low. supraorbital tori arch over orbits instead of forming a straight bar like in H. heidelbergensis.
compared to modern human face, those of Neandertals project.
“Postcranially, Neandertals were very robust, barrel-chested, and powerfully muscled.” just like Homo erectus, as well as all premodern hominins (before today’s form of Homo sapiens, ie). still, they were “particularly robust” and had shorter limbs than in most modern human populations.
physical features have been analyzed as adaptations to living in a cold-ass climate, since they share lotta features with modern populations who live in extreme cold (eg, we already mentioned the Inuit tribe).
smol chin and projecting midface
lived in Europe and western Asia for ~100k yrs.
“As we’ve noted, Neandertal forebears were transitional forms dating to the later Middle Pleistocene. However, it’s not until the Late Pleistocene that Neandertals become fully recognizable.”
key Neandertal find from La Chapelle-aux-Saints cave in 1908.
nearly complete male skeleton buried in shallow grave in flexed position (the position of the body in a bent orientation, with limbs drawn up to chest). several long bones of nonhuman animals had been placed over the head, and over them, a bison leg. flint tools and broken animal bones surrounded the rest of the body. research and excavations have confirmed that he was, in fact, deliberately buried.
then, well-known French anthropologist Marcellin Boule examined the skeleton; determined he was “a brutish, bent-kneed, not-fully erect biped,” which is why the stereotype of the dumb Neandertal exists today. modern analysis indicates Boule might have been thrown off because the skeleton appears to have had osteoarthritis of the back, which would’ve affected his posture; however, more than that, at that point in time, even scientists couldn’t accept that “an individual who appeared in any way to depart from the modern pattern” was a human ancestor.
male was “possibly at least 40” when he died. skull large, with cranial capacity of 1620cm3. as with most classic European Neandertal specimen, “the vault is low and long; the browridges are immense, with the typical Neandertal arched shape; the forehead is low and retreating; and the face is long and projecting. The back of the skull is protuberant and bun-shaped.”
although this specimen was not typical of Neandertals in general (as he was unusually robust—like a caricature of Neandertals), unfortunately, everyone took that image and ran with it, creating today’s stereotype.
find from Spanish site El Sidrón. fragmented remains from at least 12 individuals from ~49kya. show skeletal evidence they were smashed, putchered, and likely cannibalized (presumably by other Neandertals). all found in a cave where the remains had likely fallen by accident = all likely killed around same time. these remains provide key evidence:
theorized the individuals were all part of the same social group, representing a band of hunter-gatherers, based on their ages (3 adult males, 3 adult females, 5 kids/adolescents, and 1 infant)
genetic evidence shows the adult males were closely related, but the females were not, indicating patrilocal mating (which means that related males stay together and mate with females from other groups).
one of the most recent Neandertal findings from Europe is from St. Césaire. dated to 35kya. “Neandertal remains were recovered from an archaeological level that also included discarded chipped blades, hand axes, and other stone tools of an Upper Paleolithic tool industry associated with Neandertals.”
Upper Paleolithic: a cultural period usually associated with modern humans, but also found with some Neandertals, and distinguished by technological innovation in various stone tool industries; best known from W Europe, but similar industries are known from central and E Europe as well as Africa.
also found classic Neandertals in central Europe! major site is Krapina, Croatia, where over 1k bone fragments from up to 70 individuals have been recovered, as well as 1k stone tools/flakes. dated to beginning of Late Pleistocene (~130-110kya), making it potentially the earliest site showing “the full suite of classic Neandertal morphology.” also one of the oldest examples of a deliberate burial site.
fossils also found ~30 miles away at Vindija, which has lotta faunal, cultural, and hominin materials “stratified in sequence throughout much of the Late Pleistocene.” found some 35 Neandertal specimens dating between 42-32kya, making them some of the most recent Neandertal fossils that we’ve found so far.
anatomically modern humans were living in both W and C Europe by ~35kya, so the finds from St. Césaire and Vindija are important because they indicate Neandertals and Homo sapiens lived together for a while beforehand. evidence from sites in C and SW France as well as N Spain indicate that “Neandertals may have borrowed technological methods and tools (such as blades) from the anatomically modern populations and thereby modified their own tools, creating a new industry, the Chatelperronian” (pertaining to an Upper Paleolithic industry found in France and Spain, containing blade tools and associated with Neandertals). more than that, it might have been the other way around (we borrowed from them).
