The
Last Neanderthals
Humans stand in stark contrast to the isolation and
tradition of Neanderthal culture. Every human generation, like each Neanderthal
generation, adopted the toolkit of its parents. Except for us there
was one major distinction: humans always questioned this
toolkit. We were and still are actively adding to the list of
known technology. This is one of the many issues which mentally and
behaviorally separate us from Neanderthals. While there are many
commonalities in the psychological behavior of Neanderthals, the
separation in cognitive power certainly gave us an advantage.
Examining this separation is vital to understanding how a
disparity in thought became a disparity in dominance. We
are not only asking why they perished but why we
flourished. That question involves every aspect of our bodies,
genes, minds, lifestyles, and our environment. “The differences
in their skulls suggest early Homo divvied up the environment, each
utilizing a slightly different strategy to survive.” -Susan
Anton. We certainly did have a different strategy to survive, yet
this evolutionary tactic did so much more. What began as traits to
aid in our survival, became our indomitable conquest of the world.
This was not planned, there were no great wars or political shifts.
It was done by the hands and the genes of each individual human. Yet
our conquest was slow, for thousands of years we coexisted with
Neanderthals living side by side. Why did these last hominins die
out, what happened to them?
 |
| mtDNA-based simulation of modern human genetic expansion in Europe starting around 1600 generations ago. Neanderthal range in light gray, human range in dark gray |
 |
| A late Mousterian Neanderthal. This Neanderthal is wearing elements of the transitional Chatelperronian culture, one which adapted some human symbolic outlets yet continued Neanderthal stone industry. By Libor Balak |
The final remnants of the continent-wide Mousterian
culture began to decline between 45-40 kya. This is probably when
most Mousterian Neanderthals died out. Chatelperronian Neanderthals
(as well as Chatelperronian humans) died out in France and Spain also
around this time, 40 kya. This was the final chapter in Neanderthal
culture, yet it is also the final chapter in our two species'
contact. The first contact (physical and genetic) had already
occurred tens of thousands of years earlier in Asia.
“Significant interbreeding between Neanderthals and
early modern humans had probably occurred in Asia more than 50,000
years ago, so the dating evidence now indicates that the two
populations could have been in some kind of contact with each other
for up to 20,000 years, first in Asia then later in Europe.” -Chris
Stringer.
For the life of a Neanderthal familial clan, over the
course of thousands of years every day more and more of your
territory contained large human hunting bands. We held a kind of
power and dominance through our technology and our culture, and so
complete was this dominance that Neanderthals could not overcome it
nor rebound from it. The Mousterian Neanderthals who remained by 40
kya were pushed further and further into the badlands and onto the
mountain tops of Europe. The Neanderthal eclipse was neither
spatially nor temporally uniform, with some clans holding out in
mountain refuges (called refugia) across Europe. At the moment, the
presumption is that the final Neanderthals were in Europe, although
the data for their decline in Asia is much more spare. For now, the
evidence we have points us towards this European wane, and one such
refuge is Gorham's Cave on the Rock of Gibraltar. The sight looking
out from this cave may have been one of the last experiences of the
living Neanderthal mind on earth.
 |
| Looking out from Gorham's Cave, Gibralter. It was at the time 5 kilometers from the seashore |
 |
| A map of late Neanderthal holdouts (called refugia) in the Upper Paleolithic. Neanderthals may have continued in refugia such as Crimea, Croatia, southern England, and Iberia |
 |
| Map charting the decline of Mousterian and the rise of Chatelperronian and Uluzzian. 45 kya Mousterian Neanderthals covered all of Europe. By 41 kya the last Chatelperronian Neanderthals had died out, and by 40 kya the only remnants of Mousterian culture (and Neanderthals) were in refugia. By 40 kya the dominant cultures in Europe had become Chatelperronian humans and Uluzzian/Aurignacian humans. From Tom Higham's 2014 study at Oxford |
So what happened to the last Neanderthals? The most
obvious answer is, in general, we happened. Human and
Neanderthal contact changed their way of life, it disrupted their
traditional habits and upended all aspects of their society. Anything
that could have happened between us, probably did. There is evidence
of both violence and interbreeding. Both of these factors are
involved, as the reason for a civilizational decline is never within
a single isolated issue but is spread across a range of internal and
external factors.
The
Economy of the Human Body
Examining the Neanderthal body in comparison to humans
quickly reveals glaring differences in resource management. The most
basic requirement for survival is food, and Neanderthals
simply needed more of it than humans did. When we did eat food, we
processed it more effectively than our evolutionary cousins. Some of
the most important human-specific developments were in the
conservation of energy, to fully utilize what we already had was more
important than inventing new techniques. Excessive food
requirements on Neanderthal communities put more pressure on their
family clan structure to hunt and gather. This would have constrained
the leisure time in which to think abstractly and innovate. The
higher food requirement for Neanderthals also increased their
dependence on their local environment. Any disruption to their food
chain was uncontrollably disastrous. While a temporary collapse in a
food source would cause starvation in the local human population, it
would cause famine in the Neanderthal population.
