#mousterian

[covenawhite66]

Archaeologists report anomalous collection of animal skulls by Neanderthals in Spain

***

On level 3 – the key find was 35 crania of large herbivores, all from species with antlers or horns. Most were from aurochs and bison; five were deer; and two were narrow-nosed rhinoceroses (a now-extinct species that liked the same terrain as said vole before going extinct about 40,000 years ago

The archaeologists didn’t find the animals’ jaws and teeth in the cave. However, over a third of the crania they did find still had their antlers or horns, as well as the eye and nose bones. They were missing their cheekbones, though

Scientists speculate why with no consensus on the reason.

A symbolic Neanderthal accumulation of large herbivore crania - Nature Human Behaviour

During the Last Ice Age, Neanderthals used a small cave in the Iberian Peninsula to accumulate the crania of large ungulates (bison, aurochs

This work examines the possible behaviour of Neanderthal groups at the Cueva Des-Cubierta (central Spain) via the analysis of the latter’s archaeological assemblage. Alongside evidence of Mousterian lithic industry.

Level 3 of the cave infill was found to contain an assemblage of mammalian bone remains dominated by the crania of large ungulates, some associated with small hearths. The scarcity of post-cranial elements, teeth, mandibles and maxillae, along with evidence of anthropogenic modification of the crania (cut and percussion marks), indicates that the carcasses of the corresponding animals were initially processed outside the cave, and the crania were later brought inside.

This behaviour seems to have no subsistence-related purpose but to be more symbolic in its intent.

[jessica-drewz]

Dawns rise high over the cliffs, and the green tinges the branches when her people feel the urge to move again. The furred who live nearby have grown wary, leave no prints to follow. The tiny body that she pushed herself inside out to birth stayed thin, sucked only weakly. Eventually it stopped, went rigid like dried tendon. Yet still she carried it, as skin shrank around stick-limbs and stretched over shoulder blades. Now the group gathers things to leave, and she feels the pull to join them. But putting down her burden is frightening. Inhaling her infant’s heady birthsmell, still caught in its dark hair, she crouches at the shelter edge. The clutched bundle is lowered to the ground, and for the first time lies apart from her body. The others approach curiously, reach out to prod, pull, stroke; to know. Yet beasts will come later and this precious thing must be protected. She scoops a hollow, slides the already dusty form down, covers it. Embraced by the soft dirt full of their stony leavings, she draws back and joins the people to walk on.

Skies flicker as the days, years, centuries pass. Soils condense and hold the delicate bones tight. Others come and go above but eventually the vibrations of footfalls stop. Even icy tendrils from heart-aching cold cannot penetrate to the tiny skeleton. Tens of thousands more winters, then deep thumpings murmur downwards. The weight lessens. Voices come: new people are building a house, where none have lived for so long. Patten-shod feet clatter up and down wooden stairs over the small remains, a lullaby of life above death. In a blink the house too is gone, then sediments shiver and shift as hands pull at the dirt. Clods crumble, and a chink of early summer sunlight gazes at the white shatter of eggshell-thin skull. A voice shouts out, ‘Arrête! Os!’ Rough yet gentle hands -  like those that last touched this lonely little one - reach down, after so long, to pick it up.

-Moving description of the Neanderthal infant burial discovered at Le Moustier rockshelter from Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes

[mostly-history]

Middle Paleolithic “bout-coupé” hand-axe, found on field surface in Hampshire (England).  The flat base indicates a Neanderthal origin.  30 – 40,000 years old.

[lindahall]

Gabriel de Mortillet – Scientist of the Day

Louis-Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet, a French archaeologist, was born Aug. 29, 1821.

read more...

[fuckyeaharchaeology]

Paleolithic Tools Suggest the Possibility of Seafaring Neanderthals

 A group of Mousterian stone tools excavated from the Stelida Archeological site on the Greek island of Naxos. suggest that our hominid relatives, the Neanderthals, reached the island by boat at least 250,000 years ago. 

Archaeologists have long believed that the first people to colonize the Aegean region were early farmers who arrived by boat approximately 9,000 years ago. Sea voyaging supposed to be an indicator of “behavioural modernity,” the suite of capabilities that distinguishes us from our primitive, now-extinct human cousins and from primates. If the stone tools’ dates are confirmed, it will mean that the first people on Naxos were Neanderthals, who arrived over 200,000 years earlier than the previously believed date. More importantly, however, the discovery will require anthropologists to revise their beliefs on the capabilities of our hominin ancestors as well as our understanding of how they thought and behaved. 

The Stelida excavation team, led by Tristan Carter of McMaster University, are currently awaiting optically stimulated luminescence testing on soil deposits. Earlier lab testing, however, confirmed that some of the artifacts at Stelida date to at least 50,000 years ago. Other evidence from Crete, Cyprus, and even Indonesia are challenging the paradigm that only modern humans were seafarers.   

You can read more about The Stélida Naxos Archaeological Project here.

Some of the tools from Stelida have been 3D printed. You can view them here.

[inspofromancientworld]

Stone Tools: Levallois-Mousterian

By Gary Todd - CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=78735177

Created from about 300,000-40,000 years ago by Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans, the Levallois-Mousterian, or Mode 3, tool culture was the primary tool making style of the Middle Paleolithic. It provides even more control over the shape and size of the resultant flakes and made use of the greater dexterity and hand strength of these more recent hominins, with the Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans producing nearly indistinguishable types of points

Another name for this particular tool making technique is prepared-core technique as it requires that the core be shaped into the desired end shape before flakes are then knapped off the core. This allowed for smaller points to be produced, which would have required greater hand strength to use. These smaller points also allowed for them to be used for projectile points. It also allowed for more of the core to be used for points.

