19 Neanderthal

Dr. Gopal Chandra Mondal

epgp books

 

Source: Stein and Rowe, 2000

 

 

Contents of this unit

  • Introduction

  • Varieties of Neanderthals and their distribution

  • General physical features of the Neanderthals

  • Cultural achievements

  • Controversies regarding classical and progressive varieties

  • Phylogenetic relationship

  • Disappearance of Neanderthals

 

Learning Objectives

  • To understand about the Neanderthals and its varieties
  • To understand the general features of the Neanderthals along with their cultural achievements.
  • What controversy circles around classical and progressive varieties of this group?
  • To study the phylogenetic relationship of this group and to know why the reasons behind the disappearance of Neanderthals?

Introduction

Neanderthals are an extinct species of genus Homo who appeared between 200,000 and 250,000 years ago. They are closely related to modern humans, differing in DNA by just 0.12%. Remains of Neanderthals include bone and stone tools, which are found from places in Eurasia, from Western Europe to Central and Northern Asia. The fossil remains (including skull and long bones) of this group were discovered in the year 1856 from the Neander valley near Dusseldorf in Germany. The Neanderthals lived during Last Inter-Glacial (Riss-Wurm) to Last Glaciation (Wurm) period and the geological time was Middle to Upper Pleistocene period. Some lithic tools of Middle Palaeolithic cultural period (especially Mousterian culture) were discovered as associated finds with the fossil remains. Neanderthals were also referred to as the makers of Mousterian Culture. From most of the caves and inhabited sites, the implements of Mousterian culture were found along with the fossil findings. As in all cases with most transitional forms the skulls possess both primitive and advanced characteristics. In the year 1864, William King coined the name Homo neanderthalensis. Later, it was named as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, a subspecies of Homo sapiens.

 

About 55,000 years ago, the climate began to fluctuate wildly from extreme cold conditions to mild cold and back in a matter of few decades. The physical structure of the Neanderthal, as evidenced from the fossil records, was found to be well suited for survival in cold climate—their barrelled chests and stocky limbs stored body heat better than the Cro-Magnons. However, the rapid fluctuations of weather caused ecological changes to which the Neanderthals could not adapt; familiar plants and animals would be replaced by completely different ones within a lifetime. Neanderthals’ ambush techniques would have failed as grasslands replaced trees. Neanderthals died out in Europe between 41,000 and 39,000 years ago which coincides with the start of a very cold period. Modern humans co-existed with them in Europe starting around 35,000 years, perhaps even earlier. Neanderthals inhabited European continent for a long period of time before the arrival of modern humans. Some scholars argue that H. sapiens may have introduced a disease that contributed to the extinction of Neanderthals, and that may be added to other recent explanations for their extinction.

 

Varieties of Neanderthals and their distribution

 

Source: Stein PL and Rowe BM., 2000.

 

Several fossils have been discovered from different parts of the world important sites which have been shown above:

(a) Gibraltar; (b) La Quina, France; (c) La Ferrassie, France; (d) Nearderthal, Germany; (e) Spy I, Belgium; (f) Spy II, Belgium; (g) Monte Circeo, Italy; (h) Krapina, Yugoslavia; (i) Petralona, Greece;(j) Teschik Tasch, Uzbekistan; (k) Shanidar1, Iraq; ( l ) Skhul IX, Israel; (m) Skhul IV, Israel; (n) Tabun

 

Neanderthal 1: The first Neanderthal specimen found during an archaeological dig in August 1856. It was discovered in  a  limestone quarry at  the Feldhofer grotto  in Neanderthal, Germany discovered  by Johann Fuhlrott. The find consisted of a skull cap, two femora, three right arm bones, two left arm bones, Ilium, and fragments of a scapula and ribs.

 

La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1: It is a fossilized skull discovered in La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France, by A. and J. Bouyssonie, and L. Bardon in 1908. The characteristics of this fossil include a low vaulted cranium and large brow ridge typical of Neanderthals. Estimated to be about 60,000 years old, the specimen was severely arthritic and had lost all his teeth, with evidence of healing. For him to have lived on would have required that someone process his food for him, one of the earliest examples of Neanderthal altruism (similar to Shanidar I.)

