Neanderthals: New Findings & Theories

[ramonmercado]

Time to rename the disease.

The 40,000-year-old genetic inheritance bestowed on us by the Neanderthals has been highlighted by a new study.

The new findings suggest that the risk of developing Dupuytren's disease, sometimes called "Viking disease," increases when a person has inherited DNA from Neanderthal ancestors.

Researchers analyzed more than 7,000 people with Dupuytren's disease – a common condition particularly in northern Europe where people's fingers are permanently bent – to examine genetic risk factors.

Also called Dupuytren's contracture, it occurs when nodules appear in the ligaments beneath the skin of a person's palm, according to The British Society for Surgery of the Hand, and it is more commonly developed by men than women later in life. ...

https://www.sciencealert.com/viking-disease-hand-disorder-may-come-from-neanderthal-genes

 

[Tunn11]

Time to rename the disease.

The 40,000-year-old genetic inheritance bestowed on us by the Neanderthals has been highlighted by a new study.

The new findings suggest that the risk of developing Dupuytren's disease, sometimes called "Viking disease," increases when a person has inherited DNA from Neanderthal ancestors.

Researchers analyzed more than 7,000 people with Dupuytren's disease – a common condition particularly in northern Europe where people's fingers are permanently bent – to examine genetic risk factors.

Also called Dupuytren's contracture, it occurs when nodules appear in the ligaments beneath the skin of a person's palm, according to The British Society for Surgery of the Hand, and it is more commonly developed by men than women later in life. ...

https://www.sciencealert.com/viking-disease-hand-disorder-may-come-from-neanderthal-genes

Hey, I've got that. Always thought great uncle Eric looked a bit odd.

 

[Sid]

Hey, I've got that. Always thought great uncle Eric looked a bit odd.

What. . . you don't mean, nah, can't be surely, but then again. . .

 

[JahaRa]

Time to rename the disease.

The 40,000-year-old genetic inheritance bestowed on us by the Neanderthals has been highlighted by a new study.

The new findings suggest that the risk of developing Dupuytren's disease, sometimes called "Viking disease," increases when a person has inherited DNA from Neanderthal ancestors.

Researchers analyzed more than 7,000 people with Dupuytren's disease – a common condition particularly in northern Europe where people's fingers are permanently bent – to examine genetic risk factors.

Also called Dupuytren's contracture, it occurs when nodules appear in the ligaments beneath the skin of a person's palm, according to The British Society for Surgery of the Hand, and it is more commonly developed by men than women later in life. ...

https://www.sciencealert.com/viking-disease-hand-disorder-may-come-from-neanderthal-genes

I thought everyone in northern Europe have Neanderthal DNA.

 

[charliebrown]

When I tested my DNA, I was shocked to find that most people have 1 to 2 percent Neanderthal DNA.

The exception is African origin people.

So Neanderthals and modern man where having a good time in the bed and I think this went on for hundreds of yesrs,

 

[JahaRa]

When I tested my DNA, I was shocked to find that most people have 1 to 2 percent Neanderthal DNA.

The exception is African origin people.

So Neanderthals and modern man where having a good time in the bed and I think this went on for hundreds of yesrs,

My DNA showed 3 % and the website said I had more than 98% of people using that DNA service. My ancetry is 67% british isles and a small percentage of scandanavian/northern europe. It makes sense to me since homo sapiens were much more agressively populating the planet than the neanderthals and they didn't look that much different.

 

[ramonmercado]

I thought everyone in northern Europe have Neanderthal DNA.

Yes. They are now discovering what that means in terms of how that DNA is expressed through genes.

 

[charliebrown]

This is not my area but looking on the internet, it seems scientists are trying to link Neanderthal DNA to our skin and hair color textures because they were in the less sunny Europe.

Scientists are trying to link our problems with sleeping, depression, and diabetes to Neanderthal DNA.

All I know is that my older daughter married into an American Italian family and her sons are hairy with thick beards.

I look like I have Alopecia compared to her boys, and I would love to have their sexy, thick head of hair.

I am jealous !

 

[Mythopoeika]

Scientists are trying to link our problems with sleeping, depression, and diabetes to Neanderthal DNA.

