Report Says Neandertals Traded with Modern Humans

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Neandertals Traded with Cro-Magnons
The following report is from a June 1996 article in the Encarta Yearbook.




Scientists reported in the May 16, 1996, issue of the journal Nature that later Neandertals likely interacted, perhaps even traded goods, with Cro-Magnons, their anatomically modern human neighbors. Researchers in Arcy-sur-Cure, France, 35 km (22 mi) southeast of Auxerre, said they found hominid fossils alongside bone and ivory jewelry nearly identical to artifacts attributed to anatomically modern humans.

The fossils were found in Arcy-sur-Cure long ago, but scientists could not determine to which human species the bones belonged. The shape of the inner ear gave anthropologists a clue that the 34,000-year-old fossil remains found decades ago were from a Neandertal, not a modern human. The ear morphology may also shed light on the relationship of Neandertals to humans of today.

The ornaments found at the Arcy site included a bone ring, grooved animal teeth, and animal claws with small holes made at one end, presumably so they could be strung on a cord and hung around the neck. They resemble jewelry found at sites in northern Spain and central and southwestern France where Cro-Magnons lived. Anthropologists Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Musée de l'Homme in Paris, France, and Fred Spoor of University College in London, England, the coauthors of the report, concluded that the presence of jewelry at the Arcy site nearly identical to jewelry at the Cro-Magnon sites indicated that Neandertals probably traded with Cro-Magnons rather than imitated the style of their contemporary neighbors. The resemblance was too close in appearance to nearby Cro-Magnon finds for imitation, they believe. Anatomically modern humans first arrived in Europe about 40,000 years ago.

The relationship of Neandertals to modern humans has long been a topic of scientific debate. The fossil record suggests Neandertals disappeared from 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. Neandertal characteristics differ most obviously from anatomically modern humans in the formation of the skull and face. The Neandertal had a sloping forehead, no chin, protruding browridges, large teeth, and strong jaw muscles. The brains of Neandertals were slightly larger than those of modern humans. Aside from the face, the Neandertals had thicker bones and larger musculature, long bodies and short legs. Some of the Neandertal's features, especially body proportion, were cold-weather adaptations similar to those developed by modern people living in arctic conditions, such as the Inuit.

Hublin and Spoor used high-resolution, computerized X rays to scrutinize a temporal (side) bone from the skull of a one-year-old Neandertal. They found that the ear canals-known as the labyrinth-within the bone were distinctly different in size and location from the same bone in Homo erectus, an early human ancestor, and anatomically modern humans. The labyrinth consists of three hollow rings and is involved in maintaining balance.

Some scientists classify the Neandertal as a separate species, Homo neanderthalensis. Because the features of the Neandertal's labyrinth do not exist in modern humans, the scientists believe that the muscular hominid belongs to a separate species, or at least is not an ancestor of modern humans. Some experts believe that Neandertals evolved from archaic Homo sapiens into an evolutionary dead end. Other researchers have speculated that later Neandertals may have interbred with Cro-Magnons, but Hublin argues that his new evidence does not support that theory. In their report to Nature, Hubin and Spoor said their findings do not show any trend toward more modern human characteristics.

Source: Encarta Yearbook, June 1996.