Speared by Humans

A study of a 50,000 year old wound suggests a possible reason for the extinction of Neanderthals

It has been one of the greatest mysteries of human evolution: whatever happened to the Neanderthals? Two pieces of recent research indicate that we Homo Sapiens may have played a part in their extinction.

In a report posted online in the Journal of Human Evolution, forensic research by a team from Duke University on a case that dates back over 50,000 years provides evidence of human-Neanderthal conflict. Between 1953 and 1960, nine Neanderthal bodies were discovered in a cave in Iraq. One of these, termed Shanidar 3, was that of a middle-aged male with a wound on his ninth rib. Says Steven Churchill, the evolutionary anthropologist who led the study, “What we’ve got is a rib injury, with any number of scenarios that could explain it.”

Their analysis shows the injury was a spear wound. Given that humans possessed this technology, and from all available evidence the Neanderthals didn’t, it seems that between 50,000 to 70,000 years ago there was at least one case of recorded aggression between humans and Neanderthals. Cautions Churchill, “We’re not suggesting there was a blitzkrieg, with modern humans marching across the land and executing the Neanderthals.’’

But combine sporadic aggression with the conclusions of another study published in the journal Science recently, and a clearer picture emerges. A team of researchers sequenced mitochondrial DNA from Neanderthal bones. The relative lack of diversity led them to the conclusion that the Neanderthal did not seem to have numbered more than a few hundred thousand worldwide and their numbers in Europe may have been less than 10,000. Low numbers combined with a technological disadvantage suggests a possible scenario for their extinction.

In this, though, it is necessary to discount the popular view that the intellectual superiority of humans allowed them to outwit the slower, squatter and stronger Neanderthals. No evidence supports this, and as has happened often in human history, technological differences can arise simply from geography. The Spaniards who decimated the Incas and the Aztecs are a case in point.

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Hartosh Singh Bal