Neanderthals: New Findings & Theories

[Sid]

More about the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician technocomplex and the debate about when humans first entered Europe.

Researchers on the hunt to settle a long-standing debate ended up rewriting the timeline of ancient human history in the process.

For years, archaeologists have argued over an ancient culture with the unwieldy title: the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician technocomplex. Even scientists know that's a mouthful, so they call it the LRJ for short.

The LRJ is characterized by the creation of specific blades and leaf points, which share aspects of both Neanderthal and Homo sapien craftsmanship.

LRJ stone tools newly excavated from Ranis. (Josephine Schubert/Museum Burg Ranis)

The debate is over who made them, and the answer could help offer clues as to what happened about 45,000 years ago – when Neanderthals, one of our closest human relatives, mysteriously went extinct across Europe while Homo sapiens, ultimately, thrived.

"The usual wisdom was to consider that they were made most likely by late Neanderthals," said study co-author Jean-Jacques Hublin, a professor of paleoanthropology at the College of France.

But Hublin and his colleagues wanted to settle the debate once and for all. This led them to Ilsenhöhle cave in Ranis, Germany, one of several sites across Northwestern Europe where LRJ artifacts have been found. ...

https://www.sciencealert.com/pioneer-humans-entered-europe-thousands-of-years-earlier-than-thought

I came across this broken part of a flint knife 'of the time,' in my back garden many years ago ~ (not where I presently live).
I was digging a hole in order to plant something in a flower bed, and I was intrigued to find it there.
*Bottom:

*One edge carried an incredibly sharp single cutting edge,
and on the other edge, as you can see had a serrated edge.
*Top@

 

[Frideswide]

@Sid How long is it?

 

[Steven]

Thank goodness for observant people - I would've just thrown that out as junk, having missed the clues.

 

[Sid]

@Sid How long is it?

*This is the length and width:

 

[Frideswide]

Thank goodness for observant people - I would've just thrown that out as junk, having missed the clues.

It does take practice @Sid obviously has an eye for these things!

 

[ramonmercado]

Did Neanderthals achieve a higher level of cognition by sniffing this glue.

Neanderthals created stone tools held together by a multi-component adhesive, a team of scientists has discovered. Its findings, which are the earliest evidence of a complex adhesive in Europe, suggest these predecessors to modern humans had a higher level of cognition and cultural development than previously thought.

The work, reported in the journal Science Advances, included researchers from New York University, the University of Tübingen, and the National Museums in Berlin.

"These astonishingly well-preserved tools showcase a technical solution broadly similar to examples of tools made by early modern humans in Africa, but the exact recipe reflects a Neanderthal 'spin,' which is the production of grips for handheld tools," says Radu Iovita, an associate professor at New York University's Center for the Study of Human Origins.

The research team, led by Patrick Schmidt from the University of Tübingen's Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology section and Ewa Dutkiewicz from the Museum of Prehistory and Early History at the National Museums in Berlin, re-examined previous finds from Le Moustier, an archaeological site in France that was discovered in the early 20th century.

The stone tools from Le Moustier—used by Neanderthals during the Middle Paleolithic period of the Mousterian between 120,000 and 40,000 years ago—are kept in the collection of Berlin's Museum of Prehistory and Early History and had not previously been examined in detail. The tools were rediscovered during an internal review of the collection and their scientific value was recognized. ...

https://phys.org/news/2024-02-neanderthals-usage-complex-adhesives-reveals.html