In Europe, Neanderthals Beat Homo Sapiens to Specialized Tools

[theHandpuppet]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=2614
In Europe, Neanderthals Beat Homo Sapiens to Specialized Tools
By Gemma Tarlach | August 12, 2013 2:05 pm

Though Homo sapiens are our notoriously brainy ancestors, it turns out that they weren’t the originators of the first specialized bone tools in Europe.

New finds from southwestern France have dealt another blow to the theory that anatomically modern humans moving into Europe in the Paleolithic introduced advanced technology to the region. It turns out, the established, more primitive Neanderthal population were making their own specialized bone tools.

Neanderthal Tools

Researchers reached that conclusion after analyzing four bone fragments from two separate Neanderthal sites in southwestern France. They confirmed that the artifacts showed clear evidence of being fashioned and utilized for a specific task — in this case, treating animal hides. The age of the fragments — about 50,000 years — predates the earliest evidence of modern humans (Homo sapiens) in the area by at least 5,000 years, the researchers report today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers determined that the fragments were used as lissoirs, a type of tool previously associated only with modern humans. Lissoirs are rubbed against hides to make them smoother, more lustrous, tougher and, most importantly in the era before Gore-Tex, more impenetrable to the elements. The fragments, from two sites near Bordeaux, were made from the ribs of ungulates, probably red deer (Cervus elephus) or reindeer (Rangifer tarandus).... MORE

(There's a photo of the lissoir at the link above.)

[Judi Lynn]

1. More on this interesting find: Neanderthals made leather-working tools like those in use today

Neanderthals made leather-working tools like those in use today

Archaic humans may have invented bone implements still used to make expensive handbags.
Ewen Callaway

12 August 2013

Excavations of Neanderthal sites more than 40,000 years old have uncovered a kind of tool that leather workers still use to make hides more lustrous and water resistant. The bone tools, known as lissoirs, had previously been associated only with modern humans. The latest finds indicate that Neanderthals and modern humans might have invented the tools independently.

The first of the lissoir fragments surfaced a decade ago at a rock shelter called Pech-de-l’Azé in the Dordogne region of southwest France. Archaeologist Marie Soressi of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, knew the tool at once, says her colleague Shannon McPherron.

The tools are also known as slickers and burnishers, says McPherron. Soressi contacted luxury-goods manufacturer Hermès in Paris, and found that their high-end leather workers use just such a tool. “She showed them a picture, and they recognized it instantly,” says McPherron. The company's line includes the wildly popular Birkin handbag, which sells for around US$10,000 and upwards.

McPherron says that a single artefact, however, was not enough for the researchers to draw broad conclusions. “You find one, and there’s always some doubt. You’re worried that it’s not a pattern — that it’s anecdotal behaviour.” But subsequent digs at Pech-de-l’Azé and nearby Abri Peyrony turned up further lissoir fragments, leading the researchers to conclude that Neanderthals made the tools routinely.

More:
http://www.nature.com/news/neanderthals-made-leather-working-tools-like-those-in-use-today-1.13542

[Judi Lynn]

2. Neanderthals May Have Taught Modern Humans How to Make Certain Tools

August 13th, 2013, 20:11 GMT · By Laura Sinpetru
Neanderthals May Have Taught Modern Humans How to Make Certain Tools

Thousands of years ago were the first to manufacture and make use of certain types of tools that were both standardized and specialized.

Furthermore, specialists argue that, all things considered, it is likely that Neanderthals were the ones who taught modern humans how to make and use these tools.

Writing in yesterday's issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers detail the discovery of several 51,000-year-old specialized deer bone tools known as lissoirs or smoothers.

The tools were discovered in southwest France, and served to make leather softer and more water-resistant.

More:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Neanderthals-May-Have-Taught-Modern-Humans-How-to-Make-Certain-Tools-375018.shtml

[theHandpuppet]

3. The Neaderthal story is ever-evolving

Fascinating, isn't it? The other day I was reading up on the DNA studies, too. I should have bookmarked that report.