Given that black and Asian people can develop diabetes, this line of research may have difficulties. I don't think they can point the blame entirely at Neanderthal DNA.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Theory from an Australian researcher that the Basque people are descended from Neanderthals, based on some physical characteristics, blood groups and the uniqueness of the Basque language.

http://aoi.com.au/bcw/neanderbasque.htm

 

[Iris]

Interesting article.

 

[ramonmercado]

Theory from an Australian researcher that the Basque people are descended from Neanderthals, based on some physical characteristics, blood groups and the uniqueness of the Basque language.

http://aoi.com.au/bcw/neanderbasque.htm

Robert J Sawyer has recently published his book "Hominids" [2], a fictional account of an interaction between Sapiens humans and Neanderthals, but drawing on the latest scientific research about Neanderthals.

I highly recommend the Hominids Trilogy by Robert J Sawyer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Neanderthal_Parallax

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

I'd read somewhere that the people with the highest % of Neanderthal DNA were thought to be the indigenous Frisians, who tend to be big-boned and fair or ginger haired.
Obviously, over the centuries the Basques have mingled with other indigenous Iberians and others further afield, but those who can claim a substantially pure-bred Basque lineage do seem to have particularly robust features.
I'd be interested to know if their % of Neanderthal DNA approaches or even exceeds that of the Frisians.

 

[ramonmercado]

Earliest Neanderthal Art?

Finger markings discovered inside a cave in France are “organised and intentional” and were likely made by Neanderthals more than 57,000 years ago, scientists have said.

Thought to be the oldest known engravings made by the extinct human relative, the marks were found on La Roche-Cotard cave walls in the Centre-Val de Loire region of northern France.

The researchers said their findings, published in the journal Plos One, add to evidence that Neanderthals were “complex and diverse as those of our own ancestors”.

The authors wrote: “Fifteen years after the resumption of excavations at the La Roche-Cotard site, the engravings have been dated to over 57,000 years ago… making this the oldest decorated cave in France, if not Europe.”

In terms of culture, we now have a better understanding of the plurality of Neanderthal activities
Study authors

For the study, Jean-Claude Marquet, of the University of Tours in France, and his colleagues analysed the wall markings, also known as finger flutings.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/france-neanderthals-neanderthal-loire-b2361835.html

 

[ramonmercado]

Burrowing bees bugger up body burial theory but they were still buried with care.

Study casts doubt on Neanderthal ‘flower burial’ theory

Exclusive: Bees may be source of pollen near remains but evidence still suggests bodies were buried with care

Buried in a partial foetal position and surrounded by flower pollen, the discovery of Shanidar 4 – a Neanderthal skeleton unearthed in 1960 – prompted a dramatic reappraisal of our ancient cousins.

Far from being brutish thugs, the Shanidar flower burial, as it became known, painted a picture of Neanderthals as empathic beings who cared enough for their dead to scour the mountains for funeral bouquets. Now, fresh evidence suggests this interpretation may have been incorrect – although Neanderthals may still have had strong funerary rituals.

Neanderthals are estimated to have died out 45,000 years ago and few physical remains of them have survived. However, during the late 1950s and early 60s, an archaeologist called Ralph Solecki discovered the skeletons of 10 Neanderthal men, women and children at Shanidar cave in the Zagros mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. Surrounding one of the males, Shanidar 4, were clumps of ancient pollen – presumed to be pollen sacs (anthers) from whole cut flowers – launching Solecki’s flower burial hypothesis.

“Although the evidence was subsequently questioned, the story was spectacular enough that it is still found in most archaeology textbooks,” said Prof Chris Hunt at Liverpool John Moores University, who also credits it with inspiring him to pursue a career in environmental archaeology.

However, recent excavations next to where Solecki discovered the Shanidar 4 remains are prompting a rethink of this hypothesis.

https://www.theguardian.com/science...sts-doubt-on-neanderthal-flower-burial-theory

 

[Sid]

Burrowing bees bugger up body burial theory but they were still buried with care.

