Neanderthals and Homo sapiens used identical Nubian technology

The newly analyzed tooth of an approximately nine-year-old Neanderthal child kept in a private collection for a long time is the southernmost known series of the hominin. Analysis of the associated archaeological composition suggests that Neanderthals used Nubian Levallois technology, previously considered limited to Homo sapiens.

With a high concentration of cave sites containing evidence of past populations and their behavior, the Levant is an important center for research on human origins. For more than a century, archaeological excavations in the Levant have yielded human fossil and stone tool collections that reveal landscapes inhabited by both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, making this region a potential mixing ground between populations. It is difficult to distinguish these populations by means of stone tools, but one technology, the clear Nubian Levallois method, is claimed to have been produced only by Homo sapiens.

In a new study published in Scientific reports, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History teamed up with international partners to re-examine the fossil and archaeological report of the Shukbah Cave. Their findings extend to the southernmost range of Neanderthal people, suggesting that our now extinct relatives used a technology previously claimed to be a trademark of modern humans. This study is the first time that the solitary human tooth of the site has been studied in detail, in combination with a large comparative study examining the composition of stone tools.

“Sites where hominin fossils are directly associated with stone tool assemblies remain a rarity – but the study of both fossils and tools is critical to understanding hominin occupations in the Shukbah Cave and the greater region,” said lead author Dr Jimbob Blinkhorn. formerly Royal. Holloway, University of London and closely with the Pan-African Evolution Research Group (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History).

The Shukbah Cave was first excavated in the spring of 1928 by Dorothy Garrod, who reported a rich composition of animal bones and stone tools in Mousterian style in breccia deposits, often concentrated in well-marked fireplaces. She also identified a large, unique human electorate. However, the sample was kept in a private collection for most of the 20th century, forbidding comparative studies with modern methods. The recent re-identification of the tooth in the Natural History Museum in London has led to new detailed work on the Shukbah collections.

“Professor Garrod immediately saw how characteristic this tooth was. We examined the size, shape and external and internal 3-D structure of the tooth, and compared it with Holocene and Pleistocene Homo sapiens and Neanderthaler. It enabled us “to clearly characterize the tooth as the part of an approximately nine-year-old Neanderthal child,” says Dr Clément Zanolli, of the Université de Bordeaux. “Shukbah is the southernmost part of the Neanderthal series known so far,” he added. Zanolli by.

Although Homo sapiens and Neanderthals shared the use of a wide range of stone tool technologies, it was recently argued that Nubian Levallois technology was used exclusively by Homo sapiens. The argument was made especially in southwest Asia, where Nubian Levallois tools were used to detect human dispersal in the absence of fossils.

“Illustrations of Shukbah’s collection of stone tools alluded to the presence of Nubian Levallois technology, so we revisited the collections to further investigate. Eventually, we identified many more artifacts manufactured using the Nubian Levallois methods. we expected, “says Blinkhorn. “This is the first time it has been found in direct connection with Neanderthal fossils, suggesting that we can not make a simple link between this technology and Homo sapiens.”

“Southwest Asia is a dynamic region in terms of hominin demographics, behavior, and environmental change, and it may be particularly important to explore interactions between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens,” adds Prof Simon Blockley, of Royal Holloway, University of London. “This study highlights the geographical extent of Neanderthal populations and their behavioral flexibility, but also provides a timely warning that there are no direct links between particular hominins and specific stone tool technologies.”

“So far we have no direct evidence of a Neanderthal presence in Africa,” said Prof Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum. “But the southern location of Shukbah, only about 400 km from Cairo, should remind us that they sometimes spread in Africa.”