Professor Chris Stringer
Appearances
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
That's right. Yes. So there are neontal sites where even from the mitochondrial DNA preserved in the cave sediments, as well as in the individual's DNA themselves, you can show this pattern of small diversity in the males of the neontals compared with large diversity in the females.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Well, yes. So that's an interesting question where, again, we're getting new data all the time. So there seems to be an early incursion of Homo sapiens into Neanderthal areas even more than 200,000 years ago. Oh, wow. So there's a site in southern Greece, Epidema Cave. It's actually a complex of caves stacked vertically in a sea cliff.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
in southern greece and in one of those caves they found two skulls very close to each other which for a long time were thought to be two neanderthal skulls maybe 150 000 years old but i've been involved in work which has shown that first of all the skulls are not the same age they seem to be brought together
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
through deposition in the cave, but they don't actually belong together because they're not the same age. And what's interesting is one of the skulls, it's only the back of a skull, looks like a Homo sapiens. So it doesn't show Neanderthal features in the back of the skull. It shows Homo sapiens features. And that fossil is at least 210,000 years old.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So incredibly, if that data are correct, there was a Homo sapiens living in southern Greece more than 200,000 years ago. And what's interesting is maybe 30 or 40,000 years later, you got a Neanderthal fossil at the site. So the sapiens seems to have disappeared and the Neanderthals are in occupation.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So this could be an early and you could call it unsuccessful dispersal of Homo sapiens from Africa through Western Asia as far as Greece. Perhaps it went even further. We don't know. But it was one which then disappeared and the Neanderthals come back.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
But interesting, that presence of sapiens outside of Africa more than 200,000 years ago does square with genetic data that suggests that there was a rather mysterious interbreeding event between Homo sapiens, early Homo sapiens and early Neanderthals, maybe 300,000 years ago.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So that, again, would imply there was either Neanderthals got into Africa, but more likely sapiens came out into Neanderthal territories, did some interbreeding with them and actually affected their mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome diversity. They seem to pick up a sapiens like mitochondria and Y chromosome.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And that estimate suggests that maybe 5% DNA was exchanged between the groups maybe 300,000 years ago. So that's still a mysterious and poorly understood time. But that epidemia fossil from Greece is maybe a clue to the sort of movements, early movements out of Africa, which ultimately were not sustained by Homo sapiens.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes, the fact that we and the Neanderthals developed these distinctive anatomies suggests that the evolution was largely separate over hundreds of thousands of years, certainly at least half a million years on present thinking. We and the Neanderthals evolved separately, but Being separate doesn't mean being completely separate.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So within that separation and distinction of building up different characters, now and again, these groups met and exchanged DNA. And this is a pattern which we now know from modern species that are closely related. So when we look at birds and mammals, maybe 20% of these closely related species are doing a bit of interbreeding with each other.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And so it seems that this is a way for those species to actually improve their genetic diversity, because as they go their separate way, they take particular genetic pathways and they may lose diversity. So by interbreeding with your neighbouring species, you may pick up some diversity that you've lost and that could be useful for you. So it looks like species do this.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
They largely closely related ones, at least for maybe a million years, maybe two million years. They may continue to be able to exchange DNA with their closely related species. And it looks like that's what happened, which certainly is what happened with us and Neanderthals. And also it happened with us and Denisovans and even Denisovans and Neanderthals were interbreeding with each other.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And I know we haven't talked about Denisovans yet, but they were a lineage that we know about living over in the Far East. So there are actually these three major lineages evolving us in Africa for most of the last half a million years. Neanderthals in Eurasia, mainly the western part in the last half a million years.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And over in the Far East, Denisovans also evolving in that time period over the last half a million years.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes, it's certainly possible. So the Neanderthals reached right down in southern Israel. So they're only a few hundred kilometers from Cairo there. So, of course, these populations wouldn't have known Africa was separate from Western Asia. For them, it was just a landscape that they might have traversed. maybe following their food, you know, migrating herds and so on.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So certainly it's not impossible that just as sapiens came out of Africa several times, it's possible Neanderthals even came into Africa at times. And we can't map that at the moment. And then there are areas like Arabia. So you've got the huge area of the Arabian Peninsula, a massive area. We know that sapiens were there about 95,000 years ago from just a single hand bone fossil.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