“The
explanation is found in the overall morphological change in the body
biotype that prevailed in our species compared to our ancestors. The
Homo Sapiens had a slimmer body, lighter bones, longer legs, and were
taller.” -Researchers with
Carretero Diaz. Processing food was done differently, but hunting
that food was also radically different. This novel human strategy for
taking down large animals was not to directly confront
them, in contrast with the
highly successful Neanderthal strategy. Our technique was truly
innovative, slowly over the course of days, we walk them to
exhaustion. All of these
physical advantages (slimmer body, lighter bones, longer legs, taller
height) are beneficial to this hunting strategy. “Larger
legs, narrower hips, being taller and having lighter bones not only
meant a reduction in body weight (less muscular fat) but a bigger
stride, greater speed, and a lower energy cost when moving the body,
walking, or running.” -Carretero
Diaz. While trailing an animal, we could move at such a pace that the
animal is always tiring itself, yet we were never fully exhausted.
The economies of many physical systems in our bodies were improved,
such as our thermoregulatory, obstetric, and nutritional systems. We
could fully realize the beneficial potential of this strategy since
overall our differences combined to give our species more endurance
and energy than other hominins. Not was this strategy better suited
for our biotype, but when humans came back from the hunt, we brought
back not only surplus food but the hunters safe and sound. There was
a much higher chance for a Neanderthal to not come back from a hunt.
For humans, if a hunter was injured in a dangerous confrontation with
an animal, it was out of the ordinary. Whereas for those Neanderthals
who had been injured, it was a common result.
Changing
Climate and Ecosystem
In relying so heavily on their environment for stability
and food, the lifestyle of a Neanderthal was highly dependent on a
regular climate. “Unstable climate conditions favored the
evolution of the roots of human flexibility in our ancestors.”
-Richard Potts. The disruption of this regularity may have
contributed significantly to their demise. Around 55 kya weather
began to fluctuate wildly from extreme cold to mild cold over the
course of only decades. This put extreme evolutionary pressure on
Neanderthals to adopt new techniques, not over the course of
generations, but during a single lifetime. The inability for a single
generation to adopt a radically different lifestyle would have
contributed to their decline. This may have been the first serious
bump on their road to success, and at this time humans and
Neanderthals were in contact in the Middle East and Asia. Possibly
these climatic pressures drove Neanderthals onto the same territories
as humans, stirring up both conflict and interbreeding. The changing
climate saw the native forests of Europe recede into grasslands,
disrupting the common Neanderthal tactic of the ambush.
Not only was the weather fluctuating, but multiple super
volcanoes erupted during the waning of the Neanderthal epoch.
Francesco Fedele has found that around 39 kya at Campi Flegrei near
Naples Italy, a supervolcano blotted out the sun for months to years.
It was the largest in 200,000 years. Liubov Golovanova has found that
between 45-40 kya two supervolcanic eruptions covered (at least)
eastern Europe. These triple eruptions between 45-39 kya would have
killed many Neanderthals and humans, but whereas human populations
could rebound from such a disaster Neanderthals could not. One
striking difference in our societies was that the Neanderthal
population peaked prior 40 kya at only 70,000 individuals with only
7,000 females able to give birth. Even if Neanderthals in general
could rebound, it is likely that their genetic diversity could not,
forcing more and more Neanderthals to breed with humans and to
eventually enter human society. The extreme and quick variations in
the climate during this period peaked at around 30 kya, if any
Neanderthals were alive by that time (which is unlikely), this final
blow would have killed them off.
 |
| A normal volcanic eruption. A supervolcano would be significantly more devastating, especially if there were three which effected Europe between 45-39 kya |
Violence
Neanderthals did not only die of starvation, but some
were outright killed by humans. Violence occurred when Neanderthals
and humans competed for resources, particularly around rivers and
valleys. One such point of conflict was the Danube, one of the main
conduits for the early human entrance into Europe. There is even
evidence that near the city of Perg in Austria, a camp of
Neanderthals and humans lived at the same time directly across
from each other. At nearby fords both humans and Neanderthals
could get to the over bank, and at these territorial boundaries they
must have seen each other. They most likely did know about each
other, and probably were in direct competition over local resources.
