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Archaeology

Neanderthals emancipated

Nature volume 394, pages 719–721 (1998)Cite this article

How human were the Neanderthals? Did they rival Homo sapiens sapiens in their art and technology, or merely copy us? Writing in Current Anthropology, Francesco d'Errico and colleagues1 argue convincingly that the bone tools and ornaments manufactured by the Neanderthals at Arcy-sur-Cure in France, and elsewhere, represent an “independent development, not” — as has traditionally been believed — “the product of acculturation or imitation precipitated by cultural contact with modern humans immigrating into Western Europe”.

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Figure 1: Pierced teeth and ivory rings from Arcy-sur-Cure2.

References

  1. d'Errico, F., Zilhão, J., Julien, M., Baffier, D. & Pelegrin, J. Curr. Anthropol. 39, S1-S44 (1998).

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    Paul G. Bahn

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Bahn, P. Neanderthals emancipated. Nature 394, 719–721 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/29392

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