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 ...
Bottle-caps and urine traces bear this out
When it comes to humans such statements really don't mean a great deal because of potential elements in society and culture. Consider the rules in relatively recent Korean culture regarding pregnant females and gaegogi as an example. Its quite possible, especially if they processed primarily large breeding sized fish from the seasonal runs and had developed smoking as a preservation technology, that there could have been a rule that for some reason women and children couldn't eat the fish. There could be some rule that only men ate the preserved fish while away on the hunt and those back at the tribes base processed and ate the spoils of the last hunt.
No, I haven't read anything suggesting that we know there were rules like this for a fact but the farther we go back, in particular once we get farther into the past beyond Greece, a lot of so called archaeology is really just made up stories. Since its possible and we do have similar examples occurring to this day then something like that cant be ruled out either.
They probably had a lot of time on their hands.
Neanderthals had larger brains than “modern” humans. Seems silly to assume they couldn’t figure out how to spear fish.
Worthless study. Maybe they just spent too much time in the swimming pool.
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Or maybe they just had to cross rivers... a lot.
No, these growths only form when you habitually submerge in cold, windy environments. So they weren’t taking a dip to cool off, and probably not getting in the water for leisure.
You make a good point that likely goes missed by most modern humans. I have a homestead/self sufficiency farm and don't really have any equipment so everything is done slowly by hand. There were days when I was so hot after doing hard work all day that I just couldn't cool off it seemed no matter what I tried then I couldn't sleep all night. I started taking the family down to the beach in the evening to swim in Lake Michigan and that always just sucked the excess heat right out leaving me relaxed and able to sleep that night. I bought a kiddie pool and to this day when I don't have time for the beach I fill it with well water (about 48 degrees) and soak in there for a bit.
Imagine, you've spent the day engaged in intense physical labor hauling logs for the camp or butchering and carrying mammoth primal cuts back to base. You are a being with a blocky build that doesn't shed heat well and now youre covered in dirt and blood and have to get a good nights rest because you have to do it all over again come morning (along with Mrs Og not appreciating sleeping with all the additional flies you bring home). Theres only one method of treatment and that's a trip down to the swimming hole.
It's not surprising -- living people of Eurasian ancestry and beyond have between 1 and 4% of (known) Neandertal DNA. By way of comparison, we each have, on average, less than 2 percent of the DNA of each of our great-great-great-great-grandparents. :^)
Did they use a Ranger Bass Boat? Or a Robalo Offshore Boat?
:^)
...a lot of so called archaeology is really just made up stories.
Uh, no.
Pigs and chimps are not bogged down by superstition and magical thinking.
I suspect that the Neanderthals were at least as intelligent as anthropologists.
You need to be as smart as, say, a bear. That's respectable, I suppose.
I wonder if these researchers have ever watched a vid of "noodling"?
"Instead of Salman, he went with Bass..."
Tool could also be used to weave nets, very similar to Norwegian needle for that purpose
You have my interest! Hold on and let me chase that down!
It looks like it could indeed. In looking at this one it appears it could have been twisted as fibers were fed into the holes after the end of the cord was tied off to something. This would accomplish two actions at one time, both twist the fibers as they were fed through each of the four holes and also twist these twisted cords into an even larger four strand twisted rope as the whole thing was twisted.
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