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CU DENVER TODAY (HTTP://CUDENVERTODAY.ORG/)

Neanderthals created `new'

technology on their own
More sophisticated than previously thought
David Kelly University Communications
September 21, 2010

DENVER – For decades scientists believed Neanderthals developed `modern’ tools and
ornaments solely through contact with Homo sapiens, but new research from the University of
Colorado Denver now shows these sturdy ancients could adapt, innovate and evolve technology
on their own.

The findings by anthropologist Julien Riel-Salvatore challenge a half-century of conventional

wisdom maintaining that Neanderthals were thick-skulled, primitive `cavemen’ overrun and
outcompeted by more advanced modern humans arriving in Europe from Africa.

“Basically, I am rehabilitating Neanderthals,” said Riel-Salvatore, assistant professor of

anthropology at CU Denver. “They were far more resourceful than we have given them credit for.”

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His research, to be published in December’s Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, was
based on seven years of studying Neanderthal sites throughout Italy, with special focus on the
vanished Uluzzian culture.

About 42,000 years ago, the Aurignacian culture, attributed to modern Homo sapiens, appeared
in northern Italy while central Italy continued to be occupied by Neanderthals of the Mousterian
culture which had been around for at least 100,000 years. At this time a new culture arose in the
south, one also thought to be created by Neanderthals. They were the Uluzzian and they were
very di�erent.

Riel-Salvatore identified projectile points, ochre, bone tools, ornaments and possible evidence of
fishing and small game hunting at Uluzzian archeological sites throughout southern Italy. Such
innovations are not traditionally associated with Neanderthals, strongly suggesting that they
evolved independently, possibly due to dramatic changes in climate. More importantly, they
emerged in an area geographically separated from modern humans.

“My conclusion is that if the Uluzzian is a Neanderthal culture it suggests that contacts with
modern humans are not necessary to explain the origin of this new behavior. This stands in
contrast to the ideas of the past 50 years that Neanderthals had to be acculturated to humans to
come up with this technology,” he said. “When we show Neanderthals could innovate on their
own it casts them in a new light. It `humanizes’ them if you will.”

Thousands of years ago, southern Italy experienced a shi� in climate, becoming increasingly
open and arid, said Riel-Salvatore. Neanderthals living there faced a stark choice of adapting or
dying out. The evidence suggests they began using darts or arrows to hunt smaller game to
supplement the increasingly scarce larger mammals they traditionally hunted.

“The fact that Neanderthals could adapt to new conditions and innovate shows they are
culturally similar to us,” he said. “Biologically they are also similar. I believe they were a
subspecies of human but not a di�erent species.”

The powerfully built Neanderthals were first discovered in Germany’s Neander Valley in 1856.
Exactly who they were, how they lived and why they vanished remains unclear.

Research shows they contributed between 1 and 4 percent of their genetic material to the people
of Asia and Europe. Riel-Salvatore rejects the theory that they were exterminated by modern
humans. Homo sapiens might simply have existed in larger groups and had slightly higher
birthrates, he said.

“It is likely that Neanderthals were absorbed by modern humans,” he said. “My research suggests

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that they were a di�erent kind of human, but humans nonetheless. We are more brothers than
distant cousins.”

The University of Colorado Denver (http://ucdenver.edu/) o�ers more than 120 degrees and
programs in 13 schools and colleges and serves more than 28,000 students. CU Denver is located
on the Denver Campus and the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo. For more information,
visit the CU Denver Newsroom (http://ucdenver.edu/about/newsroom/Pages/Newsroom.aspx).

Contact: David Kelly, 303-315-6374, david.kelly@ucdenver.edu

(mailto:david.kelly@ucdenver.edu)

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WRITTEN BY DAVID KELLY

Contact the author: David.Kelly@ucdenver.edu (mailto:David.Kelly@ucdenver.edu). View more by David Kelly

(http://cudenvertoday.org/author/davidkelly/)

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