Britain’s last Neanderthals were more sophisticated than we thought

University College London ^ | Jun 23, 2008 | Unknown

[decimon]

23 June 2008

An archaeological excavation at a site near Pulborough, West Sussex, has thrown remarkable new light on the life of northern Europe’s last Neanderthals. It provides a snapshot of a thriving, developing population – rather than communities on the verge of extinction.

“The tools we’ve found at the site are technologically advanced and potentially older than tools in Britain belonging to our own species, Homo sapiens,” says Dr Matthew Pope of Archaeology South East based at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. “It’s exciting to think that there’s a real possibility these were left by some of the last Neanderthal hunting groups to occupy northern Europe. The impression they give is of a population in complete command of both landscape and natural raw materials with a flourishing technology - not a people on the edge of extinction.”

The team, led by Dr Pope and funded by English Heritage, is undertaking the first modern, scientific investigation of the site since its original discovery in 1900. During the construction of a monumental house known as ‘Beedings’ some 2,300 perfectly preserved stone tools were removed from fissures encountered in the foundation trenches.

Only recently were the tools recognised for their importance. Research by Roger Jacobi of the Leverhulme-funded Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) Project showed conclusively that the Beedings material has strong affinities with other tools from northern Europe dating back to between 35,000 and 42,000 years ago. The collection of tools from Beedings is more diverse and extensive than any other found in the region and therefore offers the best insight into the technologically advanced cultures which occupied Northern Europe before the accepted appearance of our own species.

“Dr Jacobi’s work showed the clear importance of the site,” says Dr Pope. “The exceptional collection of tools appears to represent the sophisticated hunting kit of Neanderthal populations which were only a few millennia from complete disappearance in the region. Unlike earlier, more typical Neanderthal tools these were made with long, straight blades - blades which were then turned into a variety of bone and hide processing implements, as well as lethal spear points.

“There were some questions about the validity of the earlier find, but our excavations have proved beyond doubt that the material discovered here was genuine and originated from fissures within the local sandstone. We also discovered older, more typical Neanderthal tools, deeper in the fissure. Clearly, Neanderthal hunters were drawn to the hill over a long period time, presumably for excellent views of the game-herds grazing on the plains below the ridge.”

The excavations suggest the site may not be unique. Similar sites with comparable fissure systems are thought to exist across south east England. The project now aims to prospect more widely across the region for similar sites.

Barney Sloane, Head of Historic Environment Commissions at English Heritage, said: “Sites such as this are extremely rare and a relatively little considered archaeological resource. Their remains sit at a key watershed in the evolutionary history of northern Europe. The tools at Beedings could equally be the signature of pioneer populations of modern humans, or traces of the last Neanderthal hunting groups to occupy the region. This study offers a rare chance to answer some crucial questions about just how technologically advanced Neanderthals were, and how they compare with our own species.”

The project, which has been running with the assistance of the landowners since February 2008, has been directed by Dr Matthew Pope of UCL and Caroline Wells of Sussex Archaeological Society, working closely with specialists from the Boxgrove Project and the Worthing Archaeological Society.

-Ends-

For further press information please contact Dave Weston in the UCL Press Office on +44 20 7679 7678 or email d.weston@ucl.ac.uk

Images of the Beedings site and some of the tools which were recovered are available by contacting the UCL Press Office (see above).

Note to editors:

The true importance of the Beedings site was not recognised until the 1980s when Dr Roger Jacobi of the British Museum showed that the collection of flint tools contained large numbers of long, straight-sided blades which had been thinned at each end, possibly to allow hafting. The presence of tools damaged through high-velocity impact suggested they were used as spear tips. Jacobi interpreted the site as a hunting camp where game herds could be clearly observed and kit repaired in anticipation of the next kill. Jacobi’s work showed that the flint tools from Beedings were technologically similar to those from a number of north European sites. These sites are distributed from Devon, England in the West across the north European Plain to Nietoperzowa Cave, Poland. They possibly date to 38,000 years ago. Dr Jacobi’s paper can be found in the current issue of Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society.

About UCL:

Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government’s most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence.

UCL is in the top ten world universities in the 2007 THES-QS World University Rankings, and the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2007 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Marie Stopes, Jonathan Dimbleby, Lord Woolf, Alexander Graham Bell, and members of the band Coldplay.

[SunkenCiv]

The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve

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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[Reeses]

These tools are likely weapons of war. Finding many weapons at the top of a hill is consistent with a battleground. The Neanderthals lost. Hunted animals usually try to run and hide, not run to the top of a hill for a better view. And tools are not typically disposed of at the top of a hill. Occam’s razor points to this being a battleground and the thriving Neanderthals were wiped out in war.

[Whiplash]

Actually, they do. Question: Are you really so stupid that you think you can put a little winkie face on any harrassment and you are cleverly disguised?

Be bold. Assert yourself. Hold your painfully low IQ out there and let us all see your stuff.

[No Truce With Kings]

I thought this article was about Parliment. Silly me.

[Pharmboy]

Well, maybe, but their health care was bloody awful.

