Where did the Neanderthals time peirod
Pleistocene era (Ice Age)
Pleistocene
began 1.8 mya and consisted of frequent build up and retreating of continental ice sheets
An unstable climate overtime period
4 major cycles
ice sheets based on features in landscape (initially geologist)
Additional evidence
core drilled from the ocean floor or glacial advance and retreat (many glacial and interglacial)
Gran Dolina
Bose site
hand axes and other tools in China 800,000 years ago
Acheulian site in Israel
evidence of cracking nuts for consumption 780,000 years ago
Eurasia
acheulian sites common across Europe and the Middle East and India 500,00 years ago
Beeches Pit Site
England provides evidence of a concentration of charred bones and stool tools that dates to 400,000 years ago
Unique wooden spear
In Germany date to 400,000 years ago
Artwork or ritual behavior
pebble with a design from 230,000 years ago in Israel
shell with grid design in Indonesia dating from 540,000-430,000 years ago
Special treatment for the dead
found in Spain to 300,000 years ago
small crevice opening
27 hominin individuals were too small for carnivores to drag them in
- Single quartz hand axe no evidence of burial and one skull had 2 blows to the upper forehead
2 major questions
3 possible scenarios for a common ancestor of mondern humans and Neanderthals
Neanderthal skeleton
Mitochondrial DNA
1999 Neanderthal fossil from Croatia
When did the sepration happen
Neaderthal (was a small group) and modern humans separated about 650,000 years ago
Denisovans
another groups found in a coave in Siberia that was genetically distince from Neatherthals and monder humans ( but neanerthals bones also found in same cave)
Oldest neanderthals skelntans
Nothern France (175,000 years) Eastern Germany (250,000 -200,000)
Mediterranean-climates woodlands
Grasslands
neanderthals lived from Western Europe to central Asia and the middle east
Middle Paleolithic
Stone tools
- rarely made handaxes and their stone tools were divers throughout the region
- toolmaking was highly sophisticated (learn behavior)
- ware on teeth reveals Neanderthal used their teeth as a third hand
Hunting
- a large number of animal carcasses provides evidence of a large game
- tools such as spears found in Germany hunted large game, bison
Coast Gibraltar exploitation fish, shellfish and other marine resources have been found as well but
Diet
- bone chemistry Belgium, France, and Croatia (meat eaters)
97% of the Neanderthal diets, but plants were also consumed
- toothpicks used on teeth has also been verified
- plants also may have been consumed for medical uses
Site Organization and use of fire
base camps (sheltered location to which meat and other resources would have been brought for consumption
Treatment of the dead
Kebara cave
- no evidence of disturbance by scavengers on a full corpse
Amud cave
- an infant was buried with the upper jaw of a read dear (no other specimen were found at the site)