Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Somewhere the Geico cavemen are rejoicing.
The common perception of Neanderthals is that they were technically inferior to Stone Age humans. However, the recent discovery of a Neanderthal-era, multi-purpose bone tool at an archaeological site in France is causing scientists to think otherwise.
The tool, which was described in a recent edition of the French-language journal Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, was found last summer by a team of University of Montreal researchers during an annual dig at the Grotte du Bison at Arcy-sur-Cure in Burgundy, France.
In a statement, the university described the tool as “extremely well preserved” even though it’s estimated to be between 55,000 and 60,000 years old. The researchers explained it was fashioned from the left femur of an adult reindeer.
In order to determine how it was used, the team examined wearing and chipping patterns, and found evidence of meat butchering and bone fracturing for marrow extraction. Certain marks suggested that it was used to sharpen other stone tools. Chipping and the degree of polish show it was also used as a scraper.
“This is the first time a multi-purpose bone tool from this period has been discovered,” said Luc Doyon, a member of the university’s Department of Anthropology who participated in the July digs. “It proves that Neanderthals were able to understand the mechanical properties of bone and knew how to use it to make tools, abilities usually attributed to our species, Homo sapiens.”
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The production and use of bone tools by Neanderthals has been hotly debated for much of the last century. Experts were reluctant to acknowledge that the species was capable of incorporating bone and other materials into their technological repertoire.
However, over the past 20 years, researchers have found several pieces of evidence which seem to suggest that Neanderthals used hard materials obtained from animals. Doyon said that his team’s findings are, “an additional indicator of bone work by Neanderthals and helps put into question the linear view of the evolution of human behavior.
“The presence of this tool at a context where stone tools are abundant suggests an opportunistic choice of the bone fragment and its intentional modification into a tool by Neanderthals,” he added. “It was long thought that before Homo sapiens, other species did not have the cognitive ability to produce this type of artifact. This discovery reduces the presumed gap between the two species and prevents us from saying that one was technically superior to the other.”
Editor’s Note: Initially this article had included “(They weren’t as stupid as we thought)” in the title, and a reference to Neanderthals’ intellectual inferiority in the second paragraph. The original article cites them as being “technically inferior,” which we’ve changed it to read. Newer research also suggests Neanderthals were on par with modern humans in intelligence.
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