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New Study Reveals Neanderthals Were As Good At Hunting As Early Modern Humans
Science Daily ^ | 1-19-2006 | University Of Chicago

Posted on 01/19/2006 11:28:01 AM PST by blam

Source: University of Chicago Press Journals

Date: 2006-01-19

New Study Reveals Neanderthals Were As Good At Hunting As Early Modern Humans

The disappearance of Neanderthals is frequently attributed to competition from modern humans, whose greater intelligence has been widely supposed to make them more efficient as hunters. However, a new study forthcoming in the February issue of Current Anthropology argues that the hunting practices of Neanderthals and early modern humans were largely indistinguishable, a conclusion leading to a different explanation, also based on archaeological data, to explain the disappearance of the Neanderthals.
This study has important implications for debates surrounding behavioral evolution and the practices that eventually allowed modern humans like ourselves to displace other closely-related species.

"Each population was equally and independently capable of acquiring and exploiting critical information pertaining to animal availability and behavior," write the anthropologists, from the University of Connecticut, University of Haifa, Hebrew University, and Harvard University.

The researchers use new archaeological data from a Middle- and Upper-Paleolithic rock shelter in the Georgian Republic dated to 60,000?20,000 years ago to contest some prior models of the perceived behavioral and cognitive differences between Neanderthals and modern humans.
Instead, the researchers suggest that developments in the social realm of modern human life, allowing routine use of distant resources and more extensive division of labor, may be better indicators of why Neanderthals disappeared than hunting practices.

"The establishment of larger social networks allowed the replacement of Neanderthals in the Caucasus," write the authors. "Our study also indicates that this process of replacement by modern humans spread beyond the traditional biogeographical barrier [of] Neanderthal mobility represented by the Caucasus Mountains."


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: crevolist; godsgravesglyphs; humans; hunting; modern; neandertal; neanderthals; study
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To: JasonC
Spears have been found that were identified as "projectiles" that H. sapiens would use to hunt, but I didn't mean to suggest that the only weapons they would have used were spears. In fact, they probably were only rarely used, because throwing spears would be difficult to make and might be easily broken. I phrased it pretty poorly, it seems. Apologies for the mix-up.

Anyway, your sling theory is very interesting. Quite a plausible idea too, when you think about it. Certainly better than the "This is where they kept their 400 stone axes." line of thinking.
41 posted on 01/19/2006 1:23:36 PM PST by Termite_Commander (Warning: Cynical Right-winger Ahead)
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To: NoClones

Yes, the idea has been tossed around. Perhaps a pandemic type event drastically reduced their numbers, and the now isolated pockets of Neanderthals that remained just slowly vanished over time, since the environment was radically changing around them, and H. sapiens coming north would have added pressure to the groups when competing for food, shelter and resources.


42 posted on 01/19/2006 1:26:35 PM PST by Termite_Commander (Warning: Cynical Right-winger Ahead)
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To: blam
I think a study was done where scientists examined mitochondria from Neanderthals and compared it to genetic samples from modern humans, and came to the conclusion that it was unlikely that they interbred.

Apparently, there would need to be some Neanderthal genetic material in the genes of people alive today if they had assimilated.

But scientists have been wrong before. Frequently, in fact. Since only one study was done, we'd need more confirmation before we could accept the findings as solid.
43 posted on 01/19/2006 1:29:22 PM PST by Termite_Commander (Warning: Cynical Right-winger Ahead)
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To: blam

If neanderthals and modern humans coexisted, the likely explanation is that the latter killed off the former. Wonder why that explanation gets avoided in articles like this?


44 posted on 01/19/2006 1:30:53 PM PST by r9etb
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To: mlc9852
I've always wanted to buy some coins from Jesus' time but was afraid they were just fakes.

Just be really skeptical of any coin with a B.C. date stamped on it.

45 posted on 01/19/2006 1:31:29 PM PST by Lekker 1 ("Computers in the future may have only 1000 vacuum tubes..." - Popular Mechanics, March 1949)
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To: NoClones
wonder if anyone has ever considered that it may have been disease that wiped out neanderthals?

Yeah..Liberalism. They adopted the "zero-population growth" stance.

