Me among the Neanderthals

What could scientists tell about me and my kind in 100,000 years if they found my jawbone and my teeth? Well, my artificial tooth — a crown made of porcelain and metal — would reveal quite a bit about 20th century human technology. Wear on my teeth would show that I used them for little else than chewing food and that I used a toothbrush. Much could be concluded about the type of mostly-cooked plants and animals that I ate. These researchers, hypothetically using 21st century science, could check strontium, lead, and other isotopes in my teeth to see where I have lived; they could also discover I that I was not exposed to nuclear fallout in my earliest years of life.

Such future investigators could see from my teeth that I lived a long time, though not my exact age. When I was younger I used my teeth to bite off sewing thread when I finished a seam, but I had to stop because it felt bad for my teeth — that would no doubt be discernible. My fortunately good health would be apparent, along with a variety of things that my dentist can learn now with x-rays and dental picks. Though by regularly removing the dental calculus accumulated on my teeth, my dentist is destroying a lot of evidence that a future archaeologist could use to know about my habits and my environment. 

If more bones from my skeleton were to turn up, researchers would know how tall I was, how small my brain was, how much I walked in my life, the fact that I am a mother, and my mostly lifelong habit of eating meat. Growth patterns would reveal if I had any times in my early life when I was nutritionally deprived: I don’t think so. Additional facts might emerge from my bones: that I was right-handed, that I spent a lot of time sitting and using a keyboard (or anyway something like it), and more. DNA analysis might go further. Finally, perhaps the future archaeologists would find tools and artifacts from my house and kitchen, and draw still more conclusions.

Kindred

Kindred: published last August.

This strange train of thought comes to me because I’m reading Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes. And from just a tooth of a Neanderthal skeleton, so much can be learned. One of the strangest things that twentieth-century researchers found from examining a Neanderthal’s teeth:

“The chances of archaeologists finding actual toothpicks seems infinitesimal, yet at El Sidrón a conifer wood fragment was embedded in calculus right next to a tooth with pick-grooves.” (p. 71)

But as I implied in my perhaps-bizarre self-analysis, in almost 200 years of studying the remains of Neanderthals, teeth provided a wealth of information. For example: Neandethals would use a stone knife to cut off bits of meat as they ate, and in so doing left scratches on their teeth. Or Neanderthal women, especially, used their teeth in the process of making clothing from animal hides. Or that a particular Neanderthal man had "traces of bitumen in his calculus. The only likely explanation is using his mouth in composite tool manufacture or repair." (pp. 67, 68, 135). 

Of course there’s so much more in the book Kindred! The organization is most interesting, as the book presents the slow discovery and analysis of Neanderthal remains along with what's been learned about them. At first, in the mid-19th century, excavations began to disclose unusual skeletons that were recognized as not-quite-humans. Were those brow ridges a result of pain or worry? Well, no, they were a sign of another species. 

After a while, observers realized that stone tools were showing up along with the skeletons; at first, the Neanderthal workmanship wasn't recognized among all the other stones in the digs. Slowly, closer observation, newly-formed theories of human evolution, and better methods of analysis began to disclose that Neanderthals made amazing tools from flint, obsidian, wood, animal bone, mollusk shells, hides, various adhesives like tree resins, and many other things (but of course no metal).  The author writes: "we must surely now be thinking of Neanderthals as carpenters."  (p. 134). Further study has disclosed that during colder months as well as during recurring ice ages, the Neanderthal wore clothing made from animal hides, especially deer and reindeer hides, the product of hunting and extensive processing of the hides.

The extent of Neanderthal technology implies a social environment that included not only imitation, but also purposeful teaching of skills. Among many examples in Kindred, this clearly illustrates how much we humans have in common with them.

What did Neanderthals eat? 

The variety of animals in the Neanderthal diet was far greater than that of a modern human! They hunted or gathered big animals: even wooly mammoths and predators as big as the cave bear. They speared animals like reindeer, elk, horses, and aurochs, and butchered them effectively, using the bones and hides as well as meat. They trapped or chased-down small animals, gathered shellfish, caught birds, and took birds' eggs. They ate various insects, including parasites, and they found honey when they could. "Neanderthals ate all parts of creatures great and small," (p. 156). 