When humans and Neanderthals fought, the evidence is left in scars on
their bones. The burial of Shanidar 3 was killed by a wound in the
ribs. Wounded somehow, this Neanderthal was treated by its family yet
died weeks later most likely from infection. This was not just
another hunting accident, this was a spear wound. Researchers
have determined that no thrusted or thrown spear could have made such
a gash. When multiple techniques of injury were tested, the only one
which came close to imparting such damage was the atl-atl.
 |
| A diagram of an atl-atl cast |
Atl-atls are themselves not a weapon, but an
accoutrement which improves a weapon. They are in effect both an
extension and an improvement on our previous technology. It is
essentially a curved stick which is held in the hand. You place the
butt of a javelin in a notch at the back of the stick. As you swing
the stick, the power and velocity of the thrown spear is amplified
significantly. This makes javelins more than just throwing spears,
they become effective and powerful long ranged weapons. This
invention drastically improves the range and accuracy of javelins.
While this improvement very much helped early humans, Neanderthals
were no feeble enemy. If Neanderthals or humans ambushed each other,
the side which attacked first surely had a huge advantage, regardless
of the atl-atl. Ambushes were the primary Neanderthal hunting tactic,
and they used it effectively to kill humans as well as any other
animals they fought.
If a group of humans and Neanderthals fought each other
in the open, both sides had a multitude of weapons and tactics,
although humans had a serious advantage with their atl-atls. Yet
while crafting an atl-atl is easy, crafting a good javelin is not
and each human may have only had one or a few. This gave humans the
upper hand when at an extreme distance, since human weaponry had a
longer range than Neanderthal weapons. Once Neanderthals had closed
that gap, or we had ran out of javelins, the equation changed.
Neanderthals also had throwing spears, and in combination with
more muscle their spears had more power behind them. Any human which
was hit by a Neanderthal javelin was surely mortally wounded. As the
distance closed even further, Neanderthals and humans both had
throwing sticks (or boomerangs) which could kill if directed at a
vulnerable spot. These weapons were also made more deadly in the
hands of the stronger Neanderthals. Once the two sides met and were
within melee range, both us and them had spears, hatchets, knives,
and hand axes. In personal combat, Neanderthals were more proficient
at grappling but humans had longer reach and more stamina. If we
could keep them at bay and survive the initial contact, we had a good
chance of winning in a fight. If a Neanderthal could grapple or
disorient us, a few swift hits and we were dead. Human tribes were
2-4 times larger than Neanderthal clans, giving us a numerical
advantage in combat. Warfare was and still is a messy affair, with
Neanderthals and humans having different advantages in different
situations. All the while something gave us an advantage, be it our
intelligence, atl-atls, numerical superiority, or all three. While we
had an advantage in long range combat, Neanderthals had an advantage
in melee. Any particular victory or loss against a band of
Neanderthals was more likely due to individual circumstances than to
any large sweeping change.
 |
| A sketch of a Neanderthal, by Ossai. Found on Emmanuel Roudier's Neanderthal Blog |
In the end, our long term evolutionary advantage was
probably only hunting and conserving energy better than strictly
combat. Although once the Neanderthals' ecological niche disappeared,
it is easy to see how a hunting party of 20 youth and adult humans
armed with atl-atls on flat grasslands could decimate a mixed age
clan of only 8-15 Neanderthals. Perhaps our hunting strategy did not
change when confronting Neanderthals, and as if they were another
herd of deer we walked them to exhaustion over the course of days.
Finally the Neanderthal clan would come to a stop: terrified,
exhausted, and in the open. The band of humans could easily surround
them and kill them at range, then the Neanderthals were looted and
eaten. A gruesome end to our cousins, yet for humans the first step
towards our current world dominance. We no longer had to fear any
animal, not even our closest evolutionary competitor.
Human
Cultural Advantages
Some researchers, such as Steven Kuhn and Mary Stiner,
argue in their paper Paleolithic Diet and the Division of Labor in
the Mediterranean Eurasia that developments in early human
culture contributed to the demise of Neanderthals. Since human
dominance was achieved by a statistically higher birth rate, they
argue that some cultural development must have favored the lives of
women and children. Possibly this was the creation of the division of
labor based upon gender.
“On the basis of zooarchaeological, technological,
and demographic evidence...the complementary economic roles of men
and women so typical of ethnographically documented hunter-gatherers
did not appear in Eurasia until the beginning of the Upper
Paleolithic. The rich archaeological record of Middle Paleolithic
cultures in Eurasia suggests, by contrast, that earlier hominins
pursued narrowly focused economies, with women's activities closely
aligned to those of men with respect to schedules and territory use
patterns...More broadly based economies, as indicated both by the
faunal record and the increasing complexity of foraging and related
technologies, appeared earliest in the eastern Mediterranean region
and spread (with modification) to the north and west. The behavioral
changes associated with the Upper Paleolithic record signal a wider
range of economic and technological roles in forager societies, and
these changes in adaptation may have provided the expanding Homo
Sapiens populations with a demographic advantage over other hominins
in Eurasia.” -Mary Stiner and Steven Kuhn.
