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Neanderthal Achievments
Small bands of Neanderthals occupied the lands between England and the Okladnikov cave in southern Siberia [Krause,2007].The Late Pleistocene partial hominid calvarium at the Salkhit site in NE Mongolia is reported to have some features,which align with Neanderthals [Coppens,2008].During favourable climatic conditions they utilized camp sites between the Mediterranean Sea coast and Finland.They usually retreated to warmer refugia during prolonged cold spells.Prior to the Chatelperronan era [ca 44Ka],their lithic knapping skills and other cultural achievements were not radically different from coeval Homo sapiens.However their innovations were frequently not widely disseminated over their extensive territories,that a relatively low population occupied.Moreover children constituted a high proportion of interments at many burial sites [eg: La Ferraissie,6 of 8;Amud 10 of 15].The high child mortality rate and the dispersal pattern of the Neanderthal population were among the many factors,which contributed to their physical,but not genetic demise.These factors varied regionally and temporally
Preservation of bone and wood artifacts prior to 44Ka is generally low.Their is evidence that Neanderthals utilized both materials prior to 100Ka.A 2.4 m yew wood spear,with a fire harden tip [ca 130?Ka] was found in an elephant skeleton at Lehingen,Germany. Microscopic analysis revealed that Mousterian tools were used to work wood at Hounslow,Germany,where a Levallois point was found embedded in a mammothy fossil.An antler club and expertly shaped,mammoth bone,barbed point were unearthed at Salzgitter-Lebensted,Germany.In number of Spanish Mousterian layers some bones appear to have been precussion flaked [J Reitner,2006].Bones belonging to the Aythyna genus of diving duck were retrieved from the Bolomar cave by Tavernes,Valennia,Spain. The bones were defleshed and burnt at the extremities with human teeth marks on the limb bones.The capyure of feral ducks ca 150?Ka ago entailed considerable skill [R Blasco,2009].
Neanderthal lithic industries were sporadically dynamic.They used the volumetric method of producing blanks during OIS 5e,which was prior to the arrival of modern humans in western Europe.Neanderthals scheduled resource exploitation with respect to raw material during the early Mousterian and then appear to have abandoned the practice [H Koshler,2006].It was later introduced to Europe by Homo Sapiens.A clay pit at Campitella quarry near Bucine in central Italy yielded 2 stone flakes covered with tar bark,which was used to haft artifacts.Faunal remains and stratigraphic analysis imply that the lithics date to the OIS 6 cold era.The birch bark pitch process needs a constant temperature greater than 800 degrees C,with largely anerobic conditions or the bark burns and no tar is produced [PMazza,2006].Hafting requires skill and forethought.
Less than 1%of the stone artifacts at the Mousterian Champ Grand site in central France were sourced from locales 250km distant in the Loire valley and Paris Basin [L Slimack,2001.At Madonna dell ‘Arma cave Neanderthals transported Jasper to the site from a considerable distance during OIS 5-3 [D Couche,2007].A number of ancient raw material procurement routes were established by Neanderthals and were later used extensively by modern humans.A perforated bone and wolf tooth with a flaked bone point [ca 100Ka] were recovered from a Repolosthohle site in Austria [Mellars,1996].
Post 80Ka new hunting strategies evolved,the rate of innovation/cultural change increased temporally and Neanderthals frequented a greater diversity of environmentsThe use of composite tools,pigments and symbolism became more common post 60Ka [M Langley,2006].Several intentionally modified wood bowls and scoopers were retrieved from Mousterian layers [ca 49-45Ka] at the Abric Romani site in Spain [Corbenell, 1992].Residue/use wear analysis at Quina,France,indicated that some implements were utilized to process plants/food and work bone/ivory [Hardy,2004].The manufacture of wood spears and hafting is inferred by the presence of an embedded Levallois point [ca 50ka] in the third cervical vertebrae of a wild ass at Umm El Tlet,Syria [Beda ,1999].B Hayden [1992] commented that it was easier to create a North American biface than to produce a Levallois point by direct hard and soft hammer precussion and that Neanderthals were skilled knappers.
