Researchers say there is no evidence that modern humans’ cognitive superiority led to demise of Neanderthals Scientists have concluded that Neanderthals were not the primitive dimwits they are commonly portrayed to have been. The view of Neanderthals as club-wielding brutes is one of the most enduring stereotypes in science, but researchers who trawled the archaeological evidence say […]
Species now thought to have held out alongside modern humans in Europe for thousands of years but extent of mixing is unclear Modern humans and Neanderthals may have coexisted in Europe for more than 5,000 years, providing ample time for the two species to meet and mix, according to new research. Using new carbon dating techniques and […]
More than 4,000 years ago in Egypt, dozens of men who died of terrible wounds were mummified and entombed together in the cliffs near Luxor. Mass burials were exceptionally rare in ancient Egypt — so why did all these mummies end up in the same place? Recently, archaeologists visited the mysterious Tomb of the Warriors […]
Study adds weight to claims that stereotype of knuckle-headed Neanderthals is wrong Neanderthals went diving for shells to turn into tools, according to new research, suggesting our big-browed cousins made more use of the sea than previously thought. The study focuses on 171 shell tools that were found in a now inaccessible coastal cave in central […]
Archaeologists digging at an early hominin site in China have discovered two engraved bone fragments that date back nearly 115,000 years. The two weathered bone fragments were found at the site of Lingjing in Xuchang county of China’s Henan province. The specimens were examined by Dr. Francesco d’Errico from the Universities of Bordeaux and Bergen and his […]
In a study published June 25 in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, an international team of researchers reports lesions observed on two fallow deer skeletons from Neumark-Nord, Germany, unearthed during excavations of 120,000-year-old lake shore deposits with traces of Neanderthal presence. A detailed analysis of the lesions demonstrates that they resulted from the close-range use of thrusting […]
Shell fishing was a common activity of Neanderthals, according to new research led by University of Colorado, Boulder archaeologists. In 1949, archaeologists working at the site of Grotta dei Moscerini, a cave in the Latium region of central Italy, found a large collection of unusual artifacts: 171 shells of the smooth clam (Callista chione) that Neanderthals had […]
Human evolution expert Prof Chris Stringer has studied the Neanderthal throughout his entire career. Here he tells us what scientists discovered about the lifestyle, distinctive features and what these early humans looked like. We know more facts about Neanderthals than extinct humans. Thousands of artifacts and fossils have been found, including nearly completed skeletons. We […]