And! we recently found out that Homo sapiens and Neandertals actually interbred, and we’re all a little bit Neandertal!
also found Neandertal specimen from Israel. more gracile than European counterparts, but still undoubtedly Neandertal. key discovery from Tabun, excavated in early ‘30s, where they found a female skeleton dated by TL to 120-110kya. if accurate, it indicates they were contemporaneous with early modern Homo sapiens found in nearby caves.
more recent Israeli find from Kebara, a neighbouring cave. deliberately buried partial skeleton dated 60kya. included the most complete thorax and pelvis that we’ve yet found for Neandertals. also found hyoid bone that was almost indistinguishable from ours, implying their vocal abilities were perhaps just the same as ours still are today.
Shanidar Cave in Zagros Mountains of NE Iraq yielded finding of partial skeletons of 9 individuals, 4 of whom were deliberately buried. key find was Shanidar 1, who was a male that lived to ~30-45 yrs old, which is pretty long for a prehistoric hominin. he’s estimated to have been 5’7” with cranial capacity of 1600cm3. what’s most important is that the evidence shows that he was very obviously disabled. we can see that a blow to the left of the head fractured his eye socket and displaced his eye, likely making him blind on that side; his right arm was so badly damaged by another blow that the bones in his shoulder blade, collar bone, and upper arm are smaller and thinner than those on the left; his lower arm and hand weren’t found, likely because they fell off or were amputated rather than just because they were poorly preserved; and there was trauma to both legs, which probably gave him a limp. all of this most likely means that others took care of him.
Neandertals also present far into Asia. ‘30s find at Teshik-Tash in Uzbekistan found remains of Neandertal child associated with tools of Mousterian industry, suggesting Neandertals had long dispursed into Asia. DNA solidly proves kid was Neandertal.
still, there is solid evidence that Neandertals extended “far into central Asia and perhaps even farther east.”
DNA analysis also places a few fragmentary specimens from S Siberia as Neandertals.
“...researchers have recently been able to identify and analyze DNA from several Neandertal specimens. It’s been shown that Neandertals and modern humans differ in both their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and nuclear DNA, and these results are extremely significant in determining the evolutionary status of the Neandertal lineage.”
findings from 2000 and 2008 at Denisova Cave in Siberia found more fragmentary hominin remains, including a tooth and finger bone dated to 50-30kya. finger bone sent in for DNA testing, which showed it was from neither Homo sapiens nor Neandertal; also indicated this creature’s lineage diverged from that of Homo sapiens and Neandertals at ~1mya. this bone’s entire genome was sequenced within 2 years, and intensive analysis has found this individual was from a separate branch of hominin that lived side by side Neandertals and modern humans in central Asia, called the “Denisovans.”
Neandertals associated with Mousterian industry (pertaining to the stone tool industry associated with Neandertals and some modern Homo sapiens groups; AKA Middle Paleolithic; characterized by larger proportion of flake tools than is found in Acheulian tool kits). this industry extended across Europe and North Africa into central Asia, including Israel, Iran, parts of the former Societ Union, and perhaps even China. similar Middle Stone Industry at same time in sub-Saharan Africa.
evidence that Neandertals extended and diversified traditional tool-making methods as well as developed specialized tools for skinning and preparing meat, hunting, woodworking, and hafting. however, still no evidence that they used bone tools like proceeding hominins.
Neandertals were also “quite advanced in exploiting new food resources, as well as fashioning personal adornments.”
Neandertals were successful hunters, but probably not as efficient as modern humans from the Upper Paleolithic (eg: only did those later hominins invent spear-throwing, bows and arrows, and other long-distance weapons). relied mostly on thrusting spears, which put them in more danger than later hominins, with analysis of trauma in Neandertal bones similar to head and neck injuries of modern rodeo performers.
evidence also shows Neandertals expanded food resources to marine, which we thought until recently was only associated with humans from Upper Paleolithic— recent findings from Gibraltar shows that some Neandertals gathered shellfish and hunted seals and dolphins, “displaying no difference in their hunting behaviour from modern humans of the same region.”
lotta debate about speech capacities of Neandertals, with some arguing that they were incapable of human speech, but most believing they were capable of articulate speech and perhaps of producing the same range of sounds that modern humans can.
genetic evidence that Neandertals ________ FOXP2 gene, which is known to produce serious issues in human speech if it undergoes a mutation and is also not present in nonhuman primates.