There is minimal information about shelters in open air camps and caves.At Baume des Peyards cave the Neanderthals appear to have laid down stone pavers and erected a stone barrier to provide protection against the elements [H de Lumley,1971.A mammoth tusk structure with post holes and a hearth was identified at the entrance to Grotte Renne,Aray -sur-Cure,France [Farizy,1990].L Gourham [1994?] suggested that this structure might have had a roof.
Neanderthal burials and indications of artistic awareness are more common in regions,with abundant natural resources and denser population concentrations,where climatic conditions are favourable.A young,male Neanderthal skeleton was unearthed in a flexed position,with his head on a pillow of flint at Mouster,southern France.Feral cattle bones were scattered around him and his remains were sprinkled with ochre [D Shreeve,1985].Recour cave SW France contained the fossils of a young,Neanderthal male at one end of a large stone lined pit,that was divided by a lithic slab.The other half had brown bear bones [ca80?Ka] and Quina Mousterian type flint tools [E Bonifay,1961].An adult [ca70-65Ka at La Ferraisse, France was interred in a shallow pit,with a cylinder bone fragment that had 4 sets of parallel incisions [Defleur,1993].Neanderthal burials seem to have been the exception rather than the rule.
Evidence of artistic awareness among Neanderthals can be subject to interpretation..R Fink contends that a bear bone [pre-45Ka],with 4 holes,which was retrieved from the Divje Bebe cave in Slovenia,is a flute.Detractors claim that the perforations were made by animal teeth.The bone could have been used as a musical instrument,regardless of how the holes were created.A 10cm tall Neanderthal face [?] may have had bone splinters rammed through two holes to create eyes [?:P Bahn,2003].Oakley [1991] identified Acheulean hand axes,with centrally located fossils,which might imply a degree of artistic appreciation At Teera Amata considerable effort was expended to gather and process large quanties of black,yellow and red colouring material.To date no Neanderthal rock art has been positively identified [B Hayes,1993].It may have been used for body adornment or some other purpose [speculation].Peyrony [1934] recovered bone points,awls,oval "ochred"bone plaques and a bone with fine,incised,parallel lines and zigzags above a Neanderthal skeleton at La Ferraise,France.The significance of cup marks on the underside of a slab at a nearby child's grave has not been established.The Hungarian open air site,Tata [pre-70Ka],yielded a silicified mummulite,which was crossed at right angles by an engraved line on both sides forming "+" motifs,that are inscribed on the objects circular outline [Bednarik,2003b].There was also an ivory plaque,which was carefully separated from a mammoth molar, bevelled,shaped and rubbed with red ochre.The edge ware polish indicates long term use [Marshack,1989].
Caves and rock shelters in the Ligurian River valley of Italy provide evidence that Neanderthals exploited and consumed aquatic resources [J Hawkes,2006].Pollen traces on many Combe Grenal,France, suggests that they harvested aquatic flora from a stream below the site [J Reitner,2006].This was not a normal Neanderthal practice,but they had the ability to adapt to various environments.Analyses of dental calculus on the remains of Shanidar I [Iraq] and Spy I and Spy II [Belgium] revealed that Neanderthals consumed grass seeds,legumes,dates,water lilies and a diversity of other plants,which comprised an important component of their diet [A Henry,2010].Identification of appreciable charred fat in the remains of hearths at the Roc de Morsal and Peche- de- l'Adz 4 sites indicates that Neanderthals could cook meat.At Gotham cave in southern Iberia they ate rabbit,tortoise, mussels,dolphin and seal [C Finlayson,2008].The diversity of fauna and flora that they exploited increased temporally after 80Ka..
Neanderthals were intelligent indiviuals,who did not have the concentrations of population to cope with the large influxes of Homo sapiens.
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