by Tim Flannery
In ice-age Europe, the ability to commandeer caves was probably key to the survival of upright apes. Of tropical origin, they lacked insulating fur and could not survive freezing conditions without shelter. But competition for caves must have been fierce, and control of fire may have been decisive in allowing upright apes to retain a toe-hold as Europe chilled. The earliest evidence of the human use of fire is at best ambivalent, coming from burned sediment dating back 1.5 million years. There is better evidence that Homo erectus was using fire 800,000 years ago, and by half a million years ago (as evidenced by charred bones) some upright apes were cooking their food. But we should not assume that the discovery of hominid bones in caves confirms occupation. It’s possible that giant hyenas or cave lions carried the remains of Homo erectus into their lairs, or that they were washed in by floods.
The discovery in 2013 of footprints at Happisburgh, England, reminds us of how little we know about our human lineage in early ice-age Europe. The prints were made by a group of five individuals varying in height between 0.9 and 1.7 metres—possibly a family walking upstream along the estuary of the Thames, between a million and 780,000 years ago.8 They may have left an island where they had spent the night in relative safety and were searching for food. Shortly after these astonishing footprints were documented they were destroyed by a high tide.
At the time these Homo erectus-like creatures wandered along the ancestral Thames, the climate of that part of Europe was cool—similar to that currently experienced in southern Scandinavia. The remains of a primitive mammoth and bison bones that bear signs of being butchered by humans have been discovered at Happisburgh. Perhaps the Homo erectus that left the footprints migrated north seasonally to hunt. Whatever the case, it is difficult to imagine our ancestors surviving year-round in such a climate without fire. As conditions chilled further Homo erectus vanished altogether from Britain, and probably from all of northern Europe, though they may have found refuge in the temperate peninsulas of Iberia, Italy and Greece.
When the Happisburgh footprints were made, the 100,000-year ice-age cycle had commenced. Each advance of the ice was a little different from the ones that preceded it. The most extreme glaciation occurred between 478,000 and 424,000 years ago. Known as the Anglian glaciation in the UK, the Elsterian on the northern European mainland, and the Mindel in the European alps, it saw the ice reach as far south in Britain as the Scilly Isles.* In eastern Europe this glacial advance appears to have caused the extinction of those venerable members of the frog and toad group, the palaeobatrachids, which we first encountered on Hateg. Their favoured habitats were large permanent lakes. With the extreme glaciation their last redoubts, in the valley of the Don River, in what is now Russia, became too dry for them.9* During the Anglian glaciation, the ice caps were smaller than during earlier glacial events, but conditions in the periglacial areas around the ice were far more severe. The last of the palaeobatrachids were squeezed out of existence between a severely cold periglacial north, and a desertified south. I must admit that missing out on seeing these marvellous and antique creatures by the merest sliver of time is an immense frustration!
The Anglian glaciation doubtless drove Homo erectus, its competitors such as the giant hyena, and its prey, from much of Europe. After the ice finally receded, new types of creatures would move north from Africa; the spotted hyena would replace the giant hyena, and a new kind of upright ape would enter Europe. Genetic analysis indicates that the Neanderthals evolved in Africa 800,000 to 400,000 years ago. They may have displaced the Homo erectus lineage; or they may have hybridised with them.** Whatever happened, we see no more of Homo erectus in Europe after about 400,000 years ago.
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* A universally recognised scientific name for the event is ‘Marine Isotope Stage 12’.
* In eastern Europe, the Anglian glaciation is known as the Oka glaciation.