Neandertal endocasts and hyoid bones/cranial base shape both indicate that Neandertals weren’t significantly limited anatomically in speech.
big thing holding ppl back is generally that they think Neandertals couldn’t possibly have been as cognitively advanced as later humans, but more and more evidence is accumulating to challenge that perspective, and line between Neandertal and human behaviour is blurring. eg: we now know they used pigment and jewelry for body adornment, as we do. also evidence from Spain of Mousterian stone tool industry before Homo sapiens arrived.
for at least 15k yrs, humans and Neandertals lived side by side, but Neandertals disappear from the fossil and archaeological record at ~30kya. we’re not sure why they disappeared, especially since lotta their genes live on in modern human populations.
evidence points to Neandertals being the first hominins to deliberately bury their dead, based on aforementioned finds at La Chapelle, Shanidar, etc. dated to at least 90kya at Tabun, but older Sima de los Huesos site (dated to 400kya) found evidence of disposal of dead (not burying, tho) with that accumulation of remains in that cave at the end of the vertical shaft, which indicates Neandertals were not the first hominins to dispose of their dead. current data indicates this originated in Europe and spread to Africa and Asia a bit later. however, in contexts post-35kya, we have evidence of early Homo sapiens burials, which shows they were much more complex than those of Neandertals (eg by presence of grave goods like stone tools). evidence of Neandertal burials also questioned because many of these sites were excavated in the late 19th/early 20th century, and sites might’ve been compromised or inaccurately interpreted, but we don’t know anymore; nevertheless, numerous sites make it clear they deliberately disposed of the dead, especially in France, and in many cases, the bodies were deliberately positioned, esp in flexed position like at La Chapelle-aux-Saints.
“...recent ancient DNA evidence strongly suggests that other fossils from central Asia (most notably, Denisova Cave) dated at 50,000-30,000 ya are closely related to Neandertals. However, some of the skeletal remains may represent an entirely separate hominin lineage.”
that finger bone from Denisova that they mapped the genome of? yeah, they could figure out she was female and had dark skin, brown hair, and brown eyes, and they could determine which genes she inherited from her mom vs her dad. they also found up to 34 genes known to cause disease in humans that were different in this Denisovan.
a toe bone found in 2008 from the same cave was also sequenced and found to be a Neandertal female from ~50kya. this specimen showed DNA contributions “mostly from Neandertals, but also deriving from Denisovans, early modern humans, and even a fourth (yet to be named) lineage of hominin. Although overall genetic admixture was low, between 3 and 6 percent of this unknown lineage’s DNA was found in Denisovan populations.” some suggest that that mystery hominin was Homo erectus, but we dunno yet.
analysis of Neandertal DNA from mtDNA extracted from fossils in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Croatia, and Russia have found that genetically, Neandertals are 3 times more different from modern humans than modern human populations are from one another. also, entire nuclear genome has been sequenced for European Neandertals. this has taught us that:
Neandertal DNA is really similar to ours, with 99.84% of it being identical
many ppl today still have Neandertal genes, but only non-African ppl, indicating that Neandertal and Homo sapiens breeding only occurred after the latter emigrated from Africa. all the modern humans sequenced in the study had the exact same amount of Neandertal DNA except African individuals, including ppl from all over the Old World (China, France, New Guinea, the far South Pacific, western Europe, etc). hypothesized that when leaving Africa, “a small number of them interbred with Neanderthals before these people and their descendants dispersed to other areas of the world. The best guess is that this intermixing occurred in the Middle East, likely sometime between 80,000 and 50,000 ya.” thus far, the degree of interbreeding seems to be 1.5-2.1% of the living non-African genome, which is small but significant. “These low percentages may reflect long-term selection against Neandertal genes in modern humans, especially those located on the X chromosome, which are linked to reduced fertility in males.”
all the Middle Pleistocene hominins were derived from earlier Homo erectus, and some of them were indeed the ancestors to modern humans, but not every fossil we find is necessarily ancestral to us.
some anthropologists consider every hominin from this chapter to be “archaic Homo sapiens,” but most don’t agree with that much lumping.
alternative POV argues for modest species diversity and labels earlier premodern humans as H. heidelbergensis.
yet another POV identify 2+ species distinct from Homo sapiens, the key ones of which are the aforementioned H. heidelbergensis and H. neanderthalensis.
regardless of all this bickering, everyone agrees these hominins are closely related to both e/o and modern humans but that only some of the fossils represented actually left descendents. the argument is really just over clades and taxonomy and where these hominins fit in relation to living humans—it’s nitpicky stuff. even the most hardcore of splitters recognize that these paleospecies weren’t hard-and-fast, well-defined species like those of living creatures—the names are just meant to emphasize diversity between them, not to say it was absolutely impossible that they interbred with others, were clearly distinguished from e/o while alive, etc etc. “Giving distinct hominin samples a separate (species) name makes them more easily identifiable to other researchers and makes various cladistic hypotheses more explicit—and equally important, more directly testable.”
