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Neanderthals: not stupid, just differentScientists challenge the theory that Homo sapiens was more intelligent
The established view of Neanderthals as backward, primitive, ape-like creatures is challenged today by new research showing they used stone tools as successfully as early humans.
A team from the University of Exeter, Southern Methodist University, Texas State University and the Think Tank Corporation spent three years producing stone tools to compare their use.
Their work suggests the tools Neanderthals used were just as efficient, if not more so, than those developed by Homo sapiens.
Homo sapiens and Neanderthals used flint stone tools known as "flakes'' made from fragments struck from a larger stone ''core''.
Homo sapiens later adopted ''blades'', which were flakes with parallel edges twice as long as they were wide and were thought to be more efficient.
The group tested the cutting ability and rate of manufacture of the two tools, and the findings, published in the Journal of Human Evolution today, show no statistical difference in the efficiency of the two technologies and, in some respects, the flakes used by the Neanderthals were more efficient.
Archaeologist Metin Eren from the University of Exeter said: "Our research disputes a major pillar holding up the long-held assumption that Homo sapiens were more advanced than Neanderthals.''
"It is time for archaeologists to start searching for other reasons why Neanderthals became extinct while our ancestors survived. Technologically speaking, there is no clear advantage of one tool over the other. When we think of Neanderthals we need to stop thinking in terms of 'stupid' or 'less advanced' and more in terms of 'different'."
Neanderthals vanished from Europe 28,000 years ago. By then, they had lived beside humans for about 10,000 years.
Research shows that, like modern humans, they had their own culture, used tools and hunted animals with weapons. It is possible they may even have spoken a rudimentary language.
The belief that Homo sapiens was more intellectually advanced than Neanderthals has persisted for decades.
The scientists believe early modern humans adopted new technology more for cultural or symbolic than practical reasons.
"Colonising a continent isn't easy. Colonising a continent during the Ice Age is even harder. So, for early Homo sapiens colonising Ice Age Europe, a new shared and flashy-looking technology might serve as one form of social glue by which larger social networks were bonded.
"Thus, during hard times and resource droughts, these larger social networks might act like a type of 'life insurance', ensuring exchange and trade among members on the same 'team.'
In recent years, many long-held views about why Neanderthals became extinct have been debunked, with research revealing they were as good at hunting as Homo sapiens and had no clear disadvantage in their ability to communicate.
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