For
hunter-gatherer societies in which males only hunt, not surprisingly
they end up dying more often than females. If prehistoric humans
followed this hunting strategy, it would have been a serious
advantage over Neanderthals. If Neanderthal hunting bands included
women, pregnant women, or children, they would have been put in
serious danger due to Neanderthals' close combat style. Although
there is no surefire method to prove the existence or non-existence
of gender roles during this period – when common injuries among
Neanderthals are examined, 87% of their head and neck injuries
(hunting injuries) occurred on males. This is evidence that
Neanderthal males were the ones getting up close and personal with
the large game they were hunting. Even if Neanderthal males were the
ones to confront animals on the hunt, they may have brought women and
children along, increasing their chances of accidental death or
injury. In the end, to make statements about Neanderthal culture you
have to point at things which are invisible in the fossil record. It
is just as likely that some other cultural factor increased the
reproductive rates of humans which was unrelated to the creation of
gender roles.
First
Contact
%2Band%2BHomo%2BSapiens%2B(back)%2Bmodels%2Bat%2Bthe%2BLondon%2BNatural%2BHistory%2BMuseum.jpg) |
| Models of both a Neanderthal (foreground) and a Homo Sapiens (background) at London's Natural History Museum (both of the actual models are life sized and completely nude) |
Thomas Wynn and Frederick Collidge give a thrilling
account of how Neanderthal and Human contact would have happened. It
all starts with a young child, an out-migrant, entering the territory
of another clan. This child brings rumors of strange creatures, they
resemble ourselves but they are taller, dark skinned, wear tailored
clothing, and are raggedly thin and poorly muscled. These creatures
have strange heads, with diminutive features. This rumor may have
been spread around one clan, maybe surrounding clans, but it
eventually died out and was forgotten. Neanderthals had no impetus to
discover who these people were, rumors of dangerous strangers may
have only fomented feelings of fear and xenophobia. Hundreds, if not
thousands of years later, the clan catches their first glimpse of
these new creatures. First they see the hunting parties, huge bands
of tall dark skinned men, using atl-atls and shooting spears much
further than any Neanderthal had seen before. These bands roamed
great distances to run down animals, in the process passing through
many different clans' territories. Any animals injured yet able to
escape, would be found by Neanderthals with broken bone and antler
spear heads. Such tools were unknown in the (Mousterian) Neanderthal
world. Neanderthals also saw other bands of humans, groups of only
women and children. Gathering and using nets to catch small game,
they hunted apart from the bands of men. Humans would build devices
to trap animals and return later to harvest them. Neanderthals may
have encountered these traps by accident, injured by an inconceivably
complex contraption. What would they have thought, who would they
have blamed? It must have seemed like yet another aspect of the world
intent on killing them.
 |
| Two models of a Neanderthal and a human face to face. The Neanderthal model was created by a team of researchers led by Jez Gibson-Harris and with help from Viktor Deak. Humans at this time were probably not pale skinned |
At some point, humans were no longer just a rumor. A
Neanderthal spying on a band of humans would see them spreading their
camps out across large portions of a cave, not only at the entrance.
Humans would build giant fires, too large to fit food over, and when
others were out hunting the older members kept these bonfires going.
After a meal, humans would continue to sit at these fires and simply
talk for hours. Telling long elaborate stories and keeping each
others' close attention. Around such fires, humans would sing and
dance, some even playing drums or bird bone flutes. If Neanderthals
could understand music, hearing this would have been an ecstatic joy.
If Neanderthals themselves made music, listening to human music would
have been uniquely pleasurable. It gave them emotions which they
either had never experienced or were not expecting. If a
Neanderthal's conception of music was only the voice, hearing music
from a piece of bone would have been awe inspiring. If Neanderthals
were not musical, such noise was violent, frightening, and confusing.
Melodies and harmonies which lacked meaning were an impossibly
strange and alien phenomenon only associated with violent foreigners.
Even if Neanderthals understood music and rhythm, to hear such a
phenomenon at a distance would be absolutely terrifying. You had
never heard such a thing before in your life, and had no reference as
to whether it was a signal of safety or death. If you had previous
bad interactions with humans, and associated the music with them...it
signified your impending death. To hear war music from the enemy camp
at night and to not even know what music is only amplifies its
terror.
 |
| A human child next to a model of a Neanderthal at the Neanderthal Museum in Mettmann, Germany |
Some (or all) humans carved ivory. People were spending
hours to make a realistic miniature figurine. This would have been
very puzzling to a Neanderthal...why would someone make it, what is
its use? They would have no ability to even begin to answer these
questions. If one was found by a Neanderthal, it may have been kept
as an interesting object (a curio). If a Neanderthal did see such a
thing, they either never thought to recreate it or only made it in
wood. Most likely Neanderthals did not have a symbolic or narrative
culture, and Neanderthal children would not have played with abstract
toys. An ivory mammoth was used by human children within imaginary
worlds, it was actor in a grand story with a beginning, middle, and
end, complete with excitement and suspense. Maybe a Neanderthal child
did not understand how to craft such a story. Maybe the Neanderthal
mind could not turn a figure which represents reality into an actor
which represents imagination. If Neanderthals did make figurines out
of stone, they were uncommon, although if Neanderthals made figures
out of wood they could have been as commonplace as at human camps.