 

La Ferrassie 1: A fossilized skull discovered in La Ferrassie, France. Both female and male adults are discovered by Denis Peyrony in 1909. It is estimated to be 70,000 years old. Its characteristics include a large occipital bun, low-vaulted cranium and heavily worn teeth.

 

Le Moustier: A fossilized skull, discovered in 1909, at the archaeological site in Peyzac-le-Moustier, Dordogne, France. The tool assemblage found with that fossil is called Mousterian tool culture, named after Le Moustier. The skull is estimated to be less than 45,000 years old, includes a large nasal cavity and a somewhat less developed brow ridge and occipital bun as might be expected in a juvenile. The first Neandertal ‘Burial site’ was discovered by Otto Hauser.

 

Shanidar 1: Found in the Zagros Mountains in (Iraqi Kurdistan); a total of nine skeletons found believed to have lived in the Middle Paleolithic by Ralph Solecki. One of the nine remains was missing part of its right arm, which is theorized to have been broken off or amputated. The find is also significant because it shows that stone tools were present among this tribe’s culture. One of the skeletons was buried with flowers, signifying that some type of burial ceremony may have occurred.

 

Amud 1: Fossilized remains of an adult Neanderthal, dated to roughly 45,000 years ago, and one of several found in a cave at Nahal Amud, Israel, at least some of which may have been deliberately buried. A particularly notable feature of this find is its cranial capacity, of 1,740 cc, is among the largest known for any hominid, living or extinct. This fossil remain was discovered by Francis Turville-Petre in 1925.

 

Neanderthal skull at La Chapelle-aux-Saints                                              Ferrassie skull

 

Neanderthal skull                                                                        Amud skull

 

Tabun C1: This fossil remain was found from a palaeoanthropological excavations conducted in a deep rock shelter located on the edge of Mount Carmel and facing the Mediterranean Sea in northern Israel. This site was discovered by Dorothy Garrod. It yielded a partial skeleton, a mandible, an isolated premolar teeth, and fire isolated limb bones. Artifacts discovered in a long sequence of deposits   at   this   site    document    patterns    of    change    in    stone-tool    manufacture    during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic periods. This record has become the reference scale for human technological evolution in southwestern Asia between 300,000 and 50,000–100,000 years ago. From 1929 to 1934 Tabūn also yielded a series of fossil remains from the Lower and Middle palaeolithic periods. The fossils suggest that Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) and early modern humans (H. sapiens) alternately occupied the region.

Tabun skull                                                                            Shanidar 1 skull

 

Skull from Gibraltar                                                                    Skull from Spy

Skull from La Moustier                                                               Portion of the skull from Swanscombe

 

Gibraltar: Gibraltar 1 fossil  was  found  in Forbes’  Quarry,  Gibraltar.  The Neanderthals  of  Gibraltar were among the first to be discovered (by Captain Edmund Flint) by modern scientists and may have been among the last of their species. The skull of a Neanderthal woman, discovered in a quarry in 1848, was only the second Neanderthal skull ever found and the first adult Neanderthal skull to  be  discovered, eight  years  before the discovery of the  skull for which the species was  named     in Neanderthal, Germany. The Neanderthals are known to have occupied ten sites on the Gibraltar peninsula at the southern tip of Liberia, which may have had one of the densest areas of Neanderthal settlement of anywhere in Europe. The skull showed typical Neanderthal features. Radiocarbon dating performed on charcoal in Gorham’s Cave in Gibraltar in 2006 suggests that Neanderthals lived there 24,000 to 28,000 years ago, well after the arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe 40,000 years ago.

 

La Quina: La Quina is located in the Charente region of south-western France, approximately 5 km from the village of Villebois-Lavalette. On the 16th October 1911, Dr Henri-Martin sent a note to the Academic des Sciences in Paris announcing the discovery of a human skeleton of the Neanderthal type, on     the     18th     September      last,      in      the      station      of      La      Quina      (Charente).    The site itself has been known for more than a century and was first excavated systematically between 1905 and 1935 by the French archaeologist Dr. Henri-Martin. Subsequently, Germaine Henri-Martin continued excavation from 1953 until the late 1960s. After her death in 1975, the site became the property of the Musée des Antiquités Nationales. The skeleton lay in a horizontal position, in an ancient muddy deposit of the river Voultron, forming part of the lower Mousterien debris, and at a distance of 4.50 metres from the base of the present cliff.

