I.1.B. “Acting like Neanderthals” by Mike Williams

I.1.B. “Acting like Neanderthals” by Mike Williams

Neanderthals were the first Europeans, occupying the continent from 300,000, possibly even 400,000, years ago, until the last one perished around 28,000 years ago. The landscape they inhabited was one of wildly fluctuating temperatures. Physically adapted to cope with the Ice Age — which affected Europe for much of the time they were around — they had bodies far more suited to a cold environment than ours. Their frames were stocky with short limbs to conserve heat, their noses were large and flared to warm and humidify the cold air that they breathed. But Neanderthals also had to deal with sudden periods of warming and even, on occasions, sub-tropical environments. During the last inter-glacial (the warmer period between Ice Ages) between 128,000 and 118,000 years ago, there were even hippos basking in sunny southern England. Sudden climate change was nothing new to the Neanderthals and, overall, they coped with it remarkably well.

When we consider that homo sapiens has only been around for a fraction of the time the Neanderthals lived in Europe, we realise that they must have been supremely adapted to their world. Even their brains were larger than ours but size is not everything and it is unlikely that the Neanderthal brain had the myriad of neural connections that are contained in a modern human brain. Crucially, these connections are vital for advanced intelligence.

Our brains contain a central processor as well as many sub-domains. One sub-domain might relate to sociability, another to technicality, while another may relate to living in the environment. We can easily join up these sub-domains so that we can effortlessly think about buying an umbrella (technical sub-domain) to cheer up Uncle Fred (social sub-domain) since he has to go out this afternoon in what looks like rain (environment sub-domain). In so doing, we simultaneously use all three domains to process a single thought.

Neanderthals could not do this as each domain was entirely separate. So they would have to take the thought about Uncle Fred, bring it to the central processor and then root around in the other sub-domains to find accompanying thoughts, which they also had to bring into the central processor. It was as cumbersome as it sounds and it is highly likely that they would have given up halfway through. This explains why most of the tools that Neanderthals made conformed to a standardised design. They could not link up the requirement for a specialised tool (technical sub-domain) with the task that lay before them (environmental sub-domain) so they just fell back on a familiar one-size-fits-all solution. Moreover, after they had finished the task, they often discarded the tool. Forward planning was another area where the Neanderthals struggled.

The lack of connection between sub-domains also denied Neanderthals any form of symbolic thought. One thing could never stand for anything else since this necessarily crossed the sub-domains. Yet we utilise symbolic thought all the time. The words on this page are symbolic — they stand for something else. The clothes you wear, the ring on your finger, the car that you drive, all have meaning to you that goes far beyond a mere physical presence. To a Neanderthal, all this was unfathomable. This is probably why there is only the smallest hint of Neanderthal art. By definition, art always represents something else, but to a Neanderthal, however much a stone was sculpted and decorated, it remained just a stone.

The last of the Neanderthals did start wearing jewelry and they may have even tried their hand at a bit of art. Yet this was not some evolutionary threshold they had breached but had more to do with copying their new neighbours. From about 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals had to share their world with a new type of species-modern humans-us.

Our distant ancestors, homo sapiens, had left Africa some years previously in their journey to colonise the world. They might never have stood a chance in Europe against the supremely adapted Neanderthals except for the vagaries of climate. All of a sudden, the temperature wobbled, taking the continent from Ice Age to thick forest and back again, in rapid succession. Even over a lifetime a single individual would have noticed the change. In a way it was highly comparable to today.

The Neanderthals had survived warm spells before so they had proved their adaptability. But surviving was not thriving. Take their diet for example. They were big meat eaters and their choice cuts came from big animals. Mammoths, woolly rhinoceros, even lions. They also hunted with few weapons, probably just a stabbing spear and a knife. The Neanderthals got in close for the kill. This is probably why their bones show such extreme injury and wear. The only modern humans that come anywhere close are rodeo riders.

When the warm spells struck, the large game headed north, where it was cooler, and the Neanderthals probably followed. Their overall population almost certainly diminished, less space meant less food to go around, but as soon as temperatures dropped, the Neanderthals could expand from their refuge and their numbers would rebound. It was a natural cycle of ebb and flow.

During the most recent climatic fluctuations around 35-30,000 years ago, however, the Neanderthals had competition and it was to prove their undoing. Our ancestors might have hunted large game but they did so by throwing spears, keeping a safe distance from the dangerous prey. However, they also hunted smaller creatures like hares, reptiles and birds and they fished, both in rivers and along the shore. Plants, nuts and berries provided another source of food. Modern humans had a range of strategies to gain sustenance and, when the climate warmed, they were able to shift their attention to something else. Their advanced intelligence enabled them to plan, innovate and formulate novel solutions to problems. Rather than retreat to cooler climes when the ice retreated, as the Neanderthals did, modern humans adapted their strategy to cope. When the climate cooled and the Neanderthals headed south again, they probably found that all the best spots were now occupied.

Our ancestors did not annihilate the indigenous Neanderthals in the manner of colonialist expansion, but they certainly outwitted them. By linking thought across the sub-domains, modern humans could cope where the Neanderthals struggled. Extinction rests on these tiny margins. A difference in infant mortality between Neanderthals and modern humans of only two per cent would have wiped out the Neanderthals in 30 generations, or about 1,000 years.

The last Neanderthals retreated to the remote margins of Europe and it is in one of those places, Leiria, in Portugal, where the astonishing discovery of a buried young child may hint at their final fate. Whereas the trunk and leg bones are of the usual Neanderthal stockiness, the arms are gracile and more akin to a modern .human. The evidence for a chin seems to confirm that one of the parents of this child was Neanderthal, perhaps the mother, but the father was a modern human. How the parents met and raised a child is something we will never know, nor how the child lived its life: as a Neanderthal or as a modern human. Opinions vary as to how much interbreeding went on as the Neanderthals fade from history but recent DNA analysis suggests that it may be just enough to make us reconsider our roots.

We seem to be waging our current battle with global warming using the limited intelligence of Neanderthals rather than with the adaptive minds of modern humans. The Neanderthals could not help what happened to them. Global warming was not their fault and they met its myriad trials in the only way they were equipped to: by trying to maintain their old and familiar way of life. It proved fatal, but can we honestly say that we are not doing the same now? The lesson from history is stark. Adapt and survive or continue and perish. The Neanderthals simply did not have the intelligence to meet the challenge of climate change. The question is do we?

For further articles on this subject, visit: www.historytoday.com/prehistory

Permission granted by History Today Ltd. © History Today; property of History Today Ltd.