“Are Neandertals very closely related to modern H. sapiens? Certainly. Are they physically and behaviorally somewhat distinct from both ancient and fully modern humans? Yes. Does this mean that Neandertals are a fully separate biological species from modern humans and therefore theoretically incapable of fertilely interbreeding with modern people? Almost certainly not. Finally, then, should Neandertals really be placed in a separate species from H. sapiens? For most purposes, it doesn’t matter, since the distinction at some point is arbitrary. Speciation is, after all, a dynamic process. Fossil groups such as the Neandertals represent just one point in this process.”
it’s safe to think of both Neandertals and Denisovans as distinct incipient species, side branches of later hominin evolution. DNA evidence suggests that at least Neandertals would have completely speciated if given enough time, and they were well on their way to doing so, but as more successful hominins expanded into their habitats, the chance was taken from them.
“Premodern humans existed between about 600,000 (or perhaps earlier) and 30,000 years ago, and they included three groups: (1) an earlier group of hominins called Homoheidelbergensis; (2) the Neandertals, who were descended from H. heidelbergensis, and thus came later; and (3) the so-called “Denisovans,” who likewise were descendants of H. heidelbergensis and were contemporaneous with the Neandertals.”
“Fossils classified as H. heidelbergensis have been found at various sites in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and they date between about 600,000 (perhaps earlier) and 130,000 years ago. These earliest premodern humans presumably were descended from H. erectus either in Africa or Europe (there are equally old specimens from both continents).”
“NOTE: The term “Neandertal” is derived from Neander + Tal (the German word for “valley”). The spelling Neandertal (without an “h”) is now considered correct by scholars; the original spelling “Neanderthal” (with an “h”) is no longer used (Thal is an older spelling for the German word Tal).”
“When the first Neandertal fossils were found, people were intrigued but they didn’t really knowhow to make sense of them. Although the fossils looked a lot like human remains, they clearly were not “normal.” Moreover, Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species had not yet been published (it appeared in 1859), so Europeans’ notions about evolution were quite different from our own. Various theories were proposed to explain the fossils. Some scholars felt they were the remains of a sick and deformed person; one believed they were the bones of a soldier from the Napoleonic Wars who had “water on the brain”; and one anatomist even argued that the fossils were the remains of a malnourished man with a nasty temper who had gotten into a lot of fights, and thus had a misshaped forehead and brow.”
“The image of Neandertals as “abnormal” was reinforced by another skeleton found at La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France, in 1908. A French paleontologist named Marcellin Boule analyzed the skeleton and suggested that it was the remains of an individual who was brutish, had an ape-like brain, and walked like an ape. In fact, subsequent reanalysis of these fossils has demonstrated that this Neandertal individual suffered from malnutrition, arthritis, and other deformities, so he really was not a “typical” Neandertal at all. Nevertheless, the image of Neandertals as brutish, primitive, “ape-like,” etc. became cemented in Euro-American thinking, and to some extent, such views even persist today.”
“NOTE: In contrast to the term Neandertal (spelled without an “h”) used in ordinary language, the species (or subspecies) name for Neandertals (neanderthalensis) continues to be spelled with an “h.””
“Although some 400,000-year-old fossils with Neandertal-like features have been found in western Europe, “classic” Neandertal fossils date between about 130,000 and 30,000 years ago, which means they lived during the Late Pleistocene (the last Ice Age). IMPORTANT: Do not confuse “Pleistocene” (a geological period) with “Paleolithic” (the Old Stone Age, an archaeological period).”
“Many “classic” anatomical features of Neandertals, particularly those who lived in western Europe, reflect the fact that these premodern humans were adapted to a cold climate. The characteristic traits of Neandertals include:
A very large brain — In fact, average brain size among Neandertals (~1,520 cc) was larger than that of modern humans (~ 1,325 cc). The larger size of Neandertals’ brains is probably related to (1) the large overall body size of Neandertals, as well as (2) the greater metabolic efficiency of larger brains in cold climates (e.g., conservation of heat). Of course, the large size of Neandertals’ brains also indicates that these premodern humans were very intelligent.