 

Spy I: Spy Cave is one of the richest prehistoric sites in Belgium. The first human remains were discovered in 1885 during excavations by M. De Puydt and M. Lohest. In 1886, two skeletons were discovered in the cave of Spy in Wallonia (Belgium). The first skeleton discovered (Spy I) was quite incomplete and its position is difficult to assess, since the bones were not in anatomical connection; the second skeleton (Spy II) was also incomplete, but lying on the right side, with one hand against the mandible. The dates obtained for the Spy Neanderthals from Belgium provide an age of 36,000 BP.

 

Mount  Circeo:  A promontory on the western coast of Italy, where in 1939 a well reserved skull of a Neanderthal man was found in a grotto. It  was   discovered   by   Alberto   Blanc. Its structure     resembled     that      of      the      skull      found      at      La      Chapelle-aux-Saints. The skull at Monte Circeo was found encircled by rocks on the surface ofdeposits in a side hollow of th e cave. Apparently, it was placed there intentionally. The cave also contained tools typical of the Mous terian culture.

 

Krapina: At Krapina, Croatia, abundance of bones (1000 fragments, representing up to 70 individuals) and 1000 stone tools or flakes hae been recovered (Trinaus and Shimpma, 1992). The site was discovered by Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger. Krapina is an old site, perhaps the earliest showing the full “classic” Neanderthal morphology, dating back to the third interglacial (estimated at 130,000- 110,000 y.a.). Kaprina is also important as an intentional burial site, one of the oldest on record.

 

Petralona: The Petralona cranium was recovered by villagers (in 1959) from a cave in Greece and dated between 300,000 and 400,000 years old. It indicates a possible evolutionary shift to the archaic sapien form by 250000 years ago. The brow ridges are ancient, while the large rounded cranium is an evidence of modern development. The skull is large, however, cranial capacity estimates are disputed.

 

Face is large with wide jaw. Howells (1973) accepted an estimate of 1220 cc whereas, Murrill (1981) estimated 1,155cc.

 

Teschik Tasch: About 1600 miles east of Shaidar I Uzbekstan, in a cave at Teshik-Tash, is the eastern most Neanderthal discovery. The skeleton is that of a nine year old boy who appeared to have been deliberately buried. It was reported that he was surrounded by five pairs of wild goat horns, suggesting a burial ritual or perhaps a religious cult. This skull also shows a mixture of Neanderthal traits like heavy eye brow ridges and occipital bun and modern traits like high vault and definite signs of chin.

 

Skhul: Fossils from Israel’s Mount Carmel site of Skhul have shown a combine archaic and modern features. But most analyses stress the “moderns” of the Skhul fossils which date to 100,000 B.P. The Skhul fossils cast serious doubt on the Neanderthal ancestry of Anatomically Modern Humans (AMHs) in Europe. The skulls from Skhul show higher brain cases, shorter and rounder than Neanderthal skulls. The forehead region rises more vertically above the brows. A marked chin is another modern feature. Still these early AMHs do retain distinct brow ridges, though reduced from their archaic H. sapien ancestors.

Skull from Teschik Tasch                                                                              Skull from Petralona

Skull from Krapina                                                                Skull from La Quina

 

Swanscombe: It is a gravel pit located near London along the Thames River. The first material was discovered in 1935 by Alvin Marston. Several findings included occipital bone, partial parietal bone and several stone tools. The skull bones were comparatively thick. The brain case was low. Cranial capacity estimated about 1325 cc. The estimated date ranges between 300000 – 250000 years B.P.

 

Steinheim: The skull and face were found by Fritz Berckhemer in 1935 approximately 25 ft deep in a gravel pit at Steinheim, Germany. The supra orbital torus was pronounced, frontal region was low, occipital region was rounded. The estimated cranial capacity was about 1100 cc. No stone tools were discovered along with the fossils. Date was estimated about 300000-250000 years B.P. Steinheim seems to have been a member of a population intermediate between H. erectus and modern H. sapiens.

