Neanderthals in Color

Archaeology, v65, n3 ^ | May/June 2012 | Zach Zorich

[SunkenCiv]

In 1981, when Wil Roebroeks of Leiden University was beginning his archaeological career, he ran across some red stains in the grayish sediments on the floodplain of the Maas River where his team was excavating. The site, called Maastricht-Belvèdère, in The Netherlands, was occupied by Neanderthals at least 200,000 years ago. Roebroeks collected and stored samples of the red stains, and 30 years later he received funding to analyze them. It became apparent that he and his team had discovered the earliest evidence of hominins using the mineral iron oxide, also known as ocher. Until now, the use of ocher -- as a red pigment in rock paintings, an ingredient in glue, and for tanning hides, among other things -- was thought to be a hallmark of modern human behavior. While the manner in which the mineral was used at Maastricht-Belvèdère is something of a mystery, the find has had an impact on the question of whether ocher use represents modern behavior. "This whole debate is now to some degree a non-debate," Roebroeks says, "because Neanderthals were already doing this 200,000 years ago."

(Courtesy Wil Roebroeks)

[SunkenCiv]

Lecture Notes: Neandertals and Archaic Homo sapiens
Ariane Pinson, Ph.D.

[snip] ...at Neandertal sites we find both manganese dioxide and red ochre. These natural pigments are found as nodules that have been scraped to produce pigment powder to be mixed with oils and applied to a surface (e.g., one/s body). We also see nodules of these pigments shaped into crayons for use in drawing images. We also see carved and engraved bone and ivory, sometimes smeared with ochre. These non-utilitarian objects are clearly symbols -- standing for some thing, probably an idea or concept (e.g., luck). Recently, we have even found evidence for music making among the Neandertals in the form of a fragment of a bone flute. So evidence for abstract thought among Neandertals is found in the practice of burial of the dead (implying belief in an afterlife and the continuity of the person/s affiliation with the group even after death) and in the present of symbolic art objects. [/snip]

[SunkenCiv]

The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve
in local libraries

Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]

[SunkenCiv]

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[CatherineofAragon]

That headline is racist.

[Lady Lucky]

hominins using the mineral iron oxide

Or homonyms you zing I earn ox-eyed.

[jimmygrace]

So easy even a caveman can do it.

[FrdmLvr]

ROTFL!

[JimSEA]

The idea that suddenly, twenty to sixty thousand years ago, man suddenly discovered speech, painting on cave walls and jewelry and became modern has always left me cold. Part of the reason is the discoveries such as this one and many in South Africa of modern behavior going back, in some cases, more than two hundred thousand years. The rest of the reason is the curious fact that physically man has has the capacity for speech for some two million years. Are we to believe this capacity has laid dormant until sixty thousand years ago. No, we like to gossip too much for it to be a recent development.

[donhunt]

Is Elizabeth Warren related to these people too?

[varmintman]

The idea that suddenly, twenty to sixty thousand years ago, man suddenly discovered speech, painting on cave walls and jewelry and became modern has always left me cold.

It should leave you cold, it's a bunch of BS. Cro Magnon man arrived on this planet fully capable of everything he ever did from day one, that says you're looking at some sort of a saltation and not evolution.

One version of a saltation theory which has turned up recently

[UCANSEE2]

“at Neandertal sites we find both manganese dioxide and red ochre. These natural pigments are found as nodules that have been scraped to produce pigment powder to be mixed with oils and applied to a surface (e.g., one/s body).”

Uh.... Cavewomen wore lipstick. What a surprise. They’ll probably find ground up cockroaches (eyeliner) as well.

[UCANSEE2]

Also near would be some small animal bones.

[BenLurkin]

A derived form of MCPH1 called haplogroup D appeared about 37,000 years ago (any time between 14,000 and 60,000 years ago) and has spread to become the most common form throughout the world except Sub-Saharan Africa; this rapid spread suggests a selective sweep.[9][10] However, scientists have not identified the evolutionary pressures that may have caused the spread of these mutations.[11] Modern distributions of chromosomes bearing the ancestral forms of MCPH1 and ASPM are correlated with the incidence of tonal languages, but the nature of this relationship is far from clear.[12]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcephalin

[UCANSEE2]

That headline is racist.

So... one wonders... were there any negro Neanderthals? Any Chinese ones ? Latino ?

[BenLurkin]

Haplogroup D may have originated from a lineage separated from modern humans approximately 1.1 million years ago and later introgressed into humans. This finding supports the possibility of admixture between modern humans and extinct Homo spp.[10] While Neanderthals have been suggested as the possible source of this haplotype, the haplotype was not found in the individuals used to prepare the first draft of the Neanderthal genome.[13][14]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcephalin

[marsh2]

Without a written language and a longer life span, it must have been difficult to pass forward knowledge to new generations. Given that difference between modern man and pre-history, there may not have been a lot of difference between us. We are what we are because of thousands of years of knowledge passed forward.

[JimSEA]

Tonal languages are most common in Southeast Asia and East Asia. However, the Negritos and Australians predate forty thousand years by quite a bit. That would suggest two or more large “ waves” of settlement which is more than likely. Interesting that the Hobbits of Flores Island are thought by some to be microcephalic.

Also, Herto man from the Afar had a larger than average by modern standards brain some one hundred sixty thousand years ago. Yet the Afar region has not yielded up more than stone tools for that period. The South Africans seemed clearly ahead at that point (shell fish diet rather than genes?).

I just like reading about this and I ask questions. I’m by no means “expert”.

[wardaddy]

[COBOL2Java]

Hey, we've had the Neanderthals in color since 1960!

The foot-powered automobile and other Hanna-Barbara conveniences notwithstanding, my anthropology professor told us that the Neanderthals looked remarkably like Fred Flintstone...

[SunkenCiv]

Slinging Bull isn’t related to the other people she’s related to. :’)