Study casts doubt on Neanderthal ‘flower burial’ theory

Exclusive: Bees may be source of pollen near remains but evidence still suggests bodies were buried with care

Buried in a partial foetal position and surrounded by flower pollen, the discovery of Shanidar 4 – a Neanderthal skeleton unearthed in 1960 – prompted a dramatic reappraisal of our ancient cousins.

Far from being brutish thugs, the Shanidar flower burial, as it became known, painted a picture of Neanderthals as empathic beings who cared enough for their dead to scour the mountains for funeral bouquets. Now, fresh evidence suggests this interpretation may have been incorrect – although Neanderthals may still have had strong funerary rituals.

Neanderthals are estimated to have died out 45,000 years ago and few physical remains of them have survived. However, during the late 1950s and early 60s, an archaeologist called Ralph Solecki discovered the skeletons of 10 Neanderthal men, women and children at Shanidar cave in the Zagros mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. Surrounding one of the males, Shanidar 4, were clumps of ancient pollen – presumed to be pollen sacs (anthers) from whole cut flowers – launching Solecki’s flower burial hypothesis.

“Although the evidence was subsequently questioned, the story was spectacular enough that it is still found in most archaeology textbooks,” said Prof Chris Hunt at Liverpool John Moores University, who also credits it with inspiring him to pursue a career in environmental archaeology.

However, recent excavations next to where Solecki discovered the Shanidar 4 remains are prompting a rethink of this hypothesis.

https://www.theguardian.com/science...sts-doubt-on-neanderthal-flower-burial-theory

I've always had a hunch that prehistoric burial barrows might well have had wild flowers (or the seeds thereof) planted upon them, maybe to show that the seasonal reminders endure - much like we do today?

 

[ramonmercado]

Bones of contention.

Foremost Neanderthal remains found at the Simanya Gran gallery from Cova Simanya (Barcelona, Spain). Skeletal remains are distributed according to their attribution to specific individuals. (A) Left humerus; (B) shaft, caudal view; (C) bones of the foot; (D) bones of the right hand; (E) upper P3 and M3; (F) fragment of the atlas and first phalanx of the hand; and (G) fragment of the ascending branch. Credit: Frontiers in Earth Science (2023). DOI: 10.3389/feart.2023.1230707

A team of historians, paleontologists and biologists affiliated with institutions across Spain has discovered that a box of artifacts donated to a museum in Spain back in 1986 contained a treasure trove of Neanderthal bones. In their paper published in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science, the group describes the history of the bones, how they turned up at a museum and what the group has learned about the objects so far.

Back in the late 1970s, amateur paleontologist Miguel Aznar uncovered a vast assortment of artifacts and bones outside of a cave called Cova Simanya, which is located in a park just outside of Barcelona. Aznar cleaned the materials and gave them a cursory inspection and then dumped them all together in a box. He then put them in a storage bin at his home, where they stayed until 1986; the year he donated the box to the Archaeology Museum of Catalonia, where it sat unexplored until 2020.

After finally opening the box, the research team found that in addition to pottery fragments and other artifacts, the box also held animal bones and 53 Neanderthal bones. Study of the bones has revealed that they all belonged to just three individuals; an adult, probably a woman, a child, probably aged 11 or 12 years old at the time of death and another young child, which the team estimates to have been 7 to 8 years old at their time of death.

The bones have been dated back to approximately 50,000 years ago. The researchers are still in the process of attempting to retrieve DNA from the bones to learn more about them and find out if the individuals they represent were related.

https://phys.org/news/2023-09-donated-artifacts-treasure-trove-neanderthal.html

 

[ramonmercado]

Neanderthal DNA may result in more than just a face-ache.

Neanderthal gene variants may boost the pain sensitivity of people who carry them and may be most common in populations with prevalent Native American ancestry, a new study finds.

The research, published Tuesday (Oct. 10) in the journal Communications Biology, focused on three versions of the SCN9A gene, which codes for a protein that shuttles sodium into cells and helps pain-detecting nerves send signals. People with any of the three variants are more sensitive to pain caused by being prodded with a sharp object, but not pain caused by heat or pressure.