 

 

General physical features of the Neanderthals

  1. Males were 164-168 cm (65-66 inch) and females about 152-156 cm (60-61 inch) tall.
  2. Skull was dolichocephalic.
  3. Average length and breadth of the skull were 208 mm and 156 mm respectively.
  4. The average cranial capacity was 1650 cc.
  5. The posterior part of the skull was comparatively broader than the anterior part for which it looks like a barrel from the back.
  6. Forehead region was retreating and the nuchal region was rugged.
  7. Face as a whole was robust and projecting forward having large incisors and canines.

Source : www.unexplained_mystries.com

 

There were a variety of hypothesis concerning the speech capacities of Neanderthals. Some scholars arguieng that they were incapable of human speech. Nevertheless, the current consensus is that Neanderthals were capable to articulate speech, even perhaps fully competent in the range of sounds produced by modern humans.

 

Death is inescapable for all of us. The deposition of the mortal remains, in some way or another, is thus an action that is common to all human beings, in prehistory as well as in recent times. Neanderthals have been characterized as the first hominid to systematically and perhaps ritually bury their dead. Some palaeoanthropologists interpret artifacts associated with Neanderthal skeletal remains as grave goods. Taking this one step further, grave goods can be seen as indicating a belief in the afterworld. The evidences of flower burial were also found. The objects would aid the dead in a supposed next world.

Source : www.christianevidence.org                                                     Source : www,pixgood.com

 

Controversies regarding classical and progressive varieties

There is a range of variation in fossil Neanderthals. Some of the Neanderthals had pronounced ridges over their eye sockets (brow ridges) as well as other protrusions of the skull not generally seen in modern humans. They were more muscular than modern humans. They had flatter, broader noses than modern humans. They had receding chins. Their brains were somewhat larger than those of modern humans (this does not necessarily mean they were smarter; brain size and intelligence are not directly correlated). These characteristics are most strongly displayed in specimens from Europe, so-called Classic (La Chapelle-aux-Saints) Neanderthals. These characteristics were less pronounced in the Neanderthals of the Middle East, known as Progressive (Tabun, Skhul) Neanderthals. Does this mean that Progressive Neanderthals were less different from modern humans than were the ‘Classics’? The progressive varieties lived much earlier than the classical one. The more massive build of Neanderthals, and other features such as flatter noses, especially of the Classic form, has been interpreted as an adaptation to the harsh glacial climates of Ice Age Europe.

 

The morphological traits of the Neanderthal did not appear to be solely climatically forced based on the data of the study done  by Bradley D. M.,  (2005).   Classic-type morphological traits were consistently seen in northwestern Europe at times of cooler temperatures. However, generous intermingling of Classic-type and Progressive-type amongst both cool and warm reconstructed palaeoclimate limits the idea of mutual exclusivity. Both Classic-type and Progressive-type morphological traits appear almost simultaneously in the same region amongst similar temperature occurrences. Progressive-type traits are notably absent at the beginning of the 29-25Ka time-slice, but this study does not reveal a major correlative decrease in temperatures as predicted by the study.

 

During 1970s several skeletal remains were discovered from Arago Cave in Tautavel, France. These remains represent some Neanderthal features besides H. erectus and dated at some 250,000 years. They also resemble the progressive groups which were later recognized as ‘early archaic group’ who remained in the parts of the world outside Western Europe. And the classic variety is designated  as ‘late archaic group’.

 

Phylogenetic relationship 

The evolutionary relationships between the various forms of Homo have been the subject of great speculation and controversy. In considering the terminal phases of hominid evolution, it  is  important to realize that there has been some combination of selective pressures, gene frequencies, and gene flow between populations. Regarding the evolution of anatomically modern H. sapiens, the fact that Europe appears to record only the evolution of Neanderthal derived characters during the Middle and early Late Pleistocene. For this many interpretations are given, which indicates an early origin of modern man and completely independent evolution of Neanderthals. Both fossil and genetic evidence indicate that Neanderthals and modern humans (Homo sapiens) evolved from a common ancestor between 500,000 and 200,000  years  ago.  Neanderthals  and  modern  separate  are  branches  of  tree  (separate species).

