Neanderthals and Homo sapiens used the same Nubian technology

Held for a long time in a private collection, the recently analyzed tooth of a Neanderthal boy of about 9 years marks the southernmost known hominid mountain range. Analysis of the associated archaeological set suggests that Neanderthals used Nubian Levallois technology, which was previously thought to be restricted to Homo sapiens.

With a high concentration of cave sites that houses evidence of past populations and their behavior, the Levant is an important center for research of human origins. For more than a century, archaeological excavations in the East have produced human fossils and sets of stone tools that reveal landscapes inhabited by both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, making this region a potential breeding ground for populations. It is difficult to distinguish these populations by stone tool sets alone, but one technology, the Levallois method of Nubian, is said to have been produced only by Homo sapiens.

In a new study published in Scientific reports, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History partnered with international partners to re-examine the fossil and archaeological record of the Shukbah Cave. Their findings expand the best-known southern range of Neanderthals and suggest that our now extinct relatives used a technology that was previously considered a trademark of modern humans. This study marks the first time the solitary human tooth of the site has been studied in detail, in combination with an important comparative study examining the set of stone tools.

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

Shukbah Cave was first excavated in the spring of 1928 by Dorothy Garrod, who reported a rich set of animal bones and Mousterian-style stone tools cemented in breach deposits, often concentrated in well-marked homes. He also identified a large, unique human molar. However, the specimen remained in a private collection for most of the 20th century, prohibiting comparative studies using modern methods. The recent re-identification of the tooth at the Natural History Museum in London has led to new detailed work on Shukbah’s collections.

“Professor Garrod immediately saw the distinctive feature of this tooth. We examined the external and internal 3D size, shape, and structure of the tooth, and compared it to Holocene and Pleistocene Homo sapiens. and with Neanderthal specimens. This has allowed us to clearly characterize the tooth as that of a Neanderthal child of about 9 years old, “says Dr. Clément Zanolli, of the University of Bordeaux. “Shukbah marks the southernmost extent of the Neanderthal range known to date,” Zanolli adds.

Although Homo sapiens and Neanderthals shared the use of a broad set of stone tool technologies, it has recently been argued that Nubian Levallois technology has been used exclusively by Homo sapiens. The argument has been made particularly in Southwest Asia, where Nubian Levallois tools have been used to track human dispersions in the absence of fossils.

“The illustrations in Shukbah’s stone tool collections hinted at the presence of Nubian Levallois technology, so we revisited the collections to investigate them further. In the end, we identify many more artifacts produced with the Nubian Levallois methods than we had anticipated, ”says Blinkhorn. “This is the first time they have been found in direct association with Neanderthal fossils, suggesting that we cannot establish a simple link between this technology and Homo sapiens.”

“Southwest Asia is a dynamic region in terms of hominin demographics, behavior, and environmental changes and may be particularly important in examining interactions between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens,” adds Professor Simon Blockley, of the Royal Holloway, University of London. “This study highlights the geographic reach of Neanderthal populations and their behavioral flexibility, but also issues a timely note of caution 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 Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum. “But the southern location of Shukbah, just about 400 km from Cairo, must remind us that they may even have been scattered in Africa at times.”

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Associations

Researchers involved in this study include academics from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the Royal Holloway, the University of London, the University of Bordeaux, the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, and the University of Malta and the Museum of Natural History, London. This work was supported by the Leverhulme Trust (RPH-2017-087).