C.S.I. NEANDERTAL: An experiment that involved shooting stone points into pig carcasses may have solved a 50,000-year-old stabbing.
Image: Jean-Francois Podevin
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An injury sustained by a Neandertal who died 50,000 years ago has puzzled scientists for nearly half a century. The individual, found at the site of Shanidar in Iraq and known as Shanidar 3, has a deep slice in one of the ribs, indicating that he was stabbed with a stone implement. The question has been: by whom? There are several possibilities: Either a fellow Neandertal or an early modern human did it intentionally, or the hapless victim himself or a hunting partner inflicted the wound by accident.
Researchers now think they have the answer. In a paper released online last week by the Journal of Human Evolution, Neandertal expert Steven Churchill of Duke University and his colleagues describe experiments in which they took replicas of stone points made by Neandertals and early moderns who lived in western Asia and wielded them against pig carcasses, which stood in for Neandertals. The investigators attached the points to wooden shafts and launched them with a calibrated crossbow that enabled them to deliver both high and low kinetic energy stabs to the carcasses' ribs.
Churchill and his colleagues found that the marks left on the ribs by the low-energy stabs, which were intended to simulate the blows delivered by the projectile weapons early modern humans' used, more often resembled the puncture evident on Shanidar 3's rib than did the marks that resulted from the high-energy stabs, which simulated the blows delivered by the handheld spears Neandertals brandished.
The team thus concluded that the culprit in the Shanidar 3 case was most likely a modern human. But other experts are not so sure. Paleoanthropologist John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin–Madison wrote in his blog that the findings are not sufficient to exclude the possibility that a Neandertal-made weapon created the wound.
But even if a modern human did fire a dart at Shanidar 3, that does not mean moderns drove the Neandertals to extinction in this way, as Churchill stressed in a statement. Although scholars once thought that modern humans might have killed off the Neandertals, studies conducted over the past decade suggest that climate or subtle differences in behavior or biology between the two human groups are to blame.
For more on the demise of the Neandertals, see the "The Mysterious Downfall of the Neandertals" in the August issue of Scientific American.
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19 Comments
Add CommentDon't you guys know anything? The bible didn't say God created neanderthals and us in his image, and waited to see who worked out the best. It said he created us in his image. Therefore, we are godly, and neanderthals didn't exist. They were just, like, big, I dunno, birds or something. If the bible doesn't say it, it didn't happen!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'll take science,comic books and 2000 year old hear say are not that reliable .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't believe 2000 year old hear say has a place in science.just facts and reasonable theories to research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisExactly! and thats why I don't believe in physicks, coz there ainn't no physicks theory in the bible.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisExactly!, and that's why I don't beleive in physicks, coz there ain't no physilks theory in the bible.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI somewhat dispute the medical reasoning involved in this study. The shock waves resulting from a high velocity projectile would cause much more tissue damage than the shock waves to tissues caused by low velocity projectile. The same is the case with regard to bullets fired from guns. The higher the velocity the bullet has when exiting the gun, the greater the damage the bullet does to tissue as a result of shock waves to the body tissues of the recipient. Given the aforementioned, the medical reasoning points to another Neanderthal rather than a human causing the death.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI suppose these possible erroneous findings were made by scientists who do not not have the medical back ground such that they they do not appreciate the role that shock waves from projectiles have in causing damage to body tissues. (A low velocity projectile penetrating tissue would cause significantly less tissue damage than a high velocity projectile).
Hehehehe
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRead it again, Archimedes. As you say, high- and low-energy impacts do different damage, so it is possible to tell them apart. As it says in the story, the damage done by low-energy impacts more closely resembled the damage in the specimen.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHard to believe a hand held spear will create shock waves. I've hunted with spears in Africa, and I never saw such a thing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi think you're intelligence is hindered by a lack of common sense
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWouldn't it be easier, more accurate, and more revealing to establish the size of the projectile point? Isn't the kinetic energy a function of the mass of the projectile? Do projectile weapons necessarily have smaller points than stabbing weapons?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI bet CSI would have this figured out in a single episode :)
lol, some people need to get a sense of humor.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOf course modern humans killed off the Neanderthals. We've done it to everyone and everything that has gotten in our way so far. Why would Neanderthal be different?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf your going to quote a book you should at least read it,hopefully with your eyes open.In the Bible it speaks of creating man on the sixth day,and it reveals the first covenant,be fruitful,and multiply,but it doesn't say what species.We now know there were many,but it does give a criteria.I give you dominance over all other life.So what makes us dominant?Many say it is the brain,but there are animals with larger ones ,others say tool making ,but others do that too,but there is one thing we do that sets us completely apart. We make and use fire!and the fossil record questions that homo-sapien's were first .Meaning that the first covenant may have been with a species that preceded us.Myself I don't know for sure,and it is a mistake to make claims that can't be proven,one should not mix facts with faith,it is always a bad idea.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisExactly neoguru. While latest research shows that Neanderthals had the speech gene, they probably would have spoken in very limited, extremely local dialects. They looked different than cro magnons. Even today, when a skinny white boy approaches the projects, he knows he may be a victim because he looks and talks differently. The ignorant always seem to try and destroy those that don't appear or believe as they do. Still goes on all over the world. It is so disappointing to have the god squad intrude on rational discussion with attempts to "scientificate" their belief in mythology.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe article stated it might have been a hunting partner. Were there ever Cheney Sapiens?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe article stated it might have been a hunting partner. Were there ever Cheney Sapiens?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe article stated it might have been a hunting partner. Were there ever Cheney Sapiens?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt seems likely that Neandetals met their demise at the hands of modern humans. The circumstantial evidence appears to be substantial... (i.e.) mastodons, dodo birds, buffalo, etc. The tropically evolved modern humans were poorly adapted for the European environment and the vast majority perished. No doubt, moderns were delighted to come upon Neandertals who were slower and less intelligent. The Neandertals were hunted, butchered, and devoured into extinction by the moderns. You could say that they were the original "happy meal".
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