Posted on 01/26/2012 8:19:28 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Researchers at the University of Kent have recreated the processes Neanderthals used to produce sharp flint axes, and found that our ancestors were skilled engineers.
A modern-day 'flintknapper' replicated the sharpening processes that Neanderthals used to create tools -- a sort of modern 'reverse engineering' of ancient techniques in use by three kinds of early 'hominin' including Neanderthals as early as 300,000 years ago.
The researchers found that Neanderthals could shape 'elegant' stone tools -- shaping them to be hard-wearing, easily sharpened and with a perfectly balanced centre of gravity.
The reproduction of how Neanderthals worked shows that it is unlikely that stone flakes used in the tools could have been shaped by accident -- and that our ancestors intentionally 'engineered' stone cores to create tools fit for their jobs.
Dr Metin Eren, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University's School of Anthropology and Conservation and the flintknapper who crafted the tools, said: ... 'The sophistication evident in their tool-making suggests cognitive abilities more similar to our own than not.'
The researchers say that our ancestors 'designed' tools to be hard-wearing, easily sharpenable and have a centre of gravity that meant they were easily usable.
Dr Stephen Lycett, Senior Lecturer in Human Evolution and the researcher who conducted the laboratory analysis of the tools, commented: 'Mobility is a factor in the lives of all hunter-gatherer populations, including Late Pleistocene hominins...
'The symmetry and evenly distributed thickness of Levallois flakes would also align the tool's centre of mass with the tool's motion during use, making them ergonomically desirable.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Dr Metin Eren flintknapping stone tools: The researchers say that it's unlikely our evolutionary predecessors shaped tools by accident -- and instead shaped flint to be hard-wearing and have a good centre of gravity.
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KEYWORDS: neandertal; neandertals; neanderthal; neanderthalsThe Neandertal EnigmaFrayer'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]
by James Shreeve
in local libraries
This is an important discovery for the future of technology.
I’m calling venture capitalists first thing tomorrow morning.
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Get ready for some third-rate thread hijacking trolls. |
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That won’t look so funny after Zero’s second term.
Neanderthals had a technology that was so elegant it lasted essentially unchanged for 100,000 years.
I consider the fact that process specs I wrote 20 years ago are still in use a MAJOR accomplishment.
100,000 years. That’s humbling.
I call BS...they were NOT our ancestors...the best data we have at this time says that Asians and Europeans owe between 1.5% and 4% of their genomes to Neanderthals. I had myself tested, and my percentage is 2.7%, compared to the average of 2.6% for my comparator population (northern European).
When I told some of my friends of the Neanderthal finding for me, they all said things similar to "Well, THAT explains a lot." With friends like these...
Neandertals were monkeys.
Neanderthals & tools.
You are both so here is a ping.
LOL! Perfect!
Luv it!!
Neanderthals were not Homo Sapiens (our species), Cro-Magnons were, thus the latter were our ancestors and not the former.
"Three types of prehistoric hominin -including Neanderthals - could produce the flakes, which were manufactured across Euroepe, Western Asia and Africa as early as 300,000 years ago."
Did read the article. At one point it still referred to Neanderthals as our ancestors. We probably had a common ancestor.; that is, for the evolutionist among us, somewhat scarce on FR.
That is false. It did not.
That’s kind of what I was thinking. We will have to revive many of the lost skills that our forebears had.
Eve was Neanderthal
I do see what you mean, but this sentence [”The reproduction of how Neanderthals worked shows that it is unlikely that stone flakes used in the tools could have been shaped by accident — and that our ancestors intentionally ‘engineered’ stone cores to create tools fit for their jobs.”] seemed pretty specific.
I thought Cain was.
Considering the way technology has been improving at an accelerating pace for the past 150 years or so, so do I. [admires nully!]
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