"In 2020, another group of researchers studied people of European ancestry and linked these Neanderthal gene variants to increased pain sensitivity," first study author Pierre Faux, a geneticist at the French National institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, told Live Science.

https://www.livescience.com/health/...sitive-you-are-to-pain-genetic-analysis-shows

 

[ramonmercado]

Used pelts as well as meat,

Neanderthals hunted cave lions and used the skin of this dangerous carnivore, a new study has shown for the first time.

Excavations at Einhornhöhle (Unicorn Cave) in the Harz Mountains (Lower Saxony, Germany) in 2019 uncovered abundant Ice Age animals, among which were a few bones of the extinct cave lion. The bones were discovered in a cave gallery approximately 30 meters from the now-collapsed entrance in a layer that dates to more than 200,000 years ago.

The new study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, outlines how a research team detected a toe bone with a cut mark among the remains of the cave lion. This led to the team determining that Neanderthals removed the lion's pelt with the claws attached, indicating that they used the skin for their own purposes.

But the bones found at Einhornhöhle did not provide any direct evidence for hunting. In order to contextualize the finding, lead author Gabriele Russo, of Universität Tübingen in Germany, analyzed the remains of a cave lion found by a teenager from Siegsdorf in Bavaria. A closer inspection by Russo of the skeleton led to the detection of some unusual damage on a rib. Working together with archaeologist Dr. Annemieke Milks, of the University of Reading, the damage was identified as a weapon impact.

Russo said, "The rib lesion clearly differs from bite marks of carnivores and shows the typical breakage pattern of a lesion caused by a hunting weapon."

Dr. Milks said, "The lion was probably killed by a spear that was thrust into the lion's abdomen when it was already lying on the ground."

The 50,000-year-old skeleton has helped researchers to show for the first time that Neanderthals hunted cave lions. The cut marks also show that not only did they kill this apex predator, they also consumed its meat.

Digital ballistic reconstruction of the Siegsdorf lion spear thrust. (A). standing, lateral view; (B). standing, posterior view of rib cage; (C). lying on right side ventral view; (D). lying, posterior view. 3D digital illustration created with Autodesk Maya 2022. Credit: Scientific Reports (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-42764-0

Top predator​

The cave lion had a shoulder height of around 1.3 meters. For about 200,000 years the cave lion was the most dangerous animal in Eurasia, until it went extinct at the end of the Ice Age. Cave lions lived in various environments from the steppe to the mountains and as a top predator hunted large herbivores such as mammoth, bison and horse, as well as cave bear. The regular presence of cave lion bones in Ice Age caves is responsible for the name.

https://phys.org/news/2023-10-neanderthals-dangerous-cave-lions.html

 

[Sid]

Used pelts as well as meat,

Neanderthals hunted cave lions and used the skin of this dangerous carnivore, a new study has shown for the first time.

Excavations at Einhornhöhle (Unicorn Cave) in the Harz Mountains (Lower Saxony, Germany) in 2019 uncovered abundant Ice Age animals, among which were a few bones of the extinct cave lion. The bones were discovered in a cave gallery approximately 30 meters from the now-collapsed entrance in a layer that dates to more than 200,000 years ago.

The new study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, outlines how a research team detected a toe bone with a cut mark among the remains of the cave lion. This led to the team determining that Neanderthals removed the lion's pelt with the claws attached, indicating that they used the skin for their own purposes.

But the bones found at Einhornhöhle did not provide any direct evidence for hunting. In order to contextualize the finding, lead author Gabriele Russo, of Universität Tübingen in Germany, analyzed the remains of a cave lion found by a teenager from Siegsdorf in Bavaria. A closer inspection by Russo of the skeleton led to the detection of some unusual damage on a rib. Working together with archaeologist Dr. Annemieke Milks, of the University of Reading, the damage was identified as a weapon impact.

Russo said, "The rib lesion clearly differs from bite marks of carnivores and shows the typical breakage pattern of a lesion caused by a hunting weapon."

Dr. Milks said, "The lion was probably killed by a spear that was thrust into the lion's abdomen when it was already lying on the ground."

The 50,000-year-old skeleton has helped researchers to show for the first time that Neanderthals hunted cave lions. The cut marks also show that not only did they kill this apex predator, they also consumed its meat.