Prominent brow ridges
Short forehead
Protruding midface
Large nose — This feature may be an adaptation to the cold Late Pleistocene climate. A larger nose would more effectively warm and moisten air when Neandertals were breathing, thus preventing damage to their lungs and brain. A similar adaptation (longer noses) has been documented in modern human populations that have adapted to cold cli mates (I will discuss this in Unit 12).
Occipital bun — A bony protuberance on the back of the skull (similar to, but larger than, the nuchal torus seen in H. erectus) where very strong neck muscles would have attached, thus counterbalancing the heavy, forward-protruding face.
(*) Interestingly, in some “elderly” (35- to 40-year-old) Neandertals, the front teeth are almost completely worn down. This pattern suggests that Neandertals used their teeth for tasks other than just eating (e.g., as a sort of vice to grip objects).
(*) Both sexes were very muscular (as evidenced by their robust and dense limb bones) and had strong arms, hands, legs, and feet.
Compared to modern humans, Neandertals were shorter and stockier, and had shorter limbs. This body type—which maximizes the production and retention of body heat—was likely an adaptation to the cold climate. Similar features (more massive bodies, shorter limbs) are found in modern human populations adapted to cold climates (again, we’ll discuss this in Unit 12).”
“DNA extracted from Denisovan remains differs from that of Neandertals and modern humans, enough to consider the Denisovans a distinct group. But quite interestingly, these analyses also reveal that all three groups were related (i.e., they were all descended from H. heidelbergensis) and that there was some degree of interbreeding between them. In fact, very recent genetic analyses of a 90,000-year-old bone fragment, also recovered in Denisova Cave, indicated that the bone came from a girl who had a Neandertal mother and a Denisovan father!”
“We have ample evidence that cultural adaptations were more important for premodern humans than they were for earlier hominins, including H. erectus.”
“TechnologyAs I noted last week, the Paleolithic period (Old Stone Age) is split into three subperiods: Lower, Middle, and Upper. Each of these subperiods is defined by the presence of particular stone tool industries, and these different kinds of tools are generally associated with one or more hominin species. Hopefully you remember that Acheulian tools were characteristic of the Lower Paleolithic, and that they were first made by H. erectus. H. heidelbergensis continued to make Achuelian-style tools, including the distinctive Acheulian hand-axes. In the past few years, researchers have discovered more than 30 Achuelian hand-axes at various sites along the southern coast of Crete in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, no hominin fossils have been found in association with the tools. However, given their age (geological data indicate they are at least 130,000 years old), these tools were most likely made byH. heidelbergensis, who must have rafted to the island. Scientists estimate that these hominins would have had to cross some 25-40 miles of open water if they were traveling from Europe, or even 125 miles if coming from Africa.
NOTE: In the Unit 7 PowerPoint notes, I mentioned some fossilized footprints that were recently discovered on Crete, and that some researchers think may have been made by hominins. When those footprints were made—some 5.7 million years ago—Crete was likely connected to the Greek mainland. However, by the time H. heidelbergensis discarded the Acheulian hand-axes discussed above (only 130,000 years ago), Crete had separated from mainland Europe and was an island like it is today. Although we do not know how or why H. heidelbergensis made the trip to Crete, this fascinating evidence represents one of the earliest known instances of seafaring by hominins (although remember that even older hominin fossils and stone tools have also been found on islands in Indonesia and the Philippines, as you learned in Unit 8).”
“The next archaeological period, the Middle Paleolithic, was characterized by various tool-making traditions, including the Mousterian industry. Mousterian tools are primarily associated with the Neandertals. A number of trends are evident when we compare Mousterian and the earlier Acheulian tools:
Compared to Acheulian tools, Mousterian tools are generally smaller and lighter, and they include more flake tools. Many were made via a complex process known as the Levallois technique. By using this technique—which involves preparing a core by removing various small flakes from its surfaces and then striking the core at one end, thereby detaching a larger pre-shaped flake tool—hominins were better able to control the size and shape of their stone tools.
Mousterian tools represent increased efficiency in the use of stone—i.e., they have more cutting edge per unit of stone than did Acheulian tools (which likewise were more “efficient” than the even earlier Oldowan tools).
Mousterian tools were more diverse than Acheulian tools. They included tools like hand-axes, scrapers, borers, perforators, notched flakes used to shave wood, points that could be attached to wooden shafts (to make spears), etc.
There was greater regional variation in Mousterian tools—which archaeologists interpret as evidence of increasingly distinct cultural traditions learned by different hominin groups.”
