National Geographic has a story up concerning the question.
The story concerns Cioclovina 1 - a skull discovered in 1942 and recently reanalyzed by a group that includes Erik Trinkaus. The group argues that the skull displays nuchal morphology found only in Neanderthals, along with some derived modern human features. (via Afarensis)
So, were Neanderthals our enemies or lovers?
One difficulty in working out how these ancient humans rubbed along is that there is a lack of clear evidence of close encounters. That changed two years ago when a paper was published by Prof Paul Mellars, of Cambridge University, and his student Brad Gravina, suggesting the two kinds of human lived together at Grotte des Fees at Chatelperron in France.??
The study was criticised but the Cambridge team published a detailed rebuttal. “The importance of the new paper is that it confirms at least 2,000 years of coexistence/overlap between Neanderthals and modern humans in this one small region,” said Prof Mellars. “This is the only direct, unambiguous evidence of this so far.” (via GNXP)
One Response to “Good Times with Neanderthals?”rss
Ian Adams, on August 3rd, 2007, said:
The unraveling of the Neanderthal mystery has been something that’s intrigued me since I was a little kid. It’s worth noting, however, that according to DNA Neanderthals and Humans didn’t interbreed. My hunch is that we were enemies. Human brains clearly display in-group/out-group behaviour, and Neanderthals would have almost definitely been perceived as an out-group. It’ll be exciting if we ever really find out the answer, though. :D
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