Neanderthal stock is on the rise. A slew of recent studies have argued that the not-quite modern humans hunted, painted and communicated like their Homo sapiens cousins. Now new research suggests that Neanderthal technology was at least as good as that of early humans.
For most of the Stone Age, Homo sapiens and neanderthalensis both made disc-shaped stone tools called 鈥渇lakes,鈥� says , an experimental archaeologist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. But around 40,000 years ago humans in Europe began exclusively producing rectangular blades.
Some researchers have argued that this technological leap gave modern humans a decided advantage over Neanderthals, who went extinct in Europe around 28,000 years ago. They claimed that humans produced and wielded blade tools more efficiently than disc flakes.
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鈥淚 put this to the test, I created thousands of tools,鈥� Eren says. He and his colleagues focused on the process of creating the tools, not just the final product.
Tough tools
Disc flakes, Eren鈥檚 team discovered, waste less rock, suffer fewer breaks and have more cutting edge for their mass compared with straight blades.
鈥淲e found that with every respect the Neanderthal technology was just as efficient, if not slightly more efficient, than modern Homo sapiens blade technology,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his was a very strong indication that Neanderthals did not go extinct because of any cognitive inferiority.鈥�
Rather, Eren argues, modern human blade technology may have been more useful for making spears or projectiles. Additionally, blades may have functioned as cultural glue that enforced similarities among bands of humans and distinguished them from nearby Neanderthals.
Daniel Adler, a paleo-anthropologist at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, agrees that culture may explain Homo sapiens鈥� switch to blade tools. He and colleagues recently showed that Neanderthals hunted just as efficiently as modern humans, as well.
鈥淭he term Neanderthal is still synonymous with 鈥榢nuckle dragging thuggish brute鈥�,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going back and rehabilitating the image of modern Neanderthals.鈥�
Journal reference: (published online, August 26)