But Neanderthals were probably there as well some of the same time. So that's a whole area again where we We have a lot to learn about when populations are in those regions.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yeah, so looking at the whole body skeleton, the Neanderthals were, by and large, were shorter and wider, very wide shoulders, very wide pelvis. They've got a big, almost bell-shaped rib cage. So it's a rib cage that's differently shaped to our own. There's a suggestion that all the organs of the trunk of the Neanderthals were bigger. So the lungs might have been 20% bigger than our lungs.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And that might have also applied to the kidneys, the liver and so on. So their trunks were very bulky and their pelvis is wide, partly to accommodate that extra bulk in the trunk. They're powerfully built. So the bones are strong and thick. They have large muscle insertions. The articular connections are quite wide. So the skeleton is built to withstand a very demanding lifestyle.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Whereas in sapiens, we've got by a larger, more lightly built skeleton, relatively taller, slimmer frame, maybe a bit less muscularity. So this partly is a reflection of genetic inheritance, partly the cold adaptation. So in colder conditions, it's good to have a short and wide body to minimize your skin surface area to maintain heat.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So that might partly explain the Neanderthals overall difference, but also it could be a difference of lifestyle. that possibly sapiens were increasingly using technology to take the weight off their skeletons. So using tools to do some of the heavy lifting, some of the heavy work, rather than having to use muscles.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes, it could be. And the use of strings and nets and ropes and maybe having a more efficient weapon system, throwing spears largely compared with thrusting spears, which the Neanderthals might have used. much more being inclined to use. And so the body shape is certainly distinct between us and the Neanderthals. And that's also true for the cranium, for the head.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So our brain case shape is high and rounded, whereas Neanderthal skulls, in keeping with most of these earlier humans, the skulls were longer and lower. And the brain within is longer and lower in shape compared with the sapiens one.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
At the front, of course, there's a strong brow ridge for the Neanderthals, which again is a common feature of all these earlier humans to have a strong brow ridge over the eyes. The face in Neanderthals is very characteristic.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Perhaps one of the most distinctive features is that the nose is very large and projecting, but it's part of a complex in the face where the whole middle of the face is pulled forwards and the cheekbones sweep back. So that's very distinctive. That's found in Neanderthals for hundreds of thousands of years.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And when we look at their teeth, they've got relatively large front teeth and they seem to have used their front teeth as a third hand to grip things in their mouths when they were manipulating food or other objects to maybe to work tools. They held them in their front teeth.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So the front teeth are quite large and they've not got much of a chin on the lower jaw and the ear bones are even distinctive. So these tiny little structures, which we can't even see buried deep in our temporal bone from CT scanning, we can look at the shape of those bones.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
partly to transmit sound and also concerned with balancing the head, they are different in shape from Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. And the differences between us and Neanderthals in those ear bone shapes is as great or even greater than we find between, let's say, gorillas and chimpanzees. So that's really quite a distinctive feature, which is laid down before birth.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes, that's right. So we assume that Homo sapiens was bringing its own technology and using perhaps a wider range of resources. Neanderthals did make use of quite difficult to work material like bone and antler and ivory. The Neanderthals did use those materials, but to a lesser extent than Homo sapiens did. So we get a wider range of technology.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Of course, again, all the wood technology that they would have had has disappeared. So we can't tell how different they were there. But it also seems that in some cases, Homo sapiens are even associated with bows and arrows. And that, of course, is really complex technology where you've got to have careful selection of the wood to make the bow.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