Thomas Wynn and Frederick Collidge assert that if Neanderthals did
made carvings, it would have been figures of females. Regardless it
would have struck a Neanderthal dumbfounded to use ivory, or to make
a mammoth. At the moment it is more likely that Neanderthals did not
make figurines, as such things are not found even at later
Chatelperronian sites who extensively carved ivory trinkets. If that
is the case, what would a Neanderthal have seen if they looked
at an ivory mammoth carving? They may have seen it as what it is, a
mammoth – yet without the human afterthought I want one.
They may have seen something, without truly understanding what
it was, maybe one step away from connecting the dots. Lastly they may
have not seen anything at all. Since it was neither a shell nor a
weapon it was too abstract. Maybe they were unable to connect an
abstract image of an object to the corresponding image of that thing
in real life.
 |
| Viktor Deak next to a model Neanderthal he helped create for the BBC |
 |
| Former German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck at the Neanderthal Museum in Mettmann, Germany |
Humans traveled long distances, with smaller groups of a
only couple humans leaving their tribe for weeks if not months
to travel. When these bands would return they brought with them
strange foreign artifacts. Trade objects were treated as interesting
not only for their utility but for their exoticism. Trade was
a way of seeing the outside world, of satiating our curiosity of the
unknown. In this environment of foreign trade and hospitality,
strangers were not treated with outright suspicion. All of this was
abnormal in a Neanderthal's daily routine. One day, a Neanderthal
clan is approached by some members of a nearby human tribe. Lacking
communication, both groups keep their distance. The humans, in an
attempt to replicate their culture, leave trinkets on the ground and
back away. These humans expect the Neanderthals to understand that
they too should leave requisite items on the ground in an exchange of
equal value. Hypothetically during a trade, Neanderthals would look
at two objects and see in both of them some abstract judgment of what
is it worth to me. they then make a quick cost-benefit analysis
and decide if one object is worth trading for the other. Thomas Wynn
and Frederick Collidge think that we are expecting too much from
them. If Neanderthals did not understand that trades were between
objects of equal value, they may have just grabbed what the humans
left. To a Neanderthal this was obviously a gift. The humans, angered
at this theft, may have confronted the clan, but that would have only
led to violence and more xenophobia. While Neanderthals were able to
trade amongst themselves, trading one precious stone for another,
they could not handle the complexity of multiple variables. Humans
wanted to trade a precious stone for X, Y, and Z, instantly asking
questions of value which a Neanderthal could not understand. To make
sense of and to find worth in confusing complexity is quite the human
hallmark. If trading was unsuccessful maybe we had a tacit agreement
to steer clear of each other, yet if it was successful it only
inspired further human encroachment. All the while humans and
Neanderthals were living in the same areas for thousands of years,
besides trading what else happened during our two species' contact?
 |
| A wonderful cartoon of a Neanderthal and a human, sadly I could not find its source |
That
Other Kind of Interaction
If we ever had any tacit agreement with a Neanderthal
clan, that agreement as with all treaties ever signed by humans
would have been immediately broken. Humans are inherently
opportunistic, and when your band meets new people many opportunities
arise. There is a remarkable amount of evidence we interbred with
Neanderthals, not only genetic evidence but fossil evidence as well.
Gene flow from the Neanderthal population was strictly from
them-to-us, and not the other way around. This means that any
Neanderthal and Human offspring either formed its own band of hybrids
or joined human bands. Hybrids may not have been accepted by
xenophobic Neanderthals, showing not only their callousness but their
inability to accept beneficial change. It is impossible to know if
there was any one way in which humans and Neanderthals
interacted, it was most likely a combination of all possible ways.
Sometimes group interactions resulted in violence, and other times
maybe simple trading was possible. If groups got to know each other,
both humans and Neanderthals have a tradition of group-butchery
projects, which is a great way to cement trust and build
relationships. Possibly Neanderthals and humans fell in love with one
another, forming mixed race clans (which were eventually adopted back
into the human gene pool). Yet humans and Neanderthals did fight, and
in warfare there is always sexual violence. Since matches were mostly
between Neanderthal women and human men, it is possible that some
hybrids were born from post-conquest debauchery. It is nice to know
that there is evidence against this...since humans and
Neanderthals at the time were cannibals, when a tribe was conquered
they were all butchered and eaten.
