Neandertool Man - British dig finds dozy apemen were not as thick as we like to think

[Snowden]

Neandertool Man - British dig finds dozy apemen were not as thick as we like to think

By Paul Harris
Last updated at 2:04 AM on 24th June 2008


They were squat, crude and brutish - and barely capable of uttering more than a grunt.

Little wonder that Neanderthal Man became a byword for stupidity.

But the image of a knuckle-dragging bonehead with a beetle brow and a dimwitted stare may need a little updating.

According to evidence revealed yesterday, our cave-dwelling cousins might not have been quite as thick as we thought.

Items found at an archeological site in West Sussex suggest they were talented users of crafted tools and were in ' complete command' of the landscape they inhabited.

Not only did they make razor-sharp hunting spears and weaponry, but probably used flintstone blades to strip and fashion animal skin for clothing.

They had the capability to create fire - and may even have used materials around them to craft crude musical instruments.

All of which suggests that Homo sapiens might owe the Neanderthals a mammoth apology for blackening their reputation these last few dozen millennia.

Archaeologists digging near Pulborough uncovered the haul of tools at a site that first came to light in 1900.

It was then that some 2,300 stone tools and artefacts were unearthed when Victorian builders were preparing the foundations for a mansion on a plot known as Beedings.

They concluded the objects were either fake or worthless, and all but a few hundred were randomly discarded or thrown down a well.

But new research confirmed that the remaining tools were genuine - and fresh digging began.

It was the first modern, scientific investigation of the site - and is throwing new light on the life of early man.

It could also form the basis of a long-needed makeover for the Neanderthals' public profile - and move them to a higher rung on the evolutionary ladder.

Dr Matthew Pope, of University College London, said the discovery provided fascinating insights into the likelihood of a thriving community of hunters on the Beedings site.

Spearheads are thought to have been used to hunt horses, mammoth and woolly rhinoceros.

Smaller, knife-like tools were probably used to skin them and would have been used 'in quite sophisticated ways'.

Conventional theories have focused on the belief that tools came into common use much later.

Dr Pope said: 'It's exciting to think that there's a real possibility these were left by some of the last Neanderthal hunting groups to occupy Northern Europe.

'The impression they give is of a population in complete command of both landscape and natural raw materials with a flourishing technology - not a people on the edge of extinction.'

The Beedings site is likely to have been chosen because it was on the crest of a hill.

That would give hunters an excellent view of wild animals or enemies on the plains below - suggesting that these were a thinking man's Neanderthal, not just dozy apemen.

Now the archaeological team plans to examine more potential sites across South-East England.

The bloodline of Neanderthals goes back 350,000 years, and their territory once stretched from Asia to Western Europe.

Males were just over 5ft and, despite the ape-like way they are often portrayed in cartoons, stood fully upright.

They also had a bigger brain than Homo sapiens, although most of it was probably devoted to keener senses rather than sharper wit.

Remarkably, Neanderthals were one of the few species to adapt to the Ice Age. They did not, however, survive the emergence of modern humans.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...ike-think.html

[Snowden]

The picture wouldn't go in, so I'll give it one more try!

According to evidence revealed yesterday, our cave-dwelling cousins might not have been quite as thick as we thought.

[conlor]

They didn't survive, or their off-spring evolved?

[Woodmonkey]

Originally Posted by conlor

They didn't survive, or their off-spring evolved?

There's theories, but they don't know for sure.

One is that they interbred with the humans and we all have Neanderthal in us.