Digital ballistic reconstruction of the Siegsdorf lion spear thrust. (A). standing, lateral view; (B). standing, posterior view of rib cage; (C). lying on right side ventral view; (D). lying, posterior view. 3D digital illustration created with Autodesk Maya 2022. Credit: Scientific Reports (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-42764-0

Top predator​

The cave lion had a shoulder height of around 1.3 meters. For about 200,000 years the cave lion was the most dangerous animal in Eurasia, until it went extinct at the end of the Ice Age. Cave lions lived in various environments from the steppe to the mountains and as a top predator hunted large herbivores such as mammoth, bison and horse, as well as cave bear. The regular presence of cave lion bones in Ice Age caves is responsible for the name.

https://phys.org/news/2023-10-neanderthals-dangerous-cave-lions.html

So, used as more of bringing a final end to the Lion rather than the initial bringing down of the Lion?

 

[Tunn11]

So, used as more of bringing a final end to the Lion rather than the initial bringing down of the Lion?

Could it have been from a thrust from below? Lion in a tree or on rocks - or even enticed over a pit with the hunter underneath and thrusting the spear up into the body? Bit far fetched but it could have been caught in some sort of trap and then dispatched.

 

[Sid]

Could it have been from a thrust from below? Lion in a tree or on rocks - or even enticed over a pit with the hunter underneath and thrusting the spear up into the body? Bit far fetched but it could have been caught in some sort of trap and then dispatched.

I would imagine that maybe being trapped and then despatched seems a better possibility - after all this was a very large Lion, spearing it from below practically impossible as the Lion would have scented out any human and probably thought it was 'meals-on-legs' day!

 

[Kondoru]

Thats a killing blow. Dont faff with a lion.

If they were hiding in a pit and the lion stepped across to get at bait, it would be easy.

The tiresome bit is digging a hole without a spade.

But these guys were tough.

 

[ramonmercado]

Perhaps a bit more (or less) than human?

Neanderthals Might Not Be The Separate Species We Always Thought​

A Neanderthal skull. (Eunostos/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Stoop-backed, heavy-browed, communicating in ape-like grunts, impressions of the Neanderthal as a simple-minded brute a few steps below modern humans on the evolutionary ladder have endured since their discovery in the mid-19th century.

In spite of the myriad of findings detailing their genetic and cultural similarities, our long-extinct 'cousins' are still all too often exiled into their own species, Homo neanderthalensis.

That categorization is due for a change, according to a team of researchers who have spent the past twenty years digging through layers of dust and grit in the central Portuguese cave site of Gruta da Oliveira.

"More than different species, I would speak of different human forms," says University of Trento archaeologist Diego Angelucci, the lead author of a recent study summarizing decades of research on what was home to families of Neanderthal more than 71,000 years ago.

Angelucci and his team detailed the occupation of Gruta da Oliveira, which saw Neanderthals intermittently share time in the cave with wolves, lions, brown bears and lynxes between 93,000 and 71,000 years ago.

Among the scattering of stone tools and animal remains were bones that had been burned in a way that provided strong evidence of controlled use of fire.

Cooking a range of meats, including goat, deer, and horses on a hearth that rarely moved out of position, it was clear fire was a central part of everyday Neanderthal life at Gruta da Oliveira.

It's no secret that branches of the hominin family tree have appreciated a good blaze for at least 250,000 years or so. For a significant proportion of that time, those flames were deliberately lit, well managed, and contained with the purpose of cooking, if not also staying warm and keeping predators at bay.

https://www.sciencealert.com/neanderthals-might-not-be-the-separate-species-we-always-thought

 

[ramonmercado]

Straight-tusked elephants - a staple of the Neanderthals' diet.

Hunting the now extinct straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) was widespread among Neanderthals, concludes a research team consisting of members of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA), also based in Mainz, and Leiden University in the Netherlands. The study has recently been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers closely examined the bones of elephants that are approximately 125,000 years old that were discovered in Gröbern in Saxony-Anhalt and Taubach in Thuringia, Germany, decades ago. They were able to identify cut marks made by stone tools used by the Neanderthals that indicate that the animals must have been hunted before they were extensively butchered.

