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Posted on 11/24/2025 10:00:24 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Neanderthals may have fashioned ocher tools for drawing and marking surfaces, according to a Phys.org report. Francesco d'Errico of the University of Bordeaux and his colleagues analyzed the composition and surface markings on 16 pieces of ocher unearthed at Neanderthal sites in Crimea and Ukraine with scanning electron microscopes and portable X-ray scanners. The study determined that one of the pieces of yellow ocher had been scraped into a crayon-like shape, and that its tip had been repeatedly resharpened and reused. Evidence of polishing, engraving, grinding, and sharpening were detected on another two pieces of ocher. The researchers concluded that this deliberate shaping and reuse of writing implements is evidence of symbolic thought among Neanderthals, an ability that researchers had once reserved for modern humans. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Science Advances. To read about other evidence of Neanderthals' symbolic behavior, go to "Symbolic Neanderthals."
(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...
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Modified ocher fragmentD'Errico et al. 2025, Science Advances
Crayolas?
According to a statement released by the University of Vienna, anthropologist Emily M. Pigott of the University of Vienna used Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to analyze more than 150 unidentified bone fragments from Starosele rock shelter, which is located on the Crimean Peninsula. More than 90 percent of the bone fragments were identified as horse or deer bones, while some belonged to mammoths and wolves. Pigott and her team identified one two-inch piece of bone, however, as human. Study of this fragment with micro-CT imaging indicated that it came from a thigh bone, while radiocarbon dating showed that it was between 44,000 and 46,000 years old. Finally, DNA analysis identified that it came from a Neanderthal individual who was related to Neanderthals from the Altai region of Siberia, some 1,800 miles to the east, and to Neanderthals from central Europe. "Across Eurasia, very few human fossils are known from this crucial period when Neanderthals disappeared and Homo sapiens replaced them, and still fewer with genetic information," Pigott said. She and her colleagues think that groups of Neanderthals may have migrated between Crimea, central Asia, and Europe during a period of favorable climate in the Late Pleistocene. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To read about interbreeding between early humans, go to "Hominin Hybrid," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2018.
Starosele rock shelter, Crimea© Dr. Serhii Telizhenko
The reddish mineral ocher was one of the earliest sources of pigment used by early human cultures tens of thousands of years ago in painting, artwork, sacred rituals, and funerary traditions. However, according to a statement released by the University of Bergen, scientists recently identified a previously unknown use for the mineral as a specialized implement in making other stone tools. Researchers from SapienCE laboratory in Cape Town were sorting through boxes of objects found in the Mesolithic site of Blombos Cave when they noticed unusual wear patterns on some of the ocher artifacts. After careful analysis of seven such pieces that were between 70,000 and 90,000 years old, the team concluded that these unusually shaped stones were retouching tools used during the knapping process to remove small flakes with precision to create projectile points and sharpened blades. The researchers believe that these would have been prized items and the personal possessions of highly skilled toolmakers. "We now have evidence that ocher was not only a medium for symbolic expression but also a key material in specialized tool production, reflecting a level of technological sophistication previously associated with much later periods," says Christopher Henshilwood, archaeologist and director of SapienCE. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Science Advances. To read about the world's earliest known drawing preserved on a stone flake recovered from Blombos Cave, go to "Oldest Sketch," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2018.
Ocher pieces recovered from South Africa's Blombos CaveSapienCE, UiB
With IBDmix, Akey's team identified a first wave of contact about 200-250,000 years ago, another wave 100-120,000 years ago, and the largest one about 50-60,000 years ago.
That contrasts sharply with previous genetic data. "To date, most genetic data suggests that modern humans evolved in Africa 250,000 years ago, stayed put for the next 200,000 years, and then decided to disperse out of Africa 50,000 years ago and go on to people the rest of the world," said Akey.
"Our models show that there wasn't a long period of stasis, but that shortly after modern humans arose, we've been migrating out of Africa and coming back to Africa, too," he said. "To me, this story is about dispersal, that modern humans have been moving around and encountering Neanderthals and Denisovans much more than we previously recognized."
That vision of humanity on the move coincides with the archaeological and paleoanthropological research suggesting cultural and tool exchange between the hominin groups.
Li and Akey's key insight was to look for modern-human DNA in the genomes of the Neanderthals, instead of the other way around. "The vast majority of genetic work over the last decade has really focused on how mating with Neanderthals impacted modern human phenotypes and our evolutionary history -- but these questions are relevant and interesting in the reverse case, too," said Akey.
They realized that the offspring of those first waves of Neanderthal-modern matings must have stayed with the Neanderthals, therefore leaving no record in living humans. "Because we can now incorporate the Neanderthal component into our genetic studies, we are seeing these earlier dispersals in ways that we weren't able to before," Akey said.
The final piece of the puzzle was discovering that the Neanderthal population was even smaller than previously believed.
Modern humans have been interbreeding with Neanderthals for more than 200,000 years, report an international team led by Princeton University's Josh Akey and Southeast University's Liming Li. Akey and Li identified a first wave of contact about 200-250,000 years ago, another wave 100-120,000 years ago, and the largest one about 50-60,000 years ago. They used a genetic tool called IBDmix that uses AI, instead of a reference population of living humans, to analyze 2,000 living humans, three Neanderthals, and one Denisovan.Credit: Matilda Luk, Princeton University
Well, duh. What was there to do all day? Besides hunt and gather.
It was they had before the internet.
Heh, heh. Bingo. They only had 3 channels and The Flintstones was on all of them.
Autopen
“May have”? Why in the world would that surprise anyone? They were Neanderthals, not chimpanzees.
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