You've got to be able to make the bow and the right sort of strength and size. You've also got to make your arrow shafts in maybe the same wood or a different wood. You've got to make your string for the bow out of animal or plant tissue. And that's a complex task. And you've got to mount, of course, quite a light projectile head on the end of the arrow to make it effective.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So it looks like bows and arrows were being used at least by some early Homo sapiens groups. And that enables you, of course, to do killing at a distance, which is a lot less dangerous than having to get close to your prey. It's thought that in many cases Neanderthals were what's called confrontational hunters.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
They were having to get close into their prey, requiring a lot of strength, of course, a lot of courage as well, and then having to stab the prey with a thrusting spear. That's very effective, of course, but it's also more dangerous and it requires a lot more physical strength.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Well, yes. I mean, there are an increasing number of sites showing this early penetration. So one of the most famous ones recently published is Grotte Mondrain in southern France, in the Rome Valley. And there you've got what's now a rock shelter. It's partly collapsed, but this has a long history of occupation by Neanderthals going back to at least 70,000 years.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And the Neanderthals were there most of the time from 70,000 years down to probably 40 or 42,000 years ago when we get the appearance of Homo sapiens. But at about 54,000 years ago, there's one brief occupation by a completely distinctive group based on their technology.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So they're not making the typical Neanderthal stone tools, which are these quite larger flake tools they're making in this industry. You've got thousands of tiny little points which are interpreted by some people as being arrowheads. And this industry is completely distinct from anything known in Western Europe at the time. It's there briefly, maybe an occupation of less than 100 years.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And there's just one fossil tooth from that level. There are teeth from other levels that show they were Neanderthals. But that one level with this industry called the Neuronian, after a nearby site, this industry is associated with Homo sapiens. There's one tooth, which is a deciduous tooth, a milk tooth, but it's a Homo sapiens child.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So it looks like Homo sapiens managed to come up the Rhone Valley, probably, we assume, traveled from further east along the Mediterranean coast up the Rhone Valley into this area where there are several sites showing this Neronian industry, but only there for less than 100 years and then disappearing again. And Neanderthals come back.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes, that's right. There's just one tooth. There are several teeth in the other levels and one milk tooth, which you can show structurally. Unfortunately, you haven't got the DNA from it, but structurally it's a Homo sapiens child. But interestingly, when we come into the later Neanderthal levels, we've also got this wonderful skeleton of Thorin. Nicknamed Thorin from Lord of the Rings.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And this is a male Neanderthal skeleton. It's still being excavated. And this is in the levels after 54,000 years ago. And Thorin has even got DNA. And that DNA is distinct, not only from sapiens, but also from many of the other Neanderthals. So... I talked about the low diversity of Neanderthals overall, but Thorin actually has a distinct lineage from most of the other late Neanderthals.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And that suggests that there were pockets of diversity surviving in Europe until less than 50,000 years ago. And Thorin represents one of those pockets. And interestingly, his closest relatives In Gibraltar, there's a Neanderthal from Forbes Quarry. It was found in 1848. It's one of the very first Neanderthal finds, even before the one from the Neander Valley in Germany.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And that Forbes Quarry Neanderthal, we've got DNA from that, and the DNA is similar to Thorin's. So there is a similarity between Gibraltar and the Rhone Valley in this late time, suggesting that there were surviving pockets of Neanderthal diversity. But Thorin's lineage too disappeared. So by 42,000 years ago, we've got Homo sapiens occupying Rotmanderans.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes. I mean, it must have been an incredible time and it's a shame we haven't got a time machine to go back and see exactly what happened. But yes, you're right. I'm sure there were many different encounters, different kinds of encounters between these populations. So When they first met, and of course, we've mentioned that they could have met even more than 200,000 years ago.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
They also met, and we haven't talked about it, they also must have encountered each other in Western Asia 100,000 years ago because we've got early Homo sapiens at sites like Shkul and Khafzeh.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
in israel about a hundred thousand years ago and we know neanderthals were at least in the vicinity at that time and what's interesting is that the industries at school and cafe for some people they even look a bit neanderthal like people have speculated there could have been contact between the populations which even influenced them culturally and so when we look at the situation after 60 000