46 posted on 01/19/2006 1:33:48 PM PST by Lekker 1 ("Computers in the future may have only 1000 vacuum tubes..." - Popular Mechanics, March 1949)
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To: Lekker 1

Gee, thanks!


47 posted on 01/19/2006 1:35:56 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: blam
They must have done OK. They were in Europe longer than us guys were.
48 posted on 01/19/2006 1:43:50 PM PST by Mike Darancette (Mesocons for Rice '08)
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To: billorites

Pre-Neandrethal portrait right? There was a time when early man had no brain.


49 posted on 01/19/2006 2:29:15 PM PST by EequalsMC2
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To: mlc9852
ml, Are you referring to Sole Survivor?

And, yes, it is nice to get to know people here on FR - even if we do not always agree.

Constant agreement..is..no..fun.

50 posted on 01/19/2006 2:32:44 PM PST by EequalsMC2
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To: Termite_Commander

Don't you think they would have interbred?


51 posted on 01/19/2006 2:57:44 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: Old Professer
They should just stick with the gecko.

The gecko is a good slant, but the advertising firm that came up with the caveman stuff ought to receive an award..I'd love to work at a place with that kind of imagination!

52 posted on 01/19/2006 3:05:07 PM PST by EequalsMC2
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To: blam
>>>"Neanderthals and Inuits survived starvation for three months">>>

Yikes I know I am not a Neanderthal or an Inuit. 10 hours without food and my blood sugar is at rock bottom and I have a screaming headache.

(I know, I know, I am a softy) ;9)
53 posted on 01/19/2006 3:08:19 PM PST by Ditter
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To: blam
Gee, I can't imagine why! A Neanderthal who couldn't hunt would be a Neanderthal who starved.

Mark

54 posted on 01/19/2006 3:10:10 PM PST by MarkL (When Kaylee says "No power in the `verse can stop me," it's cute. When River says it, it's scary!)
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To: mlc9852

I think that their vanishing has to do with a lot of factors, like the ice age ending, disease outbreaks, competition, and such. Interbreeding may very well be one of them. Like I said, you can't dismiss the idea just because one study was done on it.

Of course, maybe Neanderthals found the concept of mating with homo sapiens to be appaling. Who knows? =P


55 posted on 01/19/2006 3:59:46 PM PST by Termite_Commander (Warning: Cynical Right-winger Ahead)
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Oh, no, is it time for 'Civ to trot this out again?!?
The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve
Frayer'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]

56 posted on 01/19/2006 10:35:51 PM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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To: blam; FairOpinion; Ernest_at_the_Beach; StayAt HomeMother; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; asp1; ...
Thanks Blam.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

57 posted on 01/19/2006 10:36:17 PM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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To: blam
I think they were sued out of existence by fellow unfrozen neanderthal caveman lawyers.


58 posted on 01/19/2006 10:39:30 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: blam
from June 12, 2000 (via the hard drive):
For Neanderthals, Life Was a Meaty Problem
by Maggie Fox
Neanderthals feasted on meat, meat and more meat, researchers said on Monday in a report that adds to a growing body of evidence that they were skilled hunters and not the grunting, witless cave men they are often portrayed as... Neanderthals ate a diet similar to that of wolves and lions, and probably hunted woolly mammoths... Trinkaus said the new evidence adds to an evolving picture that scientists have of Neanderthals. Just a few years ago they were thought to be primitive offshoots of the pre-human line, who were well-adapted to cold Ice Age conditions but who died out as a species. Anthropologists have since found that Neanderthals lived side-by-side with modern humans as recently as 24,000 years ago, that they made and wore jewelry, had fairly sophisticated tools and weapons and, perhaps most controversially, may have interbred with modern Homo sapiens... Trinkaus said if Neanderthals ate a lot of meat, they would have had to hunt, because they could not have survived by scavenging meat alone... Trinkaus said the diet would have been unhealthful by today's standards, but the Neanderthals were trying to survive in a cold climate where not a lot of plant food was available.

59 posted on 01/19/2006 10:43:22 PM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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To: mlc9852
How is something like that authenticated anyway?

Paper and picture trail from the dig to the auction. :-)

60 posted on 01/20/2006 5:53:41 AM PST by RadioAstronomer (Senior member of Darwin Central)
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