** A minority of scientists argue that Homo neanderthalensis evolved from Homo antecessor in Europe.
CHAPTER 25
Neanderthals
The ‘mammoth fauna’, which is so evocative of ice-age Europe, first evolved during the Anglian glaciation, around the time the Neanderthals reached Europe; so that in our minds Neanderthals, mammoths and other ice-age fauna are forever associated. By 400,000 years ago some Neanderthals had pushed north into Europe and Asia, where eventually they spread as far east as the Altai Mountains, preying on mammoths, reindeer, horses and other species. The early Neanderthals (who existed 400,000 to 200,000 years ago) have been referred to variously as Homo heidelbergensis, Homo erectus or Homo neanderthalensis. I will call them early Neanderthals. They were slightly shorter than us, though their brains were about the same size as ours. Later Neanderthals, in contrast, had larger brains than those of people living today (though their bodies were larger as well). We tend to think of Neanderthals as primitive beings with a crude material culture. But six superbly crafted wooden spears discovered in a peat deposit near Schöningen in Germany and thought to have been made by early Neanderthals give the lie to this idea. Wooden tools do not generally fossilise well, so these spears provide a rare insight into Neanderthal wood technology. Made between 380,000 and 400,000 years ago, they were probably used to hunt horses. What is remarkable about them is their degree of sophistication. They are weighted towards the front and have finely crafted points: replicas performed as well as the best modern javelins, travelling up to 70 metres.1
Neanderthals also mastered the technology required to create adhesive pitch from tree bark. The earliest evidence was found in Italy and dates from between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago. This is long before Homo sapiens independently invented adhesives. Pitch manufacture requires foresight and the manipulation of materials and temperature (with the more sophisticated methods yielding far more than simple ones).2 Researchers think that sophisticated methods were deployed in a manufacturing process requiring much preparation. Pitch is important in that it is used, among other things, to haft flint heads on wooden spears, creating highly effective weapons.3
A particularly rich haul of 5500 early Neanderthal bones, dating back 300,000 years and belonging to at least 32 individuals, has been recovered from the Sima de los Huesos site in the Atapuerca Mountains in Spain. The bones, many of which are from juveniles, were found at the bottom of a vertical shaft, where they form 75 per cent of all the remains found there, the rest mostly being ancestral cave bears and carnivores that may have been lured into the pitfall by the smell of rotting flesh. A single, beautiful red quartzite axe, made from materials sourced far away from the site was also found in the pit. Some researchers believe that the bones result from the disposal of corpses—a form of burial—and that the quartzite axe was a ritual offering to the dead.4 If that’s correct, it represents the oldest evidence found anywhere for care of the dead.
By about 200,000 years ago the ‘classic’ Neanderthal type—with its large nose, oversized brain and powerful body—had emerged. Neanderthals and Homo sapiens are extremely similar genetically, sharing 99.7 per cent of their DNA (by way of comparison, humans and chimpanzees share 98.8 per cent of their DNA). Because of this similarity, and the ability of humans and Neanderthals to interbreed, many writers refer to Neanderthals as humans. But doing so leaves us with no easy way to distinguish our own distinctive human type. So I will reserve the term ‘human’ for Homo sapiens.
The first Neanderthal remains to receive scientific attention were bones unearthed by quarry workers in 1856, in Feldhofer Cave in the Neander Valley, near Dusseldorf. They were passed on to savants, who made various suggestions about their identity. One thought that they were the last mortal remains of an Asiatic soldier who had died serving the czar in the Napoleonic Wars, while another thought that they were from an ancient Roman. Yet another identified them as belonging to a Dutchman.
In 1864, following publication of Darwin’s Origin, the bones came to the attention of the geologist William King, then working at Queen’s College, Galway.
He described them, bestowing on them the name Homo neanderthalensis. Shortly after, King changed his mind, averring that the bones should not be placed in the genus Homo because they came from a creature that was incapable of ‘moral and theistic conceptions’.5 Despite his equivocation, King’s name for the bones was published, and a good thing too, for the German biologist Ernst Haeckel was also studying the bones, and his suggested name for them was ghastly.
Haeckel was an extremely capable scientist who constructed the first comprehensive tree of life, named thousands of species, and coined such phrases as ‘stem cell’, and ‘First World War’. But in 1866 he published the name Homo stupidus for the Neanderthal fossils, which—I cannot refrain from saying—reveals a certain lack of tact.* Under the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, King’s name Homo neanderthalensis (despite his second thoughts) has priority, and so it is the one used today.
Most evidence of Neanderthal life comes from sites dating to the last 130,000 years, by which time the Neanderthals had become exquisitely adapted to the demanding European ice-age environment. With males weighing an average of 78 kilograms, and females 66 kilograms, analysis of the chemical composition of their bones reveals that they were obligate carnivores. Their refuse dumps show that their main prey were red deer, reindeer, wild boar and aurochs, though they occasionally tackled more challenging species such as young cave bears, rhinos and elephants.6 In extreme circumstances they would, however, eat a little plant matter and fungus, as well as each other: twelve skeletons from El Sidrón Cave in Spain, bearing marks of death blows and defleshing, offering clear evidence of cannibalism.