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes, we've mentioned Grot Mondrian, where there's this brief occupation by Homo sapiens. And when we come to 45,000 years ago, we've got better evidence of sapiens establishing themselves in places like Romania and Czechia and Germany and even Britain. It looks like Homo sapiens were reaching these areas in probably small numbers, pioneering groups, but encountering the Neanderthals.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So possibly to begin with, the groups avoided each other. These were strange people not known to each other. And maybe the first reaction would have been to try and keep apart. But obviously, as climates change and move them around, as population numbers maybe grew, it was more likely they were going to be in contact with each other. And of course, these could have been
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
hostile encounters with actual warfare between them. But equally, they could have been more peaceful with evidence, of course, that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens did interbreed. That suggests direct contact. But at the moment, with our knowledge, it's actually very difficult to know how often they're in the same place at the same time. We just don't have the precision of dating.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And when there are sites with occupation by Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. And I mentioned Epidema Cave. I mentioned Grot Mondrian. Of course, the occupations suggest separate occupations at the moment. But at Grot Mondrian, it's possible that you've even got occupation within a year or two by one group or the other. So they are very close to each other in time and space.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And obviously from the interbreeding, we know at times they were there at the same time. So we can't actually map how often they competed with each other. But clearly there would have been economic competition because, of course, they're going to be wanting to hunt the same animals.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
They're going to want to collect the same plant resources and they're going to want to live in the best environments, the best cave sites, the best valleys for hunting and so on.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Well, yes. I think even when we look, unfortunately, at our own species today, you know, we have this competition between different groups of our species today and it can be fierce and it can be deadly. And so that must have happened at times. And so... In terms of looking at why the Neanderthals disappeared, I tend to think it's going to be a combination of features rather than one single thing.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
But yes, I'm sure that, you know, the Neanderthals, as I mentioned, they already were potentially vulnerable in terms of their low numbers and their low genetic diversity. And it might not have needed much to tip them over the edge to extinction.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And perhaps the appearance of another species that was even at times just a few percent better at exploiting the environment could have tipped them over the edge. But it clearly wasn't all a one-way traffic of Neanderthals disappearing, because I've mentioned Epidema Cave and I've mentioned Glot Manderen, where the Neanderthals came back. And that's what happened in Israel, too.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So we have evidence of Homo sapiens at places like Shkul and Kafzei 100,000 years ago. But when we move on in time, the Neanderthals are back in occupation of the area and sapiens seem to have disappeared for a while. So it wasn't all a one-way traffic. And that changing environment, that changing landscape would have complicated the picture.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Because some of those changes of environments might have benefited Homo sapiens, and other changes might have benefited the Neanderthals.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
It's quite the topic. Yes, it is. It's a topic that's obviously exercised scientists since they were first found. They're not here now. So what happened to them? And did we play a role in their extinction?
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes, certainly. Yes, these would have been in the landscape. Caves were important. They were important shelters, gathering points, points of safety, of course. And often these caves are very visible on the landscape because they're higher up. People can see them. Obviously, if people are building a fire in there, you'd have had a smoke signal showing that there's someone in the cave.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So, yes, these would have been focuses of attention for both of the groups.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes, so it's data from the last 15 years, mainly. So we had the first bits of Neanderthal DNA, mitochondrial DNA, recovered back in 1997, incredibly, from the skeleton from the Neander Valley in Germany, the one that gave its name to the group, which was amazing. But that was only mitochondrial DNA and that had showed no signs of any mixture because it was from the mitochondrial DNA.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