It was two years ago, during the analysis of bones found at the Neumark-Nord site in a former lignite mine in Saxony-Anhalt, that the same team discovered the very first evidence that Neanderthals actively hunted straight-tusked elephants, the largest terrestrial mammals of the Pleistocene. That study was published in Science Advances in early 2023.

"The results of the more recent examination of the bones from Gröbern and Taubach now show that the hunting of these elephants by Neanderthals was not an isolated phenomenon but must have been a more regular activity," emphasized Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser, Professor of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at JGU and Director of the Archaeological Research Center and Museum of Human Behavioral Evolution MONREPOS in Neuwied, an institute run under the aegis of LEIZA.

https://phys.org/news/2023-12-straight-tusked-elephants-widespread-neanderthals-years.html

 

[ramonmercado]

A hunting I will go, early in the morning.

Ever wondered why your partner is up with the lark while you're happy snoozing till noon?

It could be thanks to Neanderthal genes, according to a new study.

While the origin of modern humans can be traced back to Africa 300,000 years ago, when these ancestors moved north they interbred with Neanderthals - and traces of their DNA can be found in people today.

Scientists comparing ancient DNA with the genetics of modern humans discovered a "striking trend", said the paper's lead author John Capra, an epidemiologist at the University of California in San Francisco.

They found that of the Neanderthal genes that remain, many affect the body clock, "increasing propensity to be a morning person".

Neanderthals lived at higher latitudes than our ancestors who migrated from Africa - further away from the equator, with the days longer in summer and shorter in winter.

The gene that makes people early risers "likely enables more rapid alignment of the circadian clock with changing seasonal light patterns", Dr Capra said - so Neanderthals were able to make the most of daylight hours to hunt.

https://news.sky.com/story/neanderthal-dna-could-be-the-reason-youre-a-morning-person-13030087

 

[hunck]

A hunting I will go, early in the morning.

Ever wondered why your partner is up with the lark while you're happy snoozing till noon?

It could be thanks to Neanderthal genes, according to a new study.

While the origin of modern humans can be traced back to Africa 300,000 years ago, when these ancestors moved north they interbred with Neanderthals - and traces of their DNA can be found in people today.

Scientists comparing ancient DNA with the genetics of modern humans discovered a "striking trend", said the paper's lead author John Capra, an epidemiologist at the University of California in San Francisco.

They found that of the Neanderthal genes that remain, many affect the body clock, "increasing propensity to be a morning person".

Neanderthals lived at higher latitudes than our ancestors who migrated from Africa - further away from the equator, with the days longer in summer and shorter in winter.

The gene that makes people early risers "likely enables more rapid alignment of the circadian clock with changing seasonal light patterns", Dr Capra said - so Neanderthals were able to make the most of daylight hours to hunt.

https://news.sky.com/story/neanderthal-dna-could-be-the-reason-youre-a-morning-person-13030087

Maximus otter

Gets up early - check
Likes hunting - check

Could explain a lot..

 

[ramonmercado]

More evidence of Human/Neanderthal co-existence.

More than 45,000 years ago, small bands of hunters chased horses, reindeer, and mammoth over a vast expanse of tundra that stretched across most of northern Europe. They rarely stayed anywhere for long, leaving behind a scattering of stone tools and traces of the odd campfire in the depths of caves.

For more than a century, archaeologists debated whether these artifacts were left by some of the last Neanderthals to roam Europe—or the first modern humans to brave the northern reaches of the continent.

A trio of papers published today in Nature and Nature Ecology & Evolution may help settle the question. Between 2016 and 2022, archaeologists recovered fragments of hominin bone from a cave in the central German village of Ranis. The bones were at least 45,000 years old, and their DNA has now identified them as the remains of our species. “We now have a Homo sapiens population in northern Europe long before Neanderthals disappeared,” says Marcel Weiss, an archaeologist at the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg who supervised the excavations.