By Gary Todd - CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=78728779

Whether the technique developed in one area, such as Africa, and spread through Eurasia, or whether it developed independently in multiple locations is uncertain at this point in time. A comparison of points from various places shows a 'complex pre-planning and recognition of an "ideal form"' and that the efficiency of the technique indicates 'that the mobility of prehistoric people was higher', allowing people to travel more per core due to it 'generat[ing] the longest cutting edge per weight of raw material'.

There has been some disagreement among archaeologists about defining Levallois-Mousterian technology, so five specific criteria were developed for identifying points. These are: the volume of the core is exploited along two intersecting planes; there is a specific surface for striking and one where the flakes are removed by that striking; the surface that the flakes come from is pre-shaped and a 'function of the lateral and distal convexities on the surface'; the fracture plane where the points are removed are 'sub-parallel to the plane of intersection of the two surfaces'; the striking platform is retouched or faceted as needed to continue removing points.

Because this technique isn't obvious, it requires the producer to to be able to think several steps ahead and evaluate the material for the best possible usage. It is also 'counterintuitive', possibly an indication that verbal instructions were needed to pass it on, though a study found 'modern h umans could be taught the Levallois technique non-verbally at a similar level of effectiveness to verbal teaching'.

[randomtangle]

Warfare Wednesday: Stone Tools

To start Warfare Wednesdays, I’m going to take it back to 3.3-3.2 million years ago to with Kenyanthropus platyops, the earliest known tool-making hominid.

So, stone tools. They are grouped by archaeologists into industries. Grahame Clark grouped the industries into a sequence in their evolution, from Mode I to Mode V. Let’s take a look!

Pre-Mode I

“Aha!” You cry, thinking you’ve caught me slipping up my act. “This isn’t Mode 1!” And you’re right. It predates it. In fact, it predates humanity. How does that work? Because Kenyanthropus platyops existed.

This crusty old skull is responsible for these little guys:

Weapons! Or, erm, tools, heheh. Flint flakes (yum!) made with knapping by use of a lithic core and a hammerstone. Sounds complicated but it’s literally hitting two rocks together. But you wanted human tools. Lets get to those.

Mode I: Oldowan Industry

Pictured above is a drawing of an Oldowan chopping tool. The industry is named after the sites in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, where mass amounts of these tools were discovered. They are identified primarily by their core forms; simple river rocks. They were struck by spherical hammerstones, as shown by their conchoidal fractures (the way brittle materials fracture following no natural planes of separation). They were held proximally and brought down upon their foestargets. They are believed to have been manufactured by either Australopithecus garhi or Homo habilis.

Mode II: Acheulean Industry

The Acheulean industry is named after the site in Saint-Acheul, France, where early human has lived since at least the time these tools were manufactured. They are notable by their bifacial quality and amygdaloidal (almond-shaped) shape. Most famous are the hand axes. Taking a look at Mode I compared to Mode II, the upgrade in quality it clear. Oldowan tools are cruder and simply one sharp edge on a rock, while Acheulean tools are more deliberate and thoughtfully manufactured. Due to their lack of a haft, they were probably not used for killing, but instead butchering. It should be noted that in folklore, tools such as these have been called thunderstones and kept as amulets, based off of the belief that they arose where lightning had struck.

Mode III: Mousterian Industry

The Mousterian industry is named after Le Moustier in France, where examples were first discovered in the 1860s. They feature usage of the Levallois technique of knapping around a core (called a “tortoise core”, above) in the shape of the desired tool and subsequently separating it. (Pictured below). it is also known as “prepared core technique”.

This allowed for smaller and sharper tools formed from the flaked tools. Just see for yourself!

Mode IV: Aurignacian Industry

The Aurignacian industry, named after Aurignac, France, is notable for its blades instead of flakes. We start to see daggers and killing weapons. It’s also notable there was a rise in bone and antler tools, but we’re not talking about those here.

Mode V: Microlithic Industry

The Microlithic was by far the most advanced and varied. Long, geometrical tools, such as the harpoon depicted above (left) and trapezoidal ones (right) are just two examples of what the microlithic contained. These are your spear points and arrowheads. Finally approaching something that seems almost modern, if it were made of metal. (That’s foreshadowing.)

I hope you found this interesting! Thank you for reading!

[anthropologyadventures]

Convergent Evidence of Eagle Talons Used by Late Neanderthals in Europe: A Further Assessment on Symbolism

Abstract

To contribute to have a better understanding of the symbolic or not use of certain items by Neanderthals, this work presents new evidence of the deliberate removal of raptor claws occurred in Mediterranean Europe during the recent phases of the Mousterian. Rio Secco Cave in the north-east of Italy and Mandrin Cave in the Middle Rhône valley have recently produced two golden eagle pedal phalanges from contexts not younger than 49.1–48.0 ky cal BP at Rio Secco and dated around 50.0 ky cal BP at Mandrin. The bones show cut-marks located on the proximal end ascribable to the cutting of the tendons and the incision of the cortical organic tissues. Also supported by an experimental removal of large raptor claws, our reconstruction explains that the deliberate detachment occurred without damaging the claw, in a way comparable at a general level with other Mousterian contexts across Europe. After excluding that these specimens met the nutritional requirements for human subsistence, we discuss the possible implications these findings perform in our current knowledge of the European Middle Palaeolithic context.

On one hand I'm not sure that this is convincing evidence of symbolic behavior.  On the other hand, I'm not sure why we are still debating whether or not Neanderthals displayed symbolic behavior - because of course they did.  Any thoughts?