“Various lines of evidence indicate that there were significant changes in the social organization of premodern human groups.(*) For example, these hominins clearly built shelters. (*) Last week I described Terra Amata, a site on the Mediterranean coast of France where archaeologists found Acheulian tools, hearths, and most remarkably, the remains of temporary structures. Most researchers now believe that this was actually a seasonal H. heidelbergensis(rather than a H. erectus) camp used for hunting and gathering of foods. Likewise, huts made with mammoth bones and animal skins have been found at Neandertal sites like Moldova (Ukraine).(*) Premodern humans also lived in caves and rock shelters, which they sometimes tried to improve by paving them with pebbles, (*) using sticks and animal skins to construct simple walls and tent-like structures inside them, etc.(*) Many researchers also believe that premodern humans used fire, as evidenced by the presence of probable hearths in archaeological sites.”
“Perhaps most important, we have evidence that Neandertals cared for sick, disabled, and “elderly” individuals, who for the first time are well represented in the fossil record. It is clear from various Neandertal skeletons that these individuals sustained serious injuries during their lives, but they did not die as a result of these traumas. The implication of this pattern is that injured or sick Neandertals may have been cared for by other individuals.(*) The skeleton of a male Neandertal discovered in Shanidar Cave in Iraq is a prime example of this. This 30- to 45-year-old Neandertal sustained many serious injuries during his life (see p. 273 of your textbook for a graphic description of the traumas he experienced), but he nevertheless survived for a number of years—undoubtedly with assistance from other members of his family or social group.”
“There is also mounting evidence that premodern humans—Neandertals and maybe alsoH. heidelbergensis—occasionally engaged in cannibalism.(*) For example, a 600,000-year-old H. heidelbergensis skull found at the site of Bodo (Ethiopia) exhibited cut marks that suggest it was deliberately defleshed; whether this was related to cannibalism is unclear.(*) Skeletal remains from Moula-Guercy cave in France, which dates to about 100,000 years ago, indicate that six Neandertals (2 adults, 2 teenagers, and 2 children) had been butchered in the same way that deer carcasses also found at the site had been processed. The long bones and skulls of the Neandertals had been broken, perhaps to get at the marrow and brains.(*) Likewise, at El Sidrón cave in northern Spain, researchers found the remains of 12 Neandertals (3 men, 3 women, 3 teenage boys, and 3 children) who had been butchered, their long bones broken presumably in order to extract the marrow.
IMPORTANT: If premodern humans did indeed engage in cannibalism, this would actually make them more like us (modern humans), not less. There are many archaeologically and historically documented cases of cannibalism in modern human societies.”
“It also appears that Neandertals engaged in behaviors that may have had symbolic meaning. (*)There is indisputable evidence that Neandertals were the first hominins to deliberately bury dead individuals (this is one reason that a lot of nearly complete Neandertal skeletons have been found).(*) In many Neandertal burials, the body was carefully positioned (e.g, the arms are folded over the chest or abdomen). Some burials also contained possible grave goods, including stone tools and caches of ochre (an iron oxide pigment). (*) Some researchers have posited that pollen found in the soil around the skeleton of a Neandertal buried in Shanidar Cave, Iraq, is evidence that flowers had been placed below the body and around its head. Other researchers disagree with this interpretation, arguing that the pollen in the burial was deposited naturally.”
“Neandertals also may have manufactured symbolic artifacts—although there is considerable debate over how to interpret these objects. (*) This slide shows two examples: on the left, a chunk of mammoth tooth that was shaped and colored with ochre, found at the site of Tata, Hungary; and on the right, a carved bone pendant from Arcy-sur-Cure, France, that may have been made by a Neandertal (although a recent study suggests that this artifact may actually have been manufactured by a modern human).(*) Some researchers have even suggested that Neandertals made musical instruments!(*) This hollow bone, found at a Neandertal site in Slovenia, has perforations that some scholars think were deliberately made, so that the bone could be played like a flute. Others reject this interpretation, arguing instead that the perforations are natural (e.g., the bone is simply an ecofact that was gnawed by carnivores).”
“There is also indirect behavioral/archaeological evidence that Neandertals may have been able to communicate via some form of language.(*) The ability to teach and learn very complex tool-making processes would have been greatly facilitated by complex vocal communication.(*) Moreover, Neandertals clearly buried their dead (a ritual that may have had some kind of symbolic importance to them) and they may have made objects with symbolic meaning. All of this suggests—though it does not prove for certain—that Neandertals were also able to think and communicate symbolically via some form of language.”