Did Neandertals Make the First Specialized
Bone Tools in Europe
Aug. 12, 2013 — Modern humans replaced Neandertals in
Europe about 40,000 years ago, but the Neandertals' capabilities are still
greatly debated. Some argue that before they were replaced, Neandertals had
cultural capabilities similar to modern humans, while others argue that these
similarities only appear once modern humans came into contact with Neandertals.
"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 Dr. Shannon McPherron of the Max Planck
Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. He and Dr. Michel
Lenoir of the University of Bordeaux have been excavating the site of Abri
Peyrony where three of the bones were found.
"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 lissoir. This is the first possible evidence for transmission from
Neandertals to our direct ancestors," says Dr. Soressi of Leiden University,
Netherland. She and her team found the first of four bone-tools during her
excavation at the classic Neandertal site of Pech-de-l'Azé I.
However, we cannot
eliminate the possibility that these tools instead indicate that modern humans
entered Europe and started impacting Neandertal behavior earlier than we can
currently demonstrate. Resolving this problem will require sites in central
Europe with better bone preservation.
How widespread this new
Neandertal behavior was is a question that remains. The first three found were
fragments less than a few centimeters long and might not have been recognized
without experience working with later period bone tools. It is not something
normally looked for in this time period. "However, when you put these
small fragments together and compare them with finds from later sites, the
pattern in them is clear," comments Dr. McPherron. "Then last summer
we found a larger, more complete tool that is unmistakably a lissoir like those
we find in later, modern human sites or even in leather workshops today."
Microwear analysis
conducted by Dr. Yolaine Maigrot of the CNRS on of one of the bone tools shows
traces
"Lissoirs" - Bone Tools from Southern France
These are not the first
Neandertal bone tools, but up to now their bone tools looked like stone tools
and were made with stone knapping percussive techniques. "Neandertals
sometimes made scrapers, notched tools and even handaxes from bone. They also
used bone as hammers to resharpen their stone tools," says Dr. McPherron.
"But 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 bone tools were
found in deposits containing typical Neandertal stone tools and the bones of
hunted animals including horses, reindeer, red deer and bison. At both Abri
Peyrony and Pech-de-l'Azé I, there is no evidence of later occupations by
modern humans that could have contaminated the underlying levels. Both sites
have only evidence of Neandertals.
To know the age of the bone
tools, Dr. Sahra Talamo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology applied radiocarbon dating to bones found near the bone tools
themselves. At Pech-de-l'Azé I, Dr. Zenobia Jacobs of the University of
Wollongong applied optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to sediments
from the layer with the bone tool. The results place the Pech-de-l'Azé I bone
tool to approximately 50 thousand years ago. This is well before the best
evidence of modern humans in Western Europe, and it is much older than any
other examples of sophisticated bone tool technologiesLearn More About Cro-Magnons HERE
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