Like many other carnivores, Neanderthals favoured caves as home sites, and were doubtless able to eject competitors from preferred lairs. There is ample evidence that they had mastered fire, and their tools indicate that they crudely prepared furs, perhaps to wear as cloaks, though they did not make fitted clothing. Their cave-dwelling habits, fire and cloaks were essential in allowing them to occupy much of Europe south of the ice.7
Genetic studies indicate that there were no more than 70,000 Neanderthals at any one time, and that they were spread thinly across all western Europe.8 The genome of a female from Croatia has revealed low genetic diversity, as a result of existing as part of a small, isolated sub-population over multiple generations. One female whose remains were found in the Altai Mountains of Asia was highly inbred—a half-brother and sister being her parents—though this was not characteristic of all Neanderthal groups.9 The bones of the dozen cannibalised individuals found in El Sidrón appear to be the remains of a family group that had been surprised, perhaps in their cave, before being killed and eaten. Forensic DNA analysis of their bones revealed that the males were closely related, but the females were not. This implies that Neanderthals were similar to many recent and current human societies, in which the females leave their extended-family groups to marry into other groups.10
Neanderthals were immensely strong, and many skeletons show signs of injury consistent with mishaps incurred while hunting large mammals with hand-wielded weapons. Despite their large brains, their foreheads receded sharply, and their eyes were shaded beneath pronounced bony brow ridges. They had barrel chests, which may have helped them retain body heat, and large noses that were probably useful for filtering ice-age dust, as well as warming the air they inhaled. Just how hairy they were remains conjectural. Analysis of DNA indicates that their skin was pale, their eyes often blue, and their hair red.11
The eyes of Neanderthals were larger than ours, as by some measures were their brains.* In modern humans, we consider these positive attributes. The question of Neanderthal brain size, however, has come into dispute, one group of researchers arguing that a larger proportion of the Neanderthal brain than our own was concerned with vision, and that therefore less of it was involved with other functions. The same study posits that Neanderthals were larger than modern humans, and that therefore their brains were smaller relatively than ours.12 Even if this is so, we are left with irresistible questions: how did those large blue eyes see the world, and what did that undoubtedly able brain make of it? Alas, archaeology can only go so far towards answering them.
Did Neanderthals bury their dead? Sarah Schwartz of the University of Southampton claims that their burial practices were widespread. But the evidence she cites, including defleshing and the concentration of bones in niches, could also result from cannibalism or natural processes.13 Whatever the case, a lack of complex burial practices may not denote a lack of affection for the deceased. Among some African herders, a corpse was sometimes placed outside the thorn-bush fence surrounding the settlement. In the morning, the deceased had become new life, in the form of a hyena.
Neanderthal art at least 65,000 years old, and possibly much older, has recently been identified at three sites in Spain. Hand stencils, ladder-shaped designs and abstract shapes, all in red ochre, have been documented, but there are no depictions of animals.14 Evidence of personal adornment is also scant, important exceptions being 118,000-year-old perforated and painted seashells from Spain, and 130,000-year-old white-tailed eagle talons discovered in a rock shelter in Croatia that had been modified in ways suggesting that they were strung on a necklace.15 Somewhat more speculatively, a number of vulture wing bones found in caves on Gibraltar has led some researchers to believe that Neanderthals living there used vulture feathers as adornments.
The discovery in Bruniquel Cave in southwestern France of two ring-like structures (the largest 6.7 metres across) and six raised structures made from about 400 large, carefully broken-off and stacked stalactites astonished scientists when it was published in 2016. All were built in a cavern which is in total darkness more than 300 metres from the cave entrance. The space must have been artificially lit, and there is abundant evidence for the use of fire around the stone circles.16 Stalactites grow, so the moment they were broken off can be precisely dated—to 176,000 years ago, allowing no room for doubt that the work was done by Neanderthals. The purpose of the structures remains unknown; some speculate that they were the backdrop for some sort of ritual, while others think that they were merely part of a shelter. Whatever the case, they underline the fact that the Neanderthals were capable of great works and that much remains to be discovered about them.
