Recent discoveries in a cave in what’s now Turkey indicate that Neanderthals and humans may have shared some cultural traditions, making similar tools and collecting the same kind of shell.
Shared Traditions
According to lead author İsmail Baykara, the findings suggest that Neanderthals and humans likely shared more than just the same landscape. The remarkable continuity in technology, hunting practices, and the transport of bead-seashells is consistent with the idea that these populations interacted and shared cultural traditions over time.
Fossils found in the cave showed that Neanderthals inhabited the cave between 77,000 and 59,000 years ago, with humans later occupying the cave between 59,000 years ago and 47,000 years ago. During that time, the two species made similar flint tools in a style known as Mousterian.
The discovery of a particular type of shell from the mollusk Columbella rustica, too small to provide sustenance, in both the Neanderthal and human layers, was one of the researchers’ biggest surprises. While some of the C. rustica shells had been perforated, suggesting they could have been ornamental, the study authors described them as “manuports,” or objects transported by a person from their places of origin.
Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
