
Culture, mathematical models, and Neandertal extinction - diodorus
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/neandertals/demography/ecocultural-model-gilpin-2016.html
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blisterpeanuts
Interesting. Teasing apart the many factors that play a role in the extinction
of the Neanderthals is exceedingly difficult. Decades ago, it was assumed that
the Neanderthals were intellectually and technologically inferior to modern
humans, and simply could not compete. However, recent discoveries demonstrated
that the Neanderthals had art, tools, and shelters. They probably had
language. Their brains were larger than that of modern humans. They were much
stronger.

Some scientists speculate that the Neanderthals could not adapt to the
changing climate as the ice age receded, whereas modern humans from Africa
were are better adapted to warmer climates.

I doubt that. The Neanderthals spent 200,000 years in Northern Europe,
Southern Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia; surely they were quite
adaptable, to have survived that long.

I suspect that the reason the Neanderthals died out is that modern humans were
more aggressive, more murderous, more apt to kill the other. Modern humans
developed in the brutal savannas and jungles of Africa, and when they came
north, they brought their brutal ways with them. When they encountered
Neanderthals, they probably killed the men and enslaved some of the women.
Eventually, the Neanderthal population dropped so low that it was no longer
sustainable as a separate species.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
More murderous humans? Killing and enslavement? Speculation. It _is_ known
that Neanderthals would slaughter and eat their own kind during a hard winter.
And that when Neanderthal encountered the more elegant and graceful arrow and
spear point flakes of the modern human, they attempted to imitate them - by
chipping an entire nodule down to make one point. Not the correct method which
is flaking dozens of good points off of one nodule. Not so good with
technology, Neanderthals.

And there were never many Neanderthal at all, at any time. Not a successful
species really. It takes no fiction of murder and enslavement to explain them
away. Intermarrying would do it handily, with the overwhelming population of
Homo Sapiens spreading through their territory.

~~~
blisterpeanuts
Of course I'm speculating. It's also speculation to assume the Neanderthals
imitated, badly, the technology of modern humans. Indeed the article asserts
that the humans who first ventured into Neanderthal territory did not have
superior technology. So who developed better spear points? No way of knowing,
really. Some genius from either group, perhaps.

As for arrows... bows were not known to exist until tens of thousands of years
after the time period we're discussing. Atl-atl are thought to have existed
since Upper Paleolithic (30KYA) but it's now believed that modern humans were
in Europe and Asia much earlier, perhaps 70K or 80K years ago. It was between
40K-30K that the Neanderthal disappeared.

Cannibalism is assumed, based on tooth marks on bone. There's no evidence that
it was universally practiced, however. Maybe just a few extreme cases. Or
perhaps it was universal among hominids -- meat is meat.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
We can make up stories to suit a particular narrative. Or look at the evidence
dispassionately. Maybe its not in this article, but well documented that
Neanderthals were cannibals. Not tooth marks - butcher marks on the bone, a
dozen individuals at one site that were related, all during a hard winter.
Clearly an entire troupe of neighbors slaughtered for meat.

Then there are sites inhabited over decades by Human and Neanderthal in turn.
That's where its clear that at least some Neanderthal failed to adopt the
better technology.