The fossil record shows an interesting story, one of
prehistoric Europe as a genetic and cultural melting pot of hominins.
Every corner of the Neanderthal range includes sites of
hybridization. One of the sites where Neanderthals and humans first
crossed paths, Amud Cave in Israel, a Neanderthal skeleton was found
exhibiting features of interbreeding. This Neanderthal was 6 feet
tall and lacked the large brow ridge and other standard Neanderthal
features. At Abrigo do Lagar Velho Portugal, a child who died around
age 4 was buried with pierced shells and painted with ochre around
24.5 kya. This child is neither human nor Neanderthal, sharing a
mosaic of both species' features in its cranium, mandible, dentition,
and postcrania. Hybrids have also been found in Romania, a person who
lived around 30 kya was found with anterior skull swelling, an
occipital bun, and a particular muscle arrangement at the back of
their jaw. All of these features were lost by humans before we
left Africa, yet were added
back into our population by mixing with
Neanderthals. In northern Italy a hybrid skeleton was found who lived
between 30-40 kya, yet humans entered (southern) Italy around 45 kya.
Thousands of years after first contact and the last Neanderthal
hybrids still existed. “We could interbreed with them, we
could have fertile children, and...some of these children became
incorporated in the human community, reproduced, and contributed to
present day humans.” -Svante Paabo.
 |
| A reconstruction of a late Neanderthal child buried at Gibraltar, Spain |
While Neanderthals and humans interbred seemingly
everywhere, places like Spain, Italy, and the Danube basin had
significant interaction. Southern Europe in particular was a hotbed
of activity pun intended. Today, modern southern Europeans
share more Neanderthal DNA than the average European, specifically
the region of Tuscany Italy has the most Neanderthal DNA. Vindija
cave in Croatia is a remarkable example of how humans supplanted
Neanderthals. At first, Mousterian Neanderthals inhabited the cave.
Then for a period Neanderthals here used a mixture of Mousterian and
upper Paleolithic tools, showing a mixing of regional cultures. Then
suddenly, the fossils switch and you find human Aurignacians. These
early humans used a mixture of upper Paleolithic and Neanderthal
technology. Thousands of years later, this early human toolkit
morphed into the complex Gravettian, evidence that our march to world
dominance picked up speed. We did not just enter Europe and wide
Neanderthals out, our cultures mixed over the course of thousands of
years. We did not hunt them to extinction, we merged with them.
While some Neanderthals died from the changing climate, those who
survived probably had to interbreed with us, slowly coming under the
Homo Sapiens genetic fold. While we do not have
uncontroversial direct proof of contact, “we don't have a site
where we have a human and a Neanderthal buried next to each
other...I'm still waiting for that.” -Erik Trinkaus, we do have
many examples of indirect evidence. This evidence is found across
Europe and Asia, there is no place where humans and
Neanderthals did not interbreed.
 |
| Vindija Cave, Croatia |
The
First Humans in Europe
Over
thousands of years, all separate hominins were either dead or
re-adopted into Homo Sapiens.
So who were these first humans? There are two competing theories as
to how and when humans entered Europe because there were in general
two transitional human cultures. Although researchers may argue over
who was the first, both cultures contributed to the quick human
dominance of Europe. The first theory posits that the Bohunician
transitional culture was the first distinctively human industry in
Europe. This culture is mostly found in central Europe (and most
likely eastern Europe), evolving from the Emiran culture in the
Levant. This culture would have spread from the mouth of the Danube
around 48 kya, slowly continuing upstream until reaching their
namesake of the Czech Republic. This culture used an advanced version
of the Levallois technique, both mirroring and improving on
Mousterian technology. Bohunician would have been a mix of cultures,
sharing some traits from Neanderthal culture, and other traits from
human culture. Regardless of whether Bohunician was the first, it was
completely replaced by Aurignacian humans by 40 kya.