The Neanderthals were distinct from anyone alive today. There was no sign of that Neanderthal kind of mitochondrial DNA in people today. So that reinforced the idea of a clear genetic separation between them. But as the data built up in the early 2000s, people started to reconstruct more of the whole Neanderthal genome.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And in some of those, there was evidence of a greater complexity because it was clear that there were some populations of Homo sapiens today, in fact, the ones outside of Africa, they seem closer to the Neanderthal in genomic structure than Africans did. And that's very strange to explain.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Well, if there was no interbreeding, why would people outside of Africa seem closer to the Neanderthals than people who came from Africa? And of course, that led to the suspicion that those people outside of Africa had some Neanderthal DNA in their genomes, leading to this greater similarity.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And in 2010, that was convincingly demonstrated because the first high quality Neanderthal genome was reconstructed, mainly based on material from Croatia, from Vindhya. And that showed that when we look at the genomes of people around the world today, People in Europe and Asia, Australia, the Americas, they have around 2% of Neanderthal DNA in their genomes.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And that is thought to be there because of interbreeding that happened maybe 50,000 years ago.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
That's right, in our genomes, yes. So around 2% of our DNA comes from that interbreeding, maybe 50,000 years ago. And it means that people in Africa, in a sense, are less closely related to the Neanderthals than we are. So even though I would say we did not evolve from Neanderthals, incredibly, the Neanderthals are still partly our ancestors.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Well, yes. So for this time period, if we focus on their last time, let's say between 40 and 60,000 years ago, we've got a lot of Neanderthal sites. We have a lot of them with archaeology. So Neanderthals made characteristic stone tools, which we can recognize. And we know that the Neanderthals spread all the way from Western Europe over to, at times, to Siberia.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So it seems contradictory, but we didn't evolve from Neanderthals, but they are partly our ancestors. Because today... People have calculated that there could be as much as 40% of the Neanderthal genome around. If you take all the Neanderthal DNA today surviving in the world in our genomes, if you put it all together, it might reconstruct as much as 40% of the whole Neanderthal genome.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And so interestingly, there's far more Neanderthal DNA around today because there are billions of us than there was at the time the Neanderthals were alive.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes. So, of course, that brings us on to the question of how the interbreeding happened. And obviously, if we go down to the details, we obviously know how it happened on a one-to-one basis, a Neanderthal mated with the Homo sapiens. But when we move on to how that was happening, what was the process before that happened?
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
We don't know, of course, how many of these conflicts were friendly and how many might have been more hostile. And we will learn more about this. But
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
it's quite possible of course that there were at times if the groups had been on the landscape for long enough and adapted to the presence of the other groups they might have exchanged partners in a peaceful way as modern hunter-gatherer groups do at times they exchange partners peaceably and it's it's a kind of negotiated thing to exchange partners so that could be what happened in some places but because the other possibility is what we see sometimes in hunter-gatherer groups
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And sometimes in, say, chimpanzees and so on, you will see a group of males who run out of female mates. They will raid another group and steal some females. And of course, that could have happened as well. Maybe some of these pioneering groups, largely males, actually stole some Neanderthal females and brought them into their group. And then they interbred with them.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
and thus Neanderthal DNA was introduced into Homo sapiens in that way so not necessarily a nice start to the process but certainly those babies were then successfully brought up in the Homo sapiens groups and ultimately integrated with the Homo sapiens groups and through later generations that Neanderthal DNA a lot of it disappeared
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So it seems that within a few thousand years, most of the Neanderthal DNA that had been acquired had been selected away. But bits of it were actually enhanced and became more common. And that's a very interesting area, of course. But it suggests that some of these bits of Neanderthal DNA could have been advantageous for our Homo sapiens people 40 or 45,000 years ago.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes. I mean, that's one of the interesting questions. So obviously we know there was a two-way exchange of DNA maybe 300,000 years ago. between us and Neanderthals. But at that time, the lineages, of course, were more closely related. They were closer to the common ancestor. But by the time we get to 60,000 or 50,000 years ago, the groups had diverged even further genetically and physically.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And so it's possible, and this is one of the strange things, when we look at all the early Homo sapiens fossils that we've got, All of them have signs of Neanderthal interbreeding in that period between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago, whether we're looking at China or whether we're looking at Europe.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So they had a very wide geographic range. That's huge. That's the length of Eurasia. It's a huge area. Absolutely. It's possible they even extended into places like China at times, but that's not so certain. But they had a very wide geographic range. And they have a huge range in time, of course. The Neanderthals are around for hundreds of thousands of years.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
