Posted on 08/20/2019 9:04:53 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
New research published Wednesday revealed that abnormal bony growths in the ear canal, also called "surfer's ear" and often seen in people who take part in water sports in colder climates, occurred frequently in our ancient cousins who died out around 40,000 years ago.
...the findings may mean they fished far more frequently than the archaeological record suggests, the scientists behind the study published in journal PLOS One said.
"It reinforces a number of arguments and sources of data to argue for a level of adaptability and flexibility and capability among the Neanderthals, which has been denied them by some people in the field," lead author Erik Trinkaus at Washington University in St Louis told AFP.
That's because in order to be successful at fishing or hunting aquatic mammals, "you have to be able to have a certain minimal level of technology, you need to be able to know when the fish are going to be coming up the rivers or going along the coast -- it's a fairly elaborate process," he said.
Trinkaus and his colleagues, Sebastien Villotte and Mathilde Samsel from the University of Bordeaux, looked at well-preserved ear canals in the remains of 77 ancient humans including Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens found in Europe and west Asia.
While early modern humans showed similar frequencies of the bony growths to levels seen today, the condition was present in about half the 23 Neanderthal remains from 100,000 to 40,000 years ago...
Trinkaus anticipated some resistance to the paper in the wider paleoanthropology community, just as there was in 2018 following the landmark discovery that the world's oldest known cave art in Spain was crafted not by biologically modern humans but by Neanderthals.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysabah.com ...
Associating fermented fruits and grains to getting drunk and liking if, making beer would be next.
Once one learned to make beer, then fishing became popular. Fishing & beer go together.
Yes they do. :)
*Teach a man to fish and he will drink all your beer.
We used to go fishing to catch a buzz not necessarily to catch fish. If one or two happened to ring our pole bell great. lol
I said that because I have actually made and repaired nets - gillnet, purse seine for 30 years.
fishing is not a water sport unless one specifies that the Neanderthals fished by dunking their heads underwater and waited to bite the fish.
Appreciate you sharing. So does it work similar to a weaving shuttle?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:StickShuttle.jpg
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