Written by Janel Bladow.
NEW YORK, April 19 (UPI) - The centuries-old body of a 4-year old child found buried in central Portugal is creating a sensation in scientific circles as it links the Neanderthal to modern man. The child's remains show characteristics of both, which until now, many thought did not interbreed. "This find tells us about what it means to be human," Erik Trinkaus, professor of anthropology, arts and sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, told UPI in an interview today. Trinkaus is working directly with Joao Zilhao, Portugal's director of antiquities who is overseeing the excavation team.
"This skeleton, which has some characteristics of Neanderthals and others of early modern humans, demonstrates that early modern humans and Neanderthals are not all that different. They intermixed, interbred and produced offspring," he said. "Many people like to distance themselves from Neanderthals," said Trinkaus. "The significance of this discovery is that many believe when modern men spread across Europe, they displaced those who were already there. They believe the Neanderthal died out without issue. This refutes that argument."
The child is believed to be a 4-year-old boy who lived 24,500 years ago. He has a chin, a clear characteristic of early modern humans; Neanderthals did not have chins. But he also has a stocky body and short limbs, the body proportions of Neanderthals. Modern men had liner bodies and long limbs. The skeleton was found in the Lapedo Valley north of Lisbon in Portugal, buried on a hillside with a pierced shell and red ochre, which indicates a ritual burial. Radio-carbon dating confirms that the skeleton is 24,500 years old, 4,000 years after the time that Neanderthals and early modern humans co-existed on the Iberian Peninsula.
"This is pretty exciting," said Trinkaus. "It is the first paleontologic burial discovered in Iberia. It is a ritual burial. We can tell that because the body was covered with red earth, called red ochre. And it was buried with a pierced shell by its neck. This places its time period around 20,000-30,000 range. "In ritual burials at that time, bodies were covered with varying amounts of ochre on them, an obvious analogy to blood. Almost all of these burial included a pierced shell or animal teeth, that of a fox or bear. Beyond this we don't know the significance of the ochre or the shell or teeth. "What is clear though, is that this is the burial of a 4-year-old child and that either everyone had these types of burials or this individual had some status from its parents."
Since the Nov. 28 discovery of the burial site and Dec. 5 when scientists stumbled on the child's body - a Portuguese biologist reached into a rabbit hole and pulled out a limb - only a small portion of the skeleton has been pieced together. Another significant aspect of the discovery is that the child lived about 4,000 years after early modern humans moved into the Iberian Peninsula. This means that the two populations lived there together for a few thousand years. "This was not a chance mating, this is a case of population intermixing," said Trinkaus. "The other thing this says is that whatever these people look like to us, back then, they were all were just humans. Hunters and gathers all living on land and meeting up to become one population which then evolved and became various groups.
"The broader issue here is that some people want to make the Neanderthal different from us. They want modern humans to be special. But the modern man isn't all that special in the greater scheme of things," says Trinkaus. Also significant in the discovery is that the child was found on the Iberian Peninsula only 24,500 years ago, said Fred Smith, professor of anthropology at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. "This shows the exchange between Neanderthal and modern man to be more recent in time." He told UPI. "I thought it would be 30,000 years ago. The big debate has been if the Neanderthal contributed to gene pool in Europe. This suggests that there was some assimilation of the Neanderthal into the early modern gene pool."
The skeleton is being pieced together at the National Archeology Museum in Lisbon by an international team. They will be studying the health of the child, called Lagar Velho 1 (old wine press after the name of site), aspects of its growth, and other genetic information. Scientists plan to return to the site in July. The area was first bulldozed by builders six years ago and the child's grave was missed by 2 inches. At Christmas some 2,000 people came to see where the child was found. Older village women admonished the scientists to "take good care of our boy," says Trinkaus.