But when we look at the Neanderthals from the same time period, oddly, none of them show any signs of recent Homo sapiens interbreeding. Now, that might mean that it only went one way, that the groups, for some reason, didn't tolerate interbreeding with each other in one direction or the other.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So whereas the sapiens were tolerant of Neanderthal interbreeding, maybe the Neanderthals were not tolerant of sapiens coming into their group and interbreeding with them. That's possible, but it's also possible there were incompatibilities, and these could have been genetic incompatibilities.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
There's some recent work that suggests that Neanderthals had some distinct blood groups from Homo sapiens, including in the Rhesus system. So possibly there were some genetic incompatibilities when a Neanderthal mother in her own group was trying to give birth to a hybrid baby. Maybe those births were less successful. there also could be physical reasons.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
The pelvic shape is different between Neanderthal females and Homo sapiens females, and the Neanderthal head shape of a baby is slightly different to a sapiens baby's head shape. So possibly the birth process was more complicated for a Neanderthal mother to give birth to a hybrid baby than from a Homo sapiens mother to give birth to a hybrid baby. So that also could have been part of the process.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
But ultimately, largely its movement of DNA in one direction into Homo sapiens. And that's also bad news for the Neanderthals, because I mentioned that they're low in numbers and they're also losing their prime age individuals we don't know if it's male or female or both, into the sapiens groups.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So they're losing primate breeding individuals into the Homo sapiens groups and that depletes their own gene pool.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yeah, that's right. They're losing people and they can't replace them.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yeah, I think it's impossible to say how much of it was purely down to us, but I think it's a combination of things. There also was climate change going on, and there were some severe cold shocks in this period between 40,000 and 50,000, which actually impacted both groups.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
But interestingly, there is some evidence of exchange of information between the groups as well, because some of those early sapiens groups at 45,000 years ago seemed to be adapting quite well to cold conditions. There were already some of them in really quite cold conditions. And it's possible that that is a sign they picked up some Neanderthal adaptations.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So the Neanderthals were, of course, well adapted to cold conditions culturally, the kind of stone tools you need, the best animals to get for skins to wear, how you process the skins. All of those things perhaps could have been useful. So by taking in Neanderthal members into their groups, they could have picked up some of that Neanderthal knowledge of how to live in the cold.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And that would have been very useful for Homo sapiens. And genetically, the genetic inheritance was also useful because it seems that a lot of our immune systems outside of Africa have elements of Neanderthal DNA in them. And that makes sense because, of course, we had evolved in Africa with African diseases and pathogens and so on coming out of Africa into Western Asia and then into Europe.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Although we think of them as being cold adapted, we think of Neanderthals alongside mammoths and reindeer. They also lived in warmer conditions, so it was often very warm. In places like Europe, we find them alongside elephants and hippopotamuses in Italy 250,000 years ago. So they were wide ranging and quite adaptable in the areas in which they lived.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
