Clive Finlayson is especially fascinated by two things, Neanderthals
and birds. Since 1989, he has been
excavating caves in Gibraltar, on the north shore of the Mediterranean, where
Neanderthals lived from 127,000 to 32,000 years ago. Gibraltar is the place where the last Neanderthals
tearfully bid farewell to this magnificent planet. Later, after they were gone, Homo sapiens lived
in these caves, beginning maybe 30,000 years ago. There is no evidence of them being in living contact
at the Gibraltar site.
For decades, many scholars have adopted the belief that we Homo sapiens were
superior to Neanderthals. They imagine
that when humans invaded Neanderthal territory, the inferior species was helplessly
overwhelmed and exterminated. This
belief is known as the replacement model, which assumed that we could never
meet other humans without wiping them out.
History is loaded with replacement stories.
Beliefs are based on assumptions, which are sometimes daffy
balderdash. Over time, beliefs that pass
from one generation to the next can mutate into illusions that are perceived to
be certain truths. Human supremacists really
annoy Finlayson, and he has written three books to spank them — Neanderthals and Modern Humans
(2004), The Humans
Who Went Extinct (2009), and The
Smart Neanderthal (2019). The
new book is an enjoyable, well written mystery story, in which the brainy hero (Finlayson)
confronts the dodgy beliefs held by many mainstream scholars.
It’s not surprising that folks who have spent more than 30
years studying Neanderthals actually accumulate a lot of experiences and
insights. They learn things that
scholars in faraway college towns never do.
The myth of progress is only a few centuries old, and it perceives that
all previous generations were inferior — especially our prehistoric relatives. The human supremacists in academia have
generated a list of advanced characteristics that Neanderthals lack. In his new book, Finlayson examines this
list, item by item, and presents evidence to the contrary. He concludes that humans and Neanderthals were
equally intelligent, but not equally lucky in the survival lottery.
Of all the prehistoric hominins, we know Neanderthals best,
because we have discovered a number of sites where they lived in Eurasia. In caves, evidence of days past is far less
likely to be blown or washed away, and more likely to be preserved and found. Over time, layers of stuff build up, with newer
ones covering the old. Scientists assign
dates to each layer, and document the artifacts found.
What makes the book especially interesting is that he uses
his love of birds to support a number of his arguments. The caves at Gibraltar contain the remains of
160 species of birds. The region was
once a wonderland for the winged ones, but not now. “Their world has been destroyed by civilized
man in a few centuries.”
Human supremacists assert that dimwitted Neanderthals were
incapable of catching speedy prey, like birds or hares. So Finlayson visited Spain, and watched an
old gent attract 300 large vultures by putting out some carrion. They surrounded him, and happily took food
from his hand. Another time, he went to
an island off the coast of Scotland, where it was the breeding season for
150,000 gannets. None took flight as he
strolled through them, instead they pecked his legs bloody.
Some birds respond to danger by flying away. Others, like the stone curlews, have natural
coloration that provides excellent camouflage.
When danger appears, they freeze, and become nearly invisible to predators. They only take flight if the intruder makes a
sudden movement. Finlayson has calmly
walked right past frozen curlews, and could have easily snatched them. Sometimes speedy hares will freeze in the presence
of danger, allowing their camouflage to render them invisible. Finlayson has walked very close to frozen
hares.
The 300,000+ year saga of Neanderthals was an era of roller
coaster climate shifts. Most of their
time on Earth was colder than average.
Some climate shifts happened suddenly and sharply. Children were sometimes born in a steppe
habitat which, decades earlier, had been woodland when their grandparents lived
there.
Between the Arctic, and the Mediterranean, there were several
climate zones — ice, tundra, steppe, and woodland. When the climate plunged into frigid periods,
glaciers and ice sheets expanded in the north, which compressed the zones to
the south. There were times when the ice
sheet extended from Scandinavia to northern Germany, and covered most of the
British Isles. At times, large areas of
France were tundra. The Mediterranean
Sea, a large body of warm water, moderated the climate of southern Europe, so
the temperature swings were less intense in Gibraltar, and wild foods remained
abundant.
One indicator of climate shifts is the types of bones found
at various time periods in the layers of cave crud. The layers associated with Neanderthals
usually indicated warm, moist, woodland or forest. Woodland conditions were identified by the
bones of aurochs, red deer, boar, cave bear, leopard, giant deer, and temperate
rhinoceros.
