Neanderthal and the Upper Paleolithic

There is a strong belief that Neanderthals did not invent the early upper
paleolithic tools which presaged the explosion of art etc. Most
anthropologists have held that that anatomically modern man brought the new
tools into Europe and wiped out the poor Neanderthal. There are several
problems with this idea.

One of the earliest upper Paleolithic site is found in the last refuge of
the Neanderthals—Spain. And 14 out of 16 of the earliest European
Aurignacian sites(>37,000 years) are well away from the Middle East with NO
Aurignacian sites found in the Middle East—the presumable route it was
supposed to have come into Europe. Four of these early sites are in Spain, 2
in the French Pyrenees, 4 in Austria/Germany including Geissenklosterle
almost to the North Sea Coast and two are in northern Italy. This is NOT the
distribution one would expect from invaders bringing a wonderful new
technology with which to destroy the Neanderthals. Indeed, NO anatomically
modern human remains have been found with these early tools. Who made them
is an assumption. The only place any diagnostic human remains were found in
early association with upper Paleolithic was at Vindija at the G1 level. The
remains were Neanderthal!

Then there has been the controversial Neanderthal bones found in the G1
(Upper Paleolithic) level at Vindija Cave, Hungary. Most have ignored this
data point as an anomaly. This month, the Journal of Human Evolution has
published the results of more excavation at Vindija G1 level.

The abstract says:

"Six of the new hominid fossils derive from stratigraphic units G and I,
while one lacks exact provenience. All specimens preserving diagnostic
anatomy are from Neandertals. One of the postcranial remains, a radius
fragment which exhibits Neandertal-like anatomy, comes from level G1and is
congruent with the previously established association of Neandertals with an
early Upper Paleolithic industry at the site. The partial cranial vault
represents the most complete Neandertal from Vindija. " Ahern et al, "New
discoveries and interpretations of hominid fossils and artifacts from
Vindija Cave, Croatia ", Jour. Human Evoluion, Volume 46, Issue 1 , January
2004, Pages 25-65
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WJS-4B8BM0M-2&_co
verDate=01%2F31%2F2004&_alid=137094256&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_qd=1&_cdi
=6886&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md
5=103e0c2a8fa73d237df90bdabf77bebf

The following from a Dec. 18, Nature shows the reasoning which is used to
rule Neanderthals out of the running for inventing the Upper Paleolithic.

"Because most Aurignacian deposits have produced no diagnostic human
remains, there is no proof as to which hominid created these assemblages.
If, however, one assumes that modern humans produced these assemblages, the
Aurignacian of Swabia suggests an early migration of modern humans along the
Danube Corridor into the interior of the continent. " Nicolas J. Conard,
Nature 426, 830 - 832, p. 831

Since we have no data of modern humans with the earliest Aurignacian, we
assume that that is what happened.

It seems to me that the Neanderthals might have been smarter than most
think.
Received on Mon Dec 29 13:43:51 2003