We were going to be encountering new diseases, new pathogens and so on. The Neanderthals had evolved in those areas for hundreds of thousands of years. They would have had genetic defenses to those diseases. We didn't have them. By interbreeding with Neanderthals, we got a quick fix to our immune system. So that was also an advantage for us.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes. I mean, it could have been a two-way process. Once they're mixing, of course, diseases will go either way. And in both cases, there could be immune problems that you won't have the immunity. So it could have affected Neantol numbers if they were also small in number and Neantol numbers were shrinking and Homo sapiens numbers were increasing.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Again, that would have had a bad impact on the Neantols. As a parallel, some people have thought, yes, you think of the way smallpox decimated populations in the Americas and in Australia when it was brought there by people traveling from Europe. We tend to think of that. But of course, these were diseases that spread in large numbers of people in urban centers.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So in those cases, the populations are closely packed together and it's much easier to transmit the diseases. When we go back to 50,000 years ago, populations are more scattered and living in smaller numbers. So I think that purely disease is not going to be enough of an explanation in the situation we're in because these populations are small in number and they're spread out more.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Nantos certainly thrived in Gibraltar for tens of thousands of years. And we've got a number of sites where they were living. And I worked at Vanguard Cave and Gorham's Cave there. And of course, we've got DNA from the Forbes Quarry Neanderthal and the Devil's Tower.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So these are all sites in Gibraltar. So Nantos certainly were thriving at times in Gibraltar. It's, of course, a relatively benign environment. While further north, there would have been, you know, much, much worse conditions, much colder conditions, Gibraltar and the whole of the south of Iberia would have been at times a refugium in which Neanderthals could survive.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And I mentioned the similarity between the DNA of the Forbes quarry Neanderthal from Gibraltar and Thorin's DNA. So there's that connection which we can pick up in Thorin maybe 50,000 years ago between Gibraltar and the Rome Valley.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
But although it's been claimed that Neanderthals survived even down to 30,000 years ago in Gibraltar, and I was actually, my name's on a paper that suggested that 20 years ago, I think the data now show that there's no evidence Neanderthals survived any longer in Gibraltar than they survived anywhere else. And I think they were gone from there by 40,000 years ago.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And I know it's claimed that, you know, this benign environment in Gibraltar allowed them to survive longer. But of course, that benign environment would have been attractive to Homo sapiens as well. And we know there were Homo sapiens in southern Iberia 42,000 years ago. So I don't know what would have kept them from going to Gibraltar if it was such a nice environment.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And of course, in terms of fossils, the best known ones are from Europe. That's where we have the best evidence. That's where they were first discovered. As we move further east, there are less Neanderthals. We've got good samples from places like Israel, from Iraq. But as we go further east, the actual fossil sample runs out. But we've got DNA, of course, adding to the story now.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So I personally don't think Gibraltar has any evidence to be the last stronghold of Neanderthals. It could have been one of their last strongholds. But equally, I've mentioned that we really don't have data from many areas further east for when the Neanderthals disappeared. So they could have survived longer there, but maybe they survived in pockets further east that we haven't yet discovered.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
There's not as much evidence from Britain as we would like to have for the last Neanderthals. So we have evidence of their stone tools at sites that go back to probably certainly 45 or 50,000 years ago. In Jersey, there's intriguing evidence on the island of Jersey of a population that might even have had mixed Neanderthal Homo sapiens features.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So there are some teeth which were thought to be Neanderthal teeth. discovered more than a century ago in Locotus and Brelad. But we studied them recently. And intriguingly, there are two different individuals. And both these individuals in their teeth show features that we think are typical both of Neanderthals and of Homo sapiens. And they're roughly 45,000 years old.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So that's exactly the time when there might have been a mixed population. So not much evidence as we would like, but it's possible there was even a kind of mixed heritage population on Jersey about 45,000 years ago. And when we come back to mainland Britain, We've got evidence now from Wogan Cavern. So Wogan Cavern is a fantastic site situated under Pembroke Castle. It's quite a site.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
It is quite a site. And I think you've been there, haven't you? So you know what it's like. But that site has evidence of early Homo sapiens occupation. So there's even an LRJ point. Now, this industry, lincumium ranivitian, yeomanivitian, this is an industry which we know
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
typifies a Homo sapiens expansion in Europe about 45,000 years ago, which is present in places like Czechia, is present in Germany, is present in Belgium, and it's present at Wogan Cavern. So this was a spread of sapiens, previously undetected, probably about 45,000 years ago, reaching right over into Western Britain. And were the Neanderthals still there at that time?