 

The  classical  groups  remained  restricted  in  the  Western  Europe  and   the  archaic  group   to  modern   sapiens   or  like………….. Source: DeCorse C.R. The Record of the Past. 2000.

 

Three interpretations of the evolutionary relationships between Neanderthals and modern humans:

(a) unilinear evolution, (b) separate lineages, and (c) preneanderthals.

 

Ever since the first Neanderthal skulls were found in the nineteenth century, scientists have pondered the links between Neanderthals and modern humans. Early interpretations (a) that viewed Neanderthals as an intermediate ancestor between Homo erectus and anatomically modern humans have been discarded. Their restricted geographic range and distinctive physical characteristics makes this scenario unlikely. Neanderthals also appear to have coexisted with anatomically modern humans until the relatively recent past, perhaps as little as 30,000 years ago. A growing consensus among anthropologists holds that (b) Neanderthals were H. sapiens with distinctive physical features, but no one has come up with a cogent, widely accepted theory to explain which selective pressures produced these features. Palaeoanthropologists tend to favour the hypothesis (c) that a “pre-Neanderthal” H. sapiens population, possibly originating in another region and migrating to the classic Neanderthal area, underwent a severe natural selection in response to the cold environment of Europe. In this view, natural selection and lack of gene flow with other H. sapiens populations produced the distinctive Neanderthal characteristics. Such an interpretation might be consistent with recent molecular testing of genetic material extracted from Neanderthal bone.

 

Svante Pääbo a Swedish biologist has tested more than 70 Neanderthal specimens. The Neanderthal genome is almost the same size as the human genome and is identical to ours to a level of 99.7% by comparing the accurate order of the nitrogenous bases in the double nucleotide chain. From mtDNA analysis estimates, the two  species  shared  a  common  ancestor  about  500,000  years  ago.  An article appeared in the journal Nature has calculated the species diverged about 516,000 years ago, whereas fossil records show a time of about 400,000 years ago.

 

Disappearance of Neanderthals

The exact  date  of  their  extinction  had  been  disputed.  However,  in  2014,  Thomas  Higham  of  the University of Oxford performed the most comprehensive dating of Neanderthal bones and tools, which demonstrated that Neanderthals died out in Europe between 41,000 and 39,000 years ago – this coincides with the start of a very cold period in Europe and is 5,000 years after Homo sapiens reached the continent. This was based on improved radiocarbon dating of materials from 40 sites in Western Europe. Comparison of the DNA of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens suggests that they diverged from a common ancestor between 350,000 and 400,000 years ago. This ancestor was probably Homo heidelbergensis. Heidelbergensis originated between 800,000 and 1,300,000  years ago,  and continued until about 200,000 years ago. It ranged over Eastern and South Africa, Europe and Western Asia. Between 350,000 and 400,000 years ago the African branch is thought to have started  evolving towards modern humans and the Eurasian branch towards Neanderthals. Scientists do not agree when Neanderthals can first be recognized in the fossil record, with dates ranging between 200,000 and 300,000 years BP.

 

The fate of the Neanderthals is closely related to the appearance of modern humans. Over the years, the Neanderthals have been portrayed as everything from an evolutionary dead end to the direct ancestors of modern European and western Asian populations. Fossil evidence indicates that modern humans first evolved in sub-Saharan Africa sometime before 100,000 years ago. Subsequently they spread northward sometime before 55,000 years ago, displacing or absorbing local archaic human  populations. As a result, the Southwest Asian, Central Asian, and central European Neanderthals were absorbed to varying degrees into those spreading modern human populations and may have contributed genetically to the subsequent early modern human populations of those regions. Even in Western Europe—a cul-de-sac where the transition to modern humans took place relatively late—some researchers contend that there is fossil evidence for interbreeding between late Neanderthal and early modern humans.