 |
| Libor Balak's depiction of the Bohunician culture. This piece is a mural created for the city of Brno, with help from historical consultants Miriam Fisakova Nyvltova and Petr Skrdla |
 |
| Libor Balak's depiction of Bohunician stone spears. Bohunician stone points have been found made from hornblende and radiolarite |
 |
| The eco-cultural niche of the Emiran industry and its derivatives. The Emiran (proto-Bohunician) culture is in green. The Bohunician culture is in red |
 |
| Early human cultures in Europe. The Aurignacians (dark triangles) were found in Italy, southern France, and northern Spain. The Bohunicians (dark rectangles) were found in Bulgaria, Romania, and the Czech Republic. The non-filled in shapes show the full extent of industries. Diamonds show the range of Bohunician culture. Triangles show the range of Human or Neanderthal Chatelperronian. Circles and squares show derivative proto-Aurignacian cultures in southern Europe: The Uluzzian in Italy and S.I.L.M.P. in Spain |
 |
| A forensic reconstruction of a woman who lived at Abri-Pataud France, 47-17 kya |
The other theory posits that the first truly human
industry was proto-Aurignacian. This culture evolved out of the
Ahmarian culture also in the Levant, spreading into south-central and
then south-western Europe (and possibly eastern Europe). This human
culture also spread from the mouth of the Danube into central Europe,
but also had branches going west into Greece and Italy around 45-44
kya. These proto-Aurignacians entering southern Italy developed their
own culture, briefly existing as the Uluzzians. While Bohunician
culture flourished in central Europe, proto-Aurignacians held the
most fertile land in Italy, France, and Spain. The dawn of large
scale human cultures did not immediately signal the end of
Neanderthal ones. Around the time of the entrance of
proto-Aurignacians into Europe, Neanderthals in southern France
developed their Chatelperronian culture, either independently or from
human inspiration. This separate Neanderthal culture flourished for
thousands of years, with local humans also adopting it. While their
end did not come immediately, all Neanderthal cultures had died out
by 40 kya. If pockets in refugia did survive past this point, they
had became outsiders in an human world.
 |
| An Aurignacian man with equipment who would have lived around 43-30 kya. This depiction is based on remains found in the Mladec locality in the Czech Republic. Although humans at the time had no invented bows, they had throwing darts possibly with fletching. By Libor Balak |
 |
| Aurignacian bone spear points. The bone points were found near Olomouc, Czech Republic. By Libor Balak |
 |
| A map showing the spread of Proto-Aurignacian, and its southern Italian cousin Uluzzian. Originating in the Levant around 47-49 kya, proto-Aurignacian spread into the Balkan Danube delta by 46 kya. From there, by 44-43 kya it had spread up the Danube and into southern Italy. By 42-41 kya it had spread through northern Spain, southern France, Italy, and eastern Europe. By 40 kya Aurignacians had populated the entirety of Europe |
Disregarding which culture entered Europe first, both
proto-Aurignacian and Bohunician existed side-by-side for a couple
thousand years. What is certain is that around 41 kya
proto-Aurignacian culture had metamorphosed into Aurignacian, and
spread colonies across every part of Europe. By 40 kya Aurignacians
had replaced all human derivatives, including any remaining
Mousterian humans, Chatelperronian in France and Spain, Uluzzian in
southern Italy, and Bohunician in the Czech Republic. Human culture
had exploded, and came to dominate all competitors. Due to Tom
Higham's research the final Mousterian Neanderthal lived around
41,030-39,260 years ago (95.4% probability), and J. J. Hublin's
research has put the final Chatelperronian Neanderthal around 41.5
kya. During these crucial years, between 42-40 kya, humans were
finally coming out from Italy and central Europe. During this time,
they colonized the rest of western Europe, from England to Catalonia.
This is presumably when the last Neanderthal of any culture died out,
yet it is also the eclipse of Chatelperronian and Uluzzian humans as
well. The dominant society was not only Homo Sapiens, but
specifically Aurignacian Homo Sapiens. The period of
European contact between Neanderthals and humans, which occurred
between 45-40 kya, lasted about 250 human generations and took place
around 2,000 generations ago. While the Aurignacian culture has been
forgotten, this period has left its mark in our current genome.
 |
| Recent dating showing the end of the Mousterian period around Europe, from Tom Higham's research |
 |
| Recent dating showing the beginning and end of the Uluzzian and Chatelperronian industries in Europe, from Tom Higham's research |
 |
| The range of Aurignacian culture by 41-40 kya, having become the dominant human cultural industry in Europe |
 |
| A German Aurignacian man carving the Lion Man of Hohlenstein Stadel, around 40 kya. By Libor Balak |
 |
| The Lion Man of Hohlenstein Stadel, found in a cave in southern Germany, made around 40 kya |
During this period of Neanderthal civilizational
collapse, humans began to make unique art objects. The Lion Man is a
beautiful example of one such artifact. The figure represented, the
meaning, and the gender of the statue are unknown. We cannot know
those fine mental details, what thoughts came to an early human's
mind when they carved such a figure. What we do know, is that it is
the earliest piece of anthropomorphic art in the world. This figure
is significant because it is not real, whatever it is it's
imaginary. A creature imbued with meaning unknown in the real world.