Although they didn’t make clay pots, the Neanderthal used skulls of large animals or the stomach of their prey to stew meat and vegetables over their hearth fires -- food that evidently was shared among group members. Their diet was rich in meat, though they didn't roast large joints as shown in popularized sources. “Instead of lean meat, the fattiest and most marrow-rich parts were prized to balance high protein intake and as a richer energy source. This means offal was certainly relished: brains are around 60 per cent fat, and grey matter is also full of particular lipids – long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids – vital for health and foetal development.” (p. 148)

The sense of taste in Neanderthals appears, from DNA analysis, to have been similar to that of humans, experiencing, as do humans, "at least five tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, savoury (umami) and potentially another that interestingly seems to detect calcium and fats." In addition, the Neanderthals whose genes were analyzed seem to have had another taste capability, for a chemical that gave them additional sensitivity for sour and bitter:

"This may mean Neanderthals had a higher tolerance for such flavours, and combined with genetic evidence for a wider array of bitter and sour taste perceptions, sampling unfamiliar plants or fermented meats might have been safer for them. The duo of taste and smell combine to produce what we experience as flavour, so it’s even possible that Neanderthals lived in a richer culinary world than ours." (pp. 167-168). 

Above all, the large body size and high levels of activity meant that Neandererthals needed huge quantities of food!

What were their homes like?

Neanderthals moved around a lot, but often seem to have returned to the same cave or other dwelling places year after year, using the same hearths and fastidiously cleaning up their living spaces. They also developed built spaces: roofless shelters made of poles and branches, where they could work on wood, stone, or bone tools, prepare hunted animals for food, and sleep more safely.

Reconstruction of Neanderthal living space at La Folie, France. (p. 382)

What’s most memorable about Neanderthals?

The most difficult part of Neanderthal history to imagine is the enormous time frame in which they lived, and the vastness of their spread throughout the world. Neanderthal sites exist from southern Spain across most of Europe, north into England, and around the Mediterranean to the Middle East, near the Black Sea, and far into Asia, extending to sites in Russia, Siberia, and Uzbekistan. They left their traces on earth for hundreds of thousands of years, from approximately half-a-million years ago until around 40,000 years ago. They lived side by side with other hominids including humans, Denisovans, and others, and interbred with them.

Map of European Neanderthal sites from Encyclopedia Britannica. Though mostly very good,
Kindred lacks areally good map showing the geography of the Neanderthals.
This is from 2007 so may be slightly dated.

Neanderthals lived through several ice ages and alternative times of hotter climate. We know them from bones and hearths in their caves, and from footprints, such as those at a site called Le Rozel, where there are hundreds of prints from around 80,000 years ago. Further:

“The oldest known Neanderthal prints were left more than 250,000 years before those at Le Rozel. On the slopes of the extinct Roccamonfina volcano, southern Italy, they were believed to be the Devil’s tracks after being revealed by eighteenth-century landslides.” (p. 233)

It's also impressive that individual Neanderthals often walked long distances on a regular basis.  Neanderthal society was organized into bands of perhaps 25 individuals that seasonally traveled across large territories, intentionally following the path of game animals and collecting good stone for their tools and hunting weapons. Socializing: meeting with other bands and finding mates, might also have motivated such travel. To support their needs on these treks, they appear to have made animal-hide bags in which they could carry their bedding and some food.

Could Neanderthals talk? Did they tell stories or memorialize their history? Did they wear jewelry or create art objects? Did they build structures? Could they count or do arithmetic? Did they have rites to commemorate deaths? Bury the bodies of their dead? While Kindred  concludes that the Neanderthals probably performed these actions to some extent, the evidence is not as perfectly convincing as for some of the other features of their lives. 

"If Neanderthals found some things beautiful, is it possible to know what – or who – they loved? Even what terrified them? Once again this is a balancing act, teetering between the solidity of the archaeological record and the possibilities that spin off from it."(p. 266). 

We have a lot to learn about these people! And yet: “The incredible details now amassed about Neanderthals are so far beyond the dreams of pioneer prehistorians, they verge on science fiction. Yet fully reconstructing the rich tapestry of their lives – seeing not just the threads, but the weave – is formidably hard.” (p. 173)

Review by mae sander for mae food dot blogspot dot com. © 2021. Images as credited.