[decimon]

Well, maybe, but their health care was bloody awful.

NHS - Neanderthal Health Service.

[Pharmboy]

LOL—good one!

[MeanWestTexan]

“But, did Neanderthals give equal rights to same-sex couples”

Perhaps they did, subsequently failed to have babies, and thus died out.

On that topic, I’ve read that Neaderthal females were almost as large as the males and their bones generally bear the same kind of injuries as males, presumably related to hunting and war.

One hypothesis is that the homo sapien sapiens “fragile” (cough) female who stayed back and the cave and had lots of babies, while the neaderthal females got themselves killed, thus getting outbred.

A lesson from which Western Civilization should learn.

[Fred Nerks]

http://matt.pope.users.btopenworld.com/boxgrove/sitehomo.htm

One the basis of tooth and tibia morphology the Boxgrove specimens have been assigned to Homo Heidlebergensis, the type fossil being the Mauer mandible from Germany (right). This species, found in both Africa and Europe during the Middle Pleistocene was the ancestor of both modern Homo Sapiens and the Neanderthals.

http://matt.pope.users.btopenworld.com/boxgrove/beedingshome.htm

The unique collection of stone tools offer a tantalising glimpse of our very ancient past. It seems, given the presence of broken projectile points, that they were left by a hunting party at a camp set high on the Greensand ridge at Beedings perhaps as much as 40,000 years ago.

http://matt.pope.users.btopenworld.com/boxgrove/sitehome.htm

Since 1982 research at the Boxgrove gravel pits in Southern England has been providing evidence for the behaviour and palaeoecology of Middle Pleistocene hominids. Over 90 excavation areas have been investigated during the course of the Boxgrove Project, many producing exceptionally preserved scatters of flint artifacts and mammalian fauna.

[Caramelgal]

One hypothesis is that the homo sapien sapiens “fragile” (cough) female who stayed back and the cave and had lots of babies, while the neaderthal females got themselves killed, thus getting outbred…A lesson from which Western Civilization should learn.

That’s an interesting hypothesis but I’m not sure I would subscribe to it as it seems a bit of an overstretch to me – applying a more modern concept of female “fragility” and concepts of femininity of more recent times and cultures to populations who lived in much different circumstances than we do today. Homo sapiens and Neanderthals would have both been nomadic or semi-nomadic and living a very hard, short and brutal life in some very harsh and dangerous conditions and subject to all types of serious and potentially life ending injuries - whether male or female. While the males were probably the primary hunters and protectors, women would not have had it so easy either and would have had to, out of necessity not only been the gathers, the keepers of the home fire, the preparers of meals, the pottery makers, the sewers of the clothes, the care takers of a brood of babies (a 24-7 job even today), but must have also have been called into action to help fight off animal predators, help with hunts in severe times and with hostile incursions by other clans that even sometimes happened while the men where off on hunts. And to top it off, at the end of the day she probably had to listen to her husband/mate whine and complain about what a hard day he had at work and complain that dinner wasn’t ready when he got home, that the babies were crying and that she hadn’t found the time to sweep out the cave and make him a new loin cloth:),

And I don’t think a “fragile” female – whether Homo sapien or Neanderthal, would have lived long enough to get to a child bearing age, live alone survived child birth which until very recent advances in modern medicine, was a very dangerous proposition in which many women died.

And one doesn’t have to look back 40,000 years to see that women had to be physically hardy, and mentally tough and strong enough to survive and pass on her and her husband’s genes on to subsequent generations. Look at the lives of our first American settler and frontier pioneer females and tell me that these women were “fragile” and just sat around in relative safety, looking feminine and beautiful and well coifed while pushing out all those babies, painlessly and effortlessly.

You owe your existence and your DNA to your ancestors who were some very strong and manly men but also to your female ancestors who were some pretty tough broads – relatively speaking.

[ApplegateRanch]

Closely related: a stocked hilltop strong point in case of a need to fight.

Cahe the weapons ahead of time, since there may not be time to gather enough at need.

Ancient counterpart to one of Solomon’s “chariot cities”.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Fred.

[Dustbunny]

Simply amazing the conclusions that can be drawn from 35,000/42,000 year old tools.

[decimon]

Simply amazing the conclusions that can be drawn from 35,000/42,000 year old tools.

From my tools they'll conclude my group must have gone extinct.

[cake_crumb]

"The impression they give is of a population in complete command of both landscape and natural raw materials with a flourishing technology - not a people on the edge of extinction.”

“The exceptional collection of tools appears to represent the sophisticated hunting kit of Neanderthal populations which were only a few millennia from complete disappearance in the region."

So they WEREN'T teetering on the brink of extinction at the time, after all. What a stupid thing them to say.

[decimon]

So they WEREN'T teetering on the brink of extinction at the time, after all. What a stupid thing them to say.

Call it a tipping point and all is clear. ;-)

[Dustbunny]

LOL..... have to tell my husband that one, maybe he will finally get around to building the cabinet I have wanted for so long.

[cake_crumb]

Yes, it’s easy to lose a battle form the most defensible position.