It’s important to understand that the more recent sites,
which are associated with humans, often indicate steppe-tundra conditions, when
the land was cold, dry, open, and treeless.
Steppe-tundra conditions were identified by the bones of woolly mammoth,
woolly rhinoceros, horse, musk ox, ibex, moose, Artic fox, and reindeer.
The human supremacists regularly ridicule Neanderthals for
displaying little innovation. For
300,000+ years, their primary weapon was the thrusting spear. Obviously, a stable and functional way of life
was glaring evidence of low intelligence!
But Neanderthals were woodland creatures who excelled at ambush
hunting. For them, a thrusting spear was
the perfect tool. For humans, who lived
in steppe-tundra habitat, it was the opposite of excellent, because a wide open
landscape had no trees or brush to conceal their presence. Their weapon was the javelin.
The latest technology is giving archaeologists the ability to
extract more information from the stuff they dig up. For example, plant pollen. Long ago, hyenas ravenously devoured
carcasses, including their intestines, which contained pollen from the
surrounding vegetation. Fossilized hyena
turds (coprolites) have preserved this pollen, allowing scientists to discover
the mix of plants in the ecosystem during different time windows. This indicated current climate conditions.
Finlayson dismisses the notion that Neanderthals were driven
to extinction by humans, and wonders if they may have resisted human expansion. He believes that an increasingly cold climate
was shrinking their traditional woodland habitat, and fragmenting their
population. After surviving numerous
eras of cold, the latest one pushed them a bit too hard — bad luck drove them
extinct.
One point Finlayson doesn’t mention is that Neanderthals
emerged 300,000+ years ago in Eurasia, where they evolved in a temperate
climate. Their bodies were stockier to
give them better cold tolerance. Humans
emerged in Africa maybe 300,000 years ago.
They evolved in a tropical climate, where they developed better
tolerance of heat, and became skilled at grassland hunting.
When humans wandered into the grasslands of Eastern Europe
36,000 years ago (the “European Serengeti”), their tropical bodies were not
fine-tuned for freezing weather. At this
point, their choices were to either to turn around and return to home sweet
home, or innovate like crazy and struggle to survive in a hostile climate where
large game was abundant.
The human supremacists shout that the humans were simply too
smart to fail. They claim that a miracle
occurred 50,000 years ago, when genetic mutations caused human intelligence to
skyrocket. This was called the Great Leap
Forward, or the Cognitive Revolution.
Finlayson says “Bullshit!”
Genetic research has found zero evidence of this.
What genetic research has found is clear evidence that
Neanderthals and non-African humans interbred.
East Asians have 2.3 to 2.6 percent Neanderthal DNA, and Western
Eurasians have 1.8 to 2.5 percent.
Markers of these hot romances are as old as 100,000 years ago, and as
recent as 37,000 years. Today, humans of
various ancestries carry different segments of Neanderthal DNA. Thus, up to 20 percent of the Neanderthal
genome might still exist, scattered throughout the vast human herd.
Supremacists assert that only humans were brilliant enough to
dine on marine life. Oddly, the
Neanderthals at Gibraltar ate mollusks, seals, dolphins, herbivorous mammals,
tortoises, and birds. But, but, but… only
humans were smart enough to paint caves and make ornaments. Recent research is raising doubts (someone
was apparently painting caves 64,800 years ago). Indeed, humans likely learned many tricks
from the Neanderthals.
To make claims of cognitive superiority based on the
artifacts of material culture is silly.
The writing tools I used in 1970 were extremely crude compared to the
laptop I’m using now. Has my brain
become far more powerful? Compared to my
grandparents, is my brain actually better?
Uncomfortable doubts are growing, with regard to the ultimate
value of intelligence. Neanderthals
lived for 300,000+ years, in a manner that had the appearance of genuine sustainability. They have not been associated with megafauna
extinctions. Following the human
colonization of Europe, there was a wave of megafauna extinctions, which
occurred between 30,000 to 12,000 years ago.
Since then, aggressive cultures of our godlike species have
blindsided every ecosystem on Earth. The
supremacists leap to their feet, clapping, cheering, and celebrating the
wonders of perpetual growth and progress.
Big Mama Nature laughs and laughs, as she prepares some potent surprises
to rubbish our illusions of grandiosity.
Soon she’ll be serving us an all-you-can-eat banquet of humble pie.
Finlayson, Clive, The
Smart Neanderthal, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2019.
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