July
28
/ 2017
50,000-year-old tools made from deer ribs suggest modern humans may have learned tool-making from Neanderthals. Found in the southwest of France, these artifacts add to a growing body of evidence showing the common view of Neanderthals as dim-witted or primitive is far from the truth. Similar to bone lissoirs or smoothers still used by leather workers today, the tools have a polished tip and create a softer more water-resistant leather when they are scraped against a hide. Moreover, these tools appear to be very much like others found at sites inhabited later by modern humans. Humans and Neanderthals Branched off 600,000 years ago Due to an Incompatible Y Chromosome Did The Neanderthals of Shanidar Cave Really Bury their Dead? Researchers
