Neanderthals were stupid. They couldn't keep up with quick-thinking Homo sapiens, so they died.
It's a tenet of anthropology -- and new evidence suggests that it's wrong.
After analyzing tools used by Neanderthals, British and American archaeologists say they were just as well-crafted as those used by our ancestors.
Flakes -- wide-bodied stones used for cutting by Neanderthals and Homo sapiens -- are just as useful, if not moreso, than narrow stone blades later favored by modern humans, who charged out of Africa 50,000 years ago and soon replaced their larger, hairier European forerunners.
"It's not a better technology, it's just a different technology," said Metin Eren, a University of Exeter experimental archaeology student.
Eren's team spent spent three years recreating blades and flakes, then measured their cutting power, durability and the amount of effort needed to produce them.
The superiority of blades has long been seen as evidence of human superiority. But according to Eren's team, blades had only one advantage: they can be easily attached to shafts.
"Perhaps modern Homo sapiens were using different hafted tools, and that's why blades were adopted," he said.
But that's not known. Erin's team also hypothesizes that blades were less an improvement than a signifier of difference -- a gadget over which early Homo sapiens could bond.
The findings were published today in the Journal of Human Evolution.
Earlier research has shown that Neanderthals hunted and communicated as well as humans.
Whatever the explanation for Neanderthal decline and Homo sapiens
primacy, said Eren, archaeologists shouldn't think of it prehistoric manifest destiny.
"We need to reshape the image of the Neanderthals," he said. "We've got to stop thinking of our being the only species of humans on this planet as our right, or as fate. Given different circumstances, perhaps
Neanderthals would have gone on to colonize the world."
Are Upper Paleolithic blade cores more productive than Middle
Paleolithic discoidal cores? A replication experiment [Journal of Human
Evolution] [not yet online]
Full datasets for blade and flake replication tests [Think Computer Corporation]
Images: University of Exeter
Note: The University of Exeter has the world's only experimental archaeology program. Much of the students' research involves learning to live like various members of the human family tree. If I could go to school again, I'd do that.*
See Also:
WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook.
