Anthropology: “Neanderthals’ Last Stand Possibly Found”
“Neanderthals’ Last Stand Possibly Found”
by Jennifer Viegas
by Jennifer Viegas
“A Neanderthal-style toolkit found in the frigid far north of Russia's Ural Mountains dates to 33,000 years ago and may mark the last refuge of Neanderthals before they went extinct, according to a new Science study. Another possibility is that anatomically modern humans crafted the hefty tools using what's known as Mousterian technology associated with Neanderthals, but anthropologists believe that's unlikely. "We consider it overwhelmingly probable that the Mousterian technology we describe was performed by Neanderthals, and thus that they indeed survived longer, that is until 33,000 years ago, than most other scientists believe," co-author Jan Mangerud, a professor emeritus in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bergen and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, told Discovery News.
Slimak, a University of Toulouse le Mirail anthropologist, Mangerud, and their colleagues made the determinations after analyzing hundreds of stone artifacts and remains of woolly rhinoceros, reindeer, musk ox, brown bear, wolf and polar fox unearthed at a site called Byzovaya in the western foothills of the Polar Urals. Dates were obtained for sand at the site as well as for some of the bones, many of which "have cut marks that indicate processing by humans," according to the researchers.
Even though Neanderthals may have disappeared from other locations throughout Europe and Asia, Slimak argues they likely persisted in this remote area near the Arctic Circle. Since conditions in the region were harsh even then, Slimak believes only strong individuals existing in a well-ordered, savvy group could have survived there. The Neanderthals may have been gradually absorbed into the population of anatomically modern humans via interbreeding and replacement. As Mangerud explained, "Probably modern humans ousted the Neanderthals." Slimak likens this to what happened to earlier populations from the Americas. "In a bit more than 500 years, what will remain of the traditional native societies in America? Just imagine what will remain of these impressive cultures, or their territories, during the next millennium," he said.
Recently another study concluded that Neanderthals might have died out earlier than thought and not interacted much with our species, but Neanderthal expert Erik Trinkaus told Discovery News that study "says nothing about possible late Neanderthals in the periphery of cul-de-sacs of western and northern Europe," and therefore does not discount this latest finding. Trinkaus, a professor of physical anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, thinks the Neanderthal-attributed tools from Russia are "very interesting in terms of people being that far north during the Middle Paleolithic."
- http://news.discovery.com/
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