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First Discoveries: Neanderthal, (Homo Neanderthalensis, Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis), Also

Neanderthals were an archaic human species that emerged over 200,000 years ago and inhabited Europe and parts of Asia until being replaced by modern humans between 35,000 to 24,000 years ago. They developed stone tool technologies and survived in harsh environments through hunting and gathering. The first Neanderthal fossils were discovered in 1856 in Germany and sparked debate about whether they were a distinct species. Since then, over 200 Neanderthal individuals have been found across Europe and the Middle East in sites dated from 200,000 to 30,000 years ago, providing insights into their anatomy, culture, and interactions with modern humans.

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182 views3 pages

First Discoveries: Neanderthal, (Homo Neanderthalensis, Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis), Also

Neanderthals were an archaic human species that emerged over 200,000 years ago and inhabited Europe and parts of Asia until being replaced by modern humans between 35,000 to 24,000 years ago. They developed stone tool technologies and survived in harsh environments through hunting and gathering. The first Neanderthal fossils were discovered in 1856 in Germany and sparked debate about whether they were a distinct species. Since then, over 200 Neanderthal individuals have been found across Europe and the Middle East in sites dated from 200,000 to 30,000 years ago, providing insights into their anatomy, culture, and interactions with modern humans.

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lisa
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Neanderthal, (Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis), also

spelled Neandertal, member of a group of archaic humans who emerged at least 200,000


years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) and were
replaced or assimilated by early modern human populations (Homo sapiens) between 35,000
and perhaps 24,000 years ago. Neanderthals inhabited Eurasia from the Atlantic regions of
Europe eastward to Central Asia, from as far north as present-day Belgium and as far south as
the Mediterranean and southwest Asia. Similar archaic human populations lived at the same
time in eastern Asia and in Africa. Because Neanderthals lived in a land of
abundant limestone caves, which preserved bones well, and where there has been a long
history of prehistoric research, they are better known than any other archaic human group.
Consequently, they have become the archetypal “cavemen.” The
name Neanderthal (or Neandertal) derives from the Neander Valley (German Neander
Thal or Neander Tal) in Germany, where the fossils were first found.

Artist's rendering of Homo neanderthalensis, who ranged from western Europe to Central Asia for some 100,000 years before dying
out approximately 30,000 years ago.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Until the late 20th century, Neanderthals were regarded as genetically, morphologically, and
behaviorally distinct from living humans. However, more recent discoveries about this well-
preserved fossil Eurasian population have revealed an overlap between living and archaic
humans. Neanderthals lived before and during the last ice age of the Pleistocene in some of
the most unforgiving environments ever inhabited by humans. They developed a
successful culture, with a complex stone tool technology, that was based on hunting, with
some scavenging and local plant collection. Their survival during tens of thousands of years of
the last glaciation is a remarkable testament to human adaptation.

First Discoveries
The first human fossil assemblage described as Neanderthal was discovered in 1856 in the
Feldhofer Cave of the Neander Valley, near Düsseldorf, Germany. The fossils, discovered by
lime workers at a quarry, consisted of a robust cranial vault with a massive arched brow ridge,
minus the facial skeleton, and several limb bones. The limb bones were robustly built, with
large articular surfaces on the ends (that is, surfaces at joints that are typically covered with
cartilage) and bone shafts that were bowed front to back. The remains of large
extinct mammals and crude stone tools were discovered in the same context as the human
fossils. Upon first examination, the fossils were deemed by anatomists as representing the
oldest known human beings to inhabit Europe. Others disagreed and labeled the fossils H.
neanderthalensis, a species distinct from H. sapiens. Some anatomists suggested that the
bones were those of modern humans and that the unusual form was the result of pathology.
This flurry of scientific debate coincided with the publication of On the Origin of
Species (1859) by Charles Darwin, which provided a theoretical foundation upon which fossils
could be viewed as a direct record of life over geologic time. When two fossil skeletons that
resembled the original Feldhofer remains were discovered at Spy, Belgium, in 1886, the
pathology explanation for the curious morphology of the bones was abandoned.

Neanderthal sites of the Late Pleistocene


Map of selected Neanderthal sites of Europe and the Middle East.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
During the latter part of the 19th century and the early 20th century, additional fossils that
resembled the Neanderthals from the Feldhofer and Spy caves were discovered, including
those now in Belgium (Naulette), Croatia (Krapina), France (Le Moustier, La Quina, La
Chapelle-aux-Saints and Pech de L’Azé), Italy (Guattari and Archi), Hungary
(Subalyuk), Israel (Tabūn), the Czech Republic (Ochoz, Kůlna, and Sĭpka), the Crimea
(Mezmaiskaya), Uzbekistan (Teshik-Tash), and Iraq (Shanidar). More recently, Neanderthals
were discovered in the Netherlands (North Sea coast), Greece (Lakonis and Kalamakia), Syria
(Dederiyeh), Spain (El Sidrón), and Russian Siberia (Okladnikov) and at additional sites in
France (Saint Césaire, L’Hortus, and Roc de Marsal, near Les Eyzies-de-Tayac), Israel
(Amud and Kebara), and Belgium (Scladina and Walou). Well over 200 individuals are
represented, including over 70 juveniles. These sites range from nearly 200,000 years ago or
earlier to 36,000 years before present, and some groups may have survived in the
southern Iberian Peninsula until nearly 30,000–35,000 years ago or even possibly 28,000–
24,000 years ago in Gibraltar. Most of the sites, however, are dated to approximately 120,000
to 35,000 years ago. The complete disappearance of the Neanderthals corresponds to, or
precedes, the most recent glacial maximum—a time period of intense cold spells and frequent
fluctuations in temperature beginning around 29,000 years ago or earlier—and the increasing
presence and density in Eurasia of early modern human populations, and possibly their
hunting dogs, beginning as early as 40,000 years ago.

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