posted
Sorry Mathilda and co. but it doesn't seem likely that your intelligent Neanderthal dreams will be met, he might have just been a dumb dumb after all...
Tell John Hawkes its over.
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Chronology of the Grotte du Renne (France) and implications for the context of ornaments and human remains within the Châtelperronian
There is extensive debate concerning the cognitive and behavioral adaptation of Neanderthals, especially in the period when the earliest anatomically modern humans dispersed into Western Europe, around 35,000–40,000 B.P. The site of the Grotte du Renne (at Arcy-sur-Cure) is of great importance because it provides the most persuasive evidence for behavioral complexity among Neanderthals. A range of ornaments and tools usually associated with modern human industries, such as the Aurignacian, were excavated from three of the Châtelperronian levels at the site, along with Neanderthal fossil remains (mainly teeth). This extremely rare occurrence has been taken to suggest that Neanderthals were the creators of these items. Whether Neanderthals independently achieved this level of behavioral complexity and whether this was culturally transmitted or mimicked via incoming modern humans has been contentious. At the heart of this discussion lies an assumption regarding the integrity of the excavated remains. One means of testing this is by radiocarbon dating; however, until recently, our ability to generate both accurate and precise results for this period has been compromised. A series of 31 accelerator mass spectrometry ultrafiltered dates on bones, antlers, artifacts, and teeth from six key archaeological levels shows an unexpected degree of variation. This suggests that some mixing of material may have occurred, which implies a more complex depositional history at the site and makes it difficult to be confident about the association of artifacts with human remains in the Châtelperronian levels.
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posted
(Nov. 1, 2010) — The theory that later Neanderthals might have been sufficiently advanced to fashion jewellery and tools similar to those of incoming modern humans has suffered a setback. A new radiocarbon dating study, led by Oxford University, has found that an archaeological site that uniquely links Neanderthal remains to sophisticated tools and jewellery may be partially mixed.
The study, published in the early online version of the journal PNAS, suggests that the position of key finds in the archaeological layers of the Grotte du Renne at Arcy-sur-Cure in France may not be trustworthy. The research team, from the UK and France, dated material from the site and discovered their radiocarbon ages were extremely variable and did not correspond with the expected sequence indicated by the excavated archaeological layers. The Grotte du Renne has 15 archaeological layers, covering a depth of about four metres spanning periods from the Mousterian to the Gravettian periods.
For decades scholars have debated the extent of cognitive and behavioural development in Neanderthals before they disappeared from Europe about 30,000 years ago. Neanderthals are the most recent, extinct modern human relative. We have a common ancestor from around 700,000-800,000 years ago and recent work in decoding the Neanderthal genome shows we share between one to four per cent of their DNA.
One pivotal period is around 35,000-40,000 years ago when the earliest modern humans dispersed into Western Europe. Finds made in the 1950s and 1960s at the Grotte du Renne site have provided persuasive evidence to suggest either that Neanderthals developed a more modern type of behaviour before modern human dispersal, developing their own complex ornaments and tools, or that they mimicked the behaviour of the modern humans that they encountered after their arrival. Over the years the site has yielded 29 Neanderthal teeth and a piece of ear bone from a Neanderthal skull in the same archaeological levels as rings made of ivory, awls, bone points, pierced animal teeth, shell and ivory pendants. The finds were recovered from three archaeological levels (VII, IX, X) associated with the Châtelperronian industry, a tool culture thought to have evolved from the earlier Neanderthal, Mousterian industry.
For this study, researchers from the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit analysed 59 remains of cut-marked bones, horse teeth smashed by humans, awls, ornaments fashioned from animal teeth and mammoth ivory tusks from six key archaeological levels of the site. They included the three Châtelperronian levels (VIII, IX and X) and the Aurignacian level with material derived from modern humans in level VII. Thirty-one new radiocarbon dates were obtained: the oldest material in the Aurignacian level was dated at around 35,000 years ago, but when the researchers dated materials from the lower Châtelperronian levels they discovered many of the ages were hugely variable, with some much younger and several at about the same age as dates from the Aurignacian level. The most serious chronological problems were in the oldest part of the Châtelperronian layer (X) where more than a third of the radiocarbon ages were outside the ranges expected.
Lead author Dr Thomas Higham, Deputy Director of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, said: 'Our results confirm that material has moved up and down and is out of sequence in the Châtelperronian levels. We think that there has probably been some physical disturbance which has disrupted the proper sequence of the layers. This means that any chronological interpretation from this site should be viewed with extreme caution.
'Our study raises questions about the link between Neanderthals and the tools and jewellery found in the Châtelperronian levels. This site is one of only two in the French Palaeolithic that seems to show a link between ornaments and Neanderthal remains. This has previously been interpreted as indicating that Neanderthals were not intellectually inferior to modern people but possessed advanced cognition and behaviour. Our work says there is a big question mark over whether this link exists.'Posts: 6572 | From: N.Y.C....Capital of the World | Registered: Jun 2008
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So much for the racialists' theory that cold climates select positively for intelligence. Modern man's intellect really is an African development.
posted
Well, the analysts here are essentially saying the jury is out on the said connections between the Neanderthals and Châtelperronian layer X, but you see what is happening here:
One pivotal period is around 35,000-40,000 years ago when the earliest modern humans dispersed into Western Europe.
Very Eurocentric, in light of all the discoveries to date...something that I've stressed time and again.
Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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Wow your theories are so brilliant, can we get your autograph? -
Indigenous Average IQ
quote:Originally posted by Truthcentric: So much for the racialists' theory that cold climates select positively for intelligence. Modern man's intellect really is an African development.
I.Q-The Typical Strawman cop out..lol
Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
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posted
I love that Genetics is the Noose around the neck of folks like Non Prophet. I love seeing Biology/Genetics experts like Mind and explorer put the heat on folks like Non Prophet..HAHAHA
Thanks for posting the Neaderthal Studies mind, You and Explorer keep E.S logical..
Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
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posted
Spencer Wells and other Geneticists claim that Modern Man who evolved in Africa was fully evolved and Human, I think that destoys the Cold Adaption Intelligence theory at the Head..the fact that A. Egypt, A. Nubia, Mesopotamia etc. were created mainly by Tropical adapted humans cuts that off at the heels..
Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
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posted
The point was not to show that the colder climates doesn't produce increased intelligence (which has been shown elsewhere), but rather that Neanderthal, (whom a lot of dissenters rely on to try and claim descent from, especially due to the recent finds in question above, instead of accepting they ultimately trace back to Africa) most likely wasn't as smart as recently thought.
Posts: 6572 | From: N.Y.C....Capital of the World | Registered: Jun 2008
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quote:Originally posted by MindoverMatter718: The point was not to show that the colder climates doesn't produce increased intelligence (which has been shown elsewhere), but rather that Neanderthal, (whom a lot of dissenters rely on to try and claim descent from, especially due to the recent finds in question above, instead of accepting they ultimately trace back to Africa) most likely wasn't as smart as recently thought.
weren't as smart
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