Humans could make anthropomorphic statues and later would leave
hundreds of miniature animal statues at their camps. The Neanderthal
record contains neither. Figurines were not the only unique items
produced during this time, between 43-40 kya the first cave paintings
were produced (most likely by humans) in Iberia. Also between 43-42
kya Aurignacians in Germany were making bone and ivory flutes. This
time could truly be called an Aurignacian golden age, yet the
dominance of Aurignacian culture in the fossil record foretells the
demise of our hominin cousins. While Neanderthals could adapt their
Mousterian toolkit with Upper Paleolithic ivory and bone ornaments
(the Chatelperronian culture), they could not make further
innovations. It is this period in which human culture radically
cleaves itself from Neanderthal culture, resulting in successive
advancement and Neanderthal stagnation. Neanderthals may have
survived through this period in refugia, but it is unlikely or so
minor that it has not been found yet.
 |
| A figurine of a lion, made from mammoth ivory. Found at the Vogelherd cave in southwest Germany and also made around 40 kya |
 |
| Libor Balak's depiction of the imagined Lion Man of Hohlenstein Stadel. This depiction represents not what it actually was, but shows us what we can imagine in such a piece. We can imagine combining a lion's head and a human body. This abstract unrealistic portrayal of a creature may have been unrecognizable to a Neanderthal |
 |
| The earliest miners, Aurignacians in what is now Egypt. Such larger scale mining began around 38-35 kya. Illustration by Libor Balak |
If any Neanderthals survived through the 30,000s, they
would have been awestruck by the pace of human change. Between 33-22
kya a novel culture arose in eastern Europe, the Gravettians. This
culture quickly spread from eastern Europe, supplanting the native
Aurignacian toolkit. These new Homo Sapiens took symbolic
culture to an extreme. Those who died were buried with high
ornamentation, significantly more than their Aurignacian
predecessors. People were buried in head to toe leather outfits
containing thousands of interwoven beads. By this period, human camps
commonly show the remains of high art, hundreds of ivory animals
litter sites. These humans build larger structures, and at Abri
Pataud a large house was 23 feet long by 10 feet across, containing 5
simultaneously active hearths. That is about 226 square feet of
space, significantly more than the needs of one family. This culture
intertwined abstraction and symbolism into their clothing and
appearance. Humans began to give everything around them abstraction.
This culture put an immense amount of time and effort into planning
ahead, not only showing their intellectual acuity but their
cooperative advantage over the Aurignacians. Such social complexity
would have been lost on any possible lingering Neanderthals. Probably
by the time Gravettian culture had complex dominance over Europe, the
Neanderthals were a distant memory.
 |
| A Gravettian male wearing beaded clothing, showing the explosion in symbolic thought during this period. By Libor Balak |
 |
| A Gravettian woman wearing a hat inspired by the Venus of Brassempouy, by Libor Balak |
 |
| The Venus of Brassempouy, a Gravettian ivory statuette made around 25 kya. It is unknown whether the figure is wearing a type of hat or a type of hairstyle |
 |
| An absolutely remarkable figurine made of mammoth ivory about 26 kya by Gravettians. It was buried with a man who died in his 40s near Brno, Czech Republic. It has a notch at the base of its head which allowed the head to swivel, its arms could move to. While the legs have not been found, they may also have been mobile. This piece is the world's earliest doll, and shows the extreme symbolic advances in Gravettian thought across Europe |
 |
| A Gravettian family from Sungir Russia, wearing their burial outfits. A hypothetical log long house is in the background. In this picture, teh family are wearing elaborate beaded clothing which was found on their bodies at the burial site. Each bead took around an hour to make, and on the child's clothing alone there are 3,000+ beads. These ornate clothes were probably not their every day wear, and probably not made for them after their burial. Possibly the clothes were their formal wear which they were buried in. Their expensive clothing may also be a sign of their wealth, and the Sungir burial may be the first evidence in human culture of a material disparity. Illustration by Libor Balak |
 |
| A Gravettian community. Gravettians at Sungir made large houses which would have been shelter to multiple families, although there is no evidence (as far as I can tell) of rectangular log houses. There is archaeological evidence of Gravettian housing, they would make multiple small oval stone houses or a single large oval long house, also made of stone. The earliest account of a log house is in the Bronze Age, yet it is conceivable that they would have been built much earlier. Illustration by Libor Balak |
 |
| A Moravian Gravettian woman (29-25 kya) wearing a hat, by Libor Balak |
 |
| Moravian Gravettians (29-25 kya) in a canoe, by Libor Balak |
 |
| An artist's rendition of Magdalenian reindeer hunters. This culture existed from 17-12 kya in Europe. By this time, tens of thousands of years after the death of Neanderthals, humans had developed sophisticated hunting tools and commonly made cave paintings |
 |
| Libor Balak standing in front of an exhibition he helped create, at the Archaeopark Prehistoric Museum in Vsestary, Prague |
%2Bfound%2Bin%2Bisrael%2C%2Bright%2B-%2Bvenus%2Bof%2Btan-tan%2B(200k-500k%2Bbce)%2Bfound%2Bin%2Bmorocco.%2BBoth%2Bmade%2Bby%2Bhomo%2Berectus.jpg)