Another aspect of Neanderthal culture is highly revealing of their inner lives. Neanderthals killed cave bears (often cubs) perhaps ambushing them as they emerged from hibernation. This could have been done from strategic points in cave systems, where it was possible to drive off the adults with fire or spears. Whatever the hunt methodology, Neanderthals have left extraordinary evidence of what has been dubbed ‘the cult of the cave bear’ throughout Europe.
One of the most striking examples was discovered in Romania’s Altar Stone Cave in the Bihor mountains of Transylvania in 1984. Cavers from Politehnică Cluj explored the spectacular cave, whose vast chambers with their titanic stalactites and delicate cave ornaments pierce through an entire mountain. In his account of the discovery, Cristian Lascu writes of crawling, swimming and walking through the cave for a day and a night before reaching the site.
The bear’s cemetery made its sudden appearance before us, in a horizontal passage with vaulted ceilings with hanging tubular stalactites of impressive sizes. First, we saw a small skull, covered in popcorn concretions. Then two more, with long bones in front of the snout. Further away, in a depression of the floor, there was the skull of an adult bear measuring almost half a metre, and in a niche we found a mix of jaws, skulls and vertebrae. Next to this a large number of skulls belonging to young and adult bears were hardly visible under a thick layer of calcite. Four of them attracted our attention: they were arranged in a tight formation, with the occipital towards the interior, making a sort of imperfect cross.17
The arrangement of four juvenile cave bear skulls in a cross, along with limb bones placed in front of adult skulls cannot have been accidental. Similar finds have been made in other Eur
opean caves and it is thought that the placement of a limb bone in front of the cranium, and the cross-like or back-to-back arrangements of juvenile skulls, which are sometimes surrounded with pieces of flint, were part of an appeasement ceremony by Neanderthals.
Human hunters from many cultures have performed ceremonies involving the skulls of bear species. After a successful polar bear hunt, for example, the dead bear is treated with the greatest respect by Arctic hunters. ‘Don’t be offended,’ the Chukchi hunter says to the dead bear, while the neighbouring Yupiit explain that they are only taking the bear’s muscle and fur, not killing it, for the soul of the beast lives on. Elsewhere, gifts are presented to the skulls of slain bears—knives and harpoon heads to males, and needles and beads to females.18 In some instances, ‘altars’ are set up, on which the bear skulls and gifts are laid out. These arrays are similar to the juvenile bear-skull arrangements, with their associated flint tools, left by Neanderthals.
There is a mystery surrounding these Neanderthal bear skull placements. The near-perfect state of preservation of many of the skulls is characteristic of individuals that have died during hibernation and decomposed, undisturbed, in the cave. Skulls of hunted bears often show cut marks or other damage absent on these skulls. So it seems likely that the arranged bones are from bears that died naturally. Appeasement may therefore have involved what the Neanderthals saw as the cave bear family (including both living and dead individuals), rather than just the individual they had hunted. If so, this reveals a sophisticated comprehension of kinship.
The Neanderthals present a profound enigma. Although large-brained and stronger than us, their material culture remained rudimentary. It is striking that the great Neanderthal achievements—including jewellery (dated to 118,000 and 130,000 years ago) and stalactite structures (176,000 years ago)—are so very ancient. We’ve discovered nothing like them from the last 80,000 years of Neanderthal existence; yet the great majority of Neanderthal sites date to this later interval. Did the Neanderthals suffer a sort of cultural simplification? An informative parallel example can be seen in Tasmania’s Aborigines. As explained by Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs and Steel, following their isolation from other Aboriginal groups as rising seas flooded Bass Strait about 10,000 years ago, the Tasmanian population of a few thousand lost the ability to make bone needles (and thus the ability to sew rugs) and possibly the knowledge required to make fire. If just one or a few individuals in a group know how to make or do certain things, the technology can be lost when they die. Genetic studies have confirmed that the Neanderthal population was small and fragmented. A loss of technologies over time may have resulted from isolation and small population size.