What’s more, the bones were found with a type of stone blade known from other sites across northern Europe, from the British Isles to modern-day Poland. Archaeologists once assumed they were the handiwork of Neanderthals, but the Ranis bones hint that the tools—a style called Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ)—are modern humans’ calling card. “This suggests that early humans were far more widely spread, much earlier than we thought,” says University of Vienna archaeological scientist Tom Higham, who was not involved with the research. “What seems to be emerging is a complex mosaic pattern” in northern Europe, with pioneering bands of modern humans sharing the continent with Neanderthals.

The Ranis bones aren’t the only evidence for H. sapiens’s early presence in Europe: In 2022, members of the same team reported finding 45,000-year-old modern human remains at a cave in Bulgaria called Bacho Kiro. A woman’s skull reported last year from Zlatý kůň, a site in the Czech Republic, had well-preserved modern human DNA and may be more than 43,000 years old. Another team has claimed still older H. sapiens finds—including a tooth from a cave in southern France that may be 54,000 years old.

https://www.science.org/content/art...ern-humans-and-neanderthals-overlapped-europe

 

[ramonmercado]

We need a Romeo & Juliet style film about sapiens/neanderthalensis romance.

Since the late 1800s, we've known that other types of humans once roamed our planet. At that time, scientists recognized that fossils unearthed in caves across Europe belonged to archaic humans now known as Neanderthals. Over that time, our understanding of Neanderthals has undergone dramatic upheavals.

In the early 1900s, scientists conceived of Neanderthals as apelike and almost bestial. But in the past few decades, unambiguous evidence has indicated that our closest human relatives mated with us at multiple points in time. Artifacts found at several sites suggest Neanderthals may even have had aesthetic projects.

Ludovic Slimak, an explorer and archaeologist at the Centre for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse in France, has been fascinated by archaeology since he was 5 and has spent more than 30 years hunting for our closest human relatives in caves on nearly every continent. He spoke with Live Science about his new book, "The Naked Neanderthal: A New Understanding of the Human Creature" (Pegasus Books, 2024), about why Neanderthals are not simply another version of Homo sapiens, what their mating with modern humans tells us about our first and last encounters with them, and what they reveal about our own human nature.

https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...d-alliances-says-archaeologist-ludovic-slimak

 

[ramonmercado]

More evidence of Human/Neanderthal co-existence.

More than 45,000 years ago, small bands of hunters chased horses, reindeer, and mammoth over a vast expanse of tundra that stretched across most of northern Europe. They rarely stayed anywhere for long, leaving behind a scattering of stone tools and traces of the odd campfire in the depths of caves.

For more than a century, archaeologists debated whether these artifacts were left by some of the last Neanderthals to roam Europe—or the first modern humans to brave the northern reaches of the continent.

A trio of papers published today in Nature and Nature Ecology & Evolution may help settle the question. Between 2016 and 2022, archaeologists recovered fragments of hominin bone from a cave in the central German village of Ranis. The bones were at least 45,000 years old, and their DNA has now identified them as the remains of our species. “We now have a Homo sapiens population in northern Europe long before Neanderthals disappeared,” says Marcel Weiss, an archaeologist at the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg who supervised the excavations.

What’s more, the bones were found with a type of stone blade known from other sites across northern Europe, from the British Isles to modern-day Poland. Archaeologists once assumed they were the handiwork of Neanderthals, but the Ranis bones hint that the tools—a style called Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ)—are modern humans’ calling card. “This suggests that early humans were far more widely spread, much earlier than we thought,” says University of Vienna archaeological scientist Tom Higham, who was not involved with the research. “What seems to be emerging is a complex mosaic pattern” in northern Europe, with pioneering bands of modern humans sharing the continent with Neanderthals.

The Ranis bones aren’t the only evidence for H. sapiens’s early presence in Europe: In 2022, members of the same team reported finding 45,000-year-old modern human remains at a cave in Bulgaria called Bacho Kiro. A woman’s skull reported last year from Zlatý kůň, a site in the Czech Republic, had well-preserved modern human DNA and may be more than 43,000 years old. Another team has claimed still older H. sapiens finds—including a tooth from a cave in southern France that may be 54,000 years old.

https://www.science.org/content/art...ern-humans-and-neanderthals-overlapped-europe

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