 

The anatomic changes between Neanderthal fossil remains and the remains of early modern humans involved largely a loss of the sturdiness that was characteristic of all archaic humans. Upper limbs became more gracile, although they were still very muscular by the standards of today’s humans. The hand anatomy shifted to emphasize precision grips. Leg strength remained high, reflecting the mobility that characterized all Pleistocene hunting-and-gathering human populations. Front teeth became smaller and faces shortened, producing full chins and brows without ridges. Brain cases became more elevated and rounded but not larger. Tool use and culture became more elaborate, but there are no anatomic features directly indicating that Neanderthals were smarter or less smart than other humans living at the time.

 

Interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans is accurate. Anthropologists have discovered further evidence of interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans. The study, co-authored by Sylvana Condemi from the University of Aix-Marseille, was published in Plos One, March 27, 2013. These are the bones of a Neanderthal exposed to the Natural History Museum of Verona who made this conclusion. Mandible 35,000 years old, discovered in 1957 in a cave Riparo Mezzena Italian was analyzed by anthropologists to conclude that there was miscegenation between modern humans and Neanderthals. Anthropologists have first verified that it really belonged to a Neanderthal mandible and this has all the morphological characteristics of Neanderthals. The researchers then managed to extract collagen of the mandible to analyze mitochondrial DNA. These genetic molecules are transmitted exclusively by the mother and they show that they do indeed belong to a Neanderthal. May be   they    have    a    common    ancestor    Homo    erectus    who    lived    500,000    years    ago. The DNA sequence was dated between 29 000 and 42 000 years, when the Neanderthals living with Homo sapiens, shows the gradual disappearance of certain genotypes, and genetic impoverishment of the species. Another hypothesis is proposed that Neanderthals have contributed to the genome in populations of modern humans outside Africa. Neanderthals were gradually adapted to the colder climate of Europe but many other factors also had to intervene. Its skeleton shows among other things, a sturdy and massive girth, the presence of thickened bone above the orbits, a sloping forehead, a large brain, high orbits and nasal cavity width. Neanderthals gradually disappeared when groups of Cro- Magnon   men   left   the   Middle   East   for   Europe   that    was    about    40,000    years. Neanderthal Men and “modern” Men have probably lived for several millennia, but we have no traces of violent deaths or signs of prolonged cohabitation in the same territory. It is also possible that the Neanderthal population redhead and blonde is diluted by introgression among the black population of Homo sapiens who came from Africa,  a  hypothesis  proposed  to  explain  its  disappearance.  (sapiens – Neanderthal, Science & Vie No. 1134, March 2012).

 

According to the study of Thomas Higham (2014) Neanderthal bones and tools indicates that Neanderthals died out in Europe between 41,000 and 39,000 years ago, and that Homo sapiens arrived in Europe between 45,000 and 43,000 years ago, it is now apparent that the two different human populations shared Europe for as long as 5,000 years. The exact nature of biological and cultural interaction between Neanderthals and other human groups has been contested.

 

Possible scenarios for the extinction of the Neanderthals are:

  1. Neanderthals were a separate species from modern humans, and became extinct (because of climate change or interaction with humans) and were replaced by modern humans moving into their habitat between 45,000 and 40,000 years ago. Jared Diamond has suggested a scenario of violent conflict and displacement.
  2. Neanderthals were a contemporary subspecies that bred with modern humans and disappeared through absorption (interbreeding theory).

 

Summary

  1. The Neanderthals lived during Last Inter-Glacial (Riss-Wurm) to Last Glaciation (Wurm) period and the geological time was Middle to Upper Pleistocene period.
  2. The fossils were discovered from Europe and Asia continents.
  3. Their average cranial capacity was about 1650 cc, notably larger than the modern man.
  4. Neanderthals were also referred as the makers of Mousterian Culture.
  5. Neanderthal men were successful hunters and , used to live in a variety of open air sites, caves  and rock shelters, and buried their dead bodies.
  6. They are closely related to modern humans, differing in DNA by just 0.12%.
  7. The DNA of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens suggests that they diverged from a common ancestor between 350,000 and 400,000 years ago.
  8. Neanderthals were a separate species from modern humans, and became extinct or Neanderthals were a contemporary subspecies that bred with modern humans and disappeared through absorption.
you can view video on Neanderthal

 

 

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Web Links: Accessed in the month of March, 2015

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