TagNeanderthals
Tales From the Neanderthal Nights: Why They Really Disappeared
A new paper offers an assessment that does not need the Neanderthal to be the subhuman whose disappearance is explained by evolution. Arithmetic will suffice
Researchers: Neanderthals Invented Process to Produce Birch Tar
The tar can be used for glue, bug repellent, and killing germs. This finding tracks growing recognition of Neanderthals as intelligentMany of us grew up with “Neanderthal!” used as a term of abuse for a stupid person. A 2021 study from the University of Tübingen and others, dusted off at ScienceAlert, paints quite a different picture, in connection with Neanderthals’ manufacture of birch tar. The tar from burnt birch wood can be used as glue, insect repellent, and antiseptic. It can be scraped from a fire naturally or it can be produced in a controlled way. Which method Neanderthals used says something about the development of their culture. The study authors, Patrick Schmidt et al., went to a lot of potentially messy trouble to try to answer the question: Some think of black tar as a happy accident that Neanderthals Read More ›
New Find Pushes Symbolic Thinking Further Back in Human History
A Neanderthal find from 51,000 years ago is another piece in the puzzle of the origin of abstract human thinkingAt one time, scientists believed that only some groups of humans possessed the ability to think symbolically. Neanderthals were held to be an example of humans who could not do so. But more recently, as George Dvorsky tells us at Gizmodo, a 2019 finding at the Unicorn Cave in the Harz Mountains in central Germany challenges that belief: Patterns deliberately etched onto a bone belonging to a giant deer are signs that Neanderthals possessed the capacity for symbolic thought. Neanderthals decorated themselves with feathers, drew cave paintings, and created jewelry from eagle talons, so it comes as little surprise to learn that Neanderthals also engraved patterns onto bone. The discovery of this 51,000-year-old bone carving, as described in Nature Ecology Read More ›