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Well, we can't be sure, but I think Wogan Cavern will be one of the places that will show the evidence of that or not.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
I don't think there's anything particular, but obviously watch this space because in the next year, we're going to see yet more fantastic publications about this period of time between 40 and 50,000 years ago.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes. So in 2010, we got the first high-quality reconstruction of a Neanderthal genome. And now we've got several Neanderthal individuals with high-quality genomes from Europe and from Asia. And of course, it's even now possible to get DNA from cave sediments.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So this is a great thing for the future, that even at a site where you haven't got a single Neanderthal fossil, you could have a trace of those Neanderthals if they were at the site at all. Maybe they urinated in the cave. Maybe a woman gave birth in the cave. That could have left a trace which can be picked up from DNA. So you don't even need Neanderthal fossils now.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And this means in the future, we'll have an even better picture of their range from looking at sites where we've just got Neanderthal archaeology. The sediments in those caves may well contain their DNA as well.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
That's right, yes. And so we've had an explosion of data in the last 10 years, and that explosion is going to carry on.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yeah, so the Neanderthals, obviously, as I mentioned, they go back hundreds of thousands of years. And so they must have diversified in that time. But what's interesting is that the picture we have of the late Neanderthals is that there's actually quite low diversity. So a lot of those early lineages have either disappeared or we haven't found their traces of them yet.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
The Neanderthals are relatively, you know, compared with Homo sapiens today, the Neanderthals have much lower variation. Some of their populations in the last 20,000 years are even quite inbred. So they're having to breed with close relatives, which is not good for the gene pool, of course.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So we think that in the last 20,000 years, the Neanderthals were relatively low in diversity, probably relatively low in numbers.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes, that's right. So at the moment, looking at radiocarbon dates on Neanderthal sites and where we have Neanderthal archaeology, at least in Europe, it's very difficult to find good evidence of them after 40,000 years ago. Now, we can't say the same as we go further east because the record is much less well dated. So in Iraq, they're around probably until 45,000 years ago, possibly younger.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And even further east, I mentioned they were in Siberia, places like that. We don't have a good fix on how late they went in some of those other regions. So it's possible they extended and survived further east later. It's also possible that they died out across their range in quite a short time, around 40,000. We're not certain of that at the moment.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes. It's always difficult to estimate numbers. Obviously, we've got archaeological sites where you can attempt to estimate numbers. But the genetic data suggests, as I mentioned, that they were low in diversity in that period between 40 and 60,000. They were low in diversity, but we do have surviving Neanderthal DNA evidence of it that comes from earlier sites.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And that suggests they were more diverse 100,000 years ago. now that's the last interglacial i mean the last interglacial the warmest stage was about 120 125 000 years ago when it was as warm or maybe even slightly warmer than today where we're coming back to those temperatures now of course unfortunately you know with global warming but That was a warm period.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And interestingly, the Neanderthals actually thrived. Although, as I say, we think of them as cold adapted. Actually, that could have been their peak time in terms of numbers. Probably there were large numbers of Neanderthals 120,000 years ago.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And then after that, with the decrease of suitable environments, with the decrease in temperatures, their numbers may have shrunk and their ranges perhaps shrank as well.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes. So when we look at modern species that are threatened, of course, we think of, you know, particular groups of tigers, particular populations of elephants, populations of gorillas. Some of these are very threatened. They're low in number and they're low in diversity. And once a population gets down to a few thousand, it really is at risk from diseases, from very rapid climate change.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
from some kind of exploitation, some kind of competition can tip them over the edge to extinction. So we're aware of that today with people trying to save some of the last rhinos, for example, in certain areas. Well, the Neanderthals, probably in their last 20,000 years, we could say that they probably were a threatened species in the same way. They were low in numbers and low in diversity.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
That's bad for the gene pool, of course, because if you've got low variation, you may get a buildup of what you can, in simple terms, bad mutations may build up in the gene pool. It also limits your ability to adapt genetically to changing conditions if you've got low numbers and low diversity.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So it was bad news for them, and possibly they were already a species in trouble by 60,000 years ago, even before Homo sapiens made a significant impact on them.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes, rapid climate change have probably been pruning their numbers. So the climate from about 100,000 years ago, the climate in Europe was fluctuating dramatically. Every few thousand years, it fluctuated from nearly as warm as today to bitterly cold. And that happened over and over again every few thousand years.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And some of these switches in climate were very rapid, probably even in the lifetime of a single Neanderthal. They might have seen the environment that they were used to completely changing, perhaps from relatively benign woodlands and things to a glacial tundra. Or if they were adapting to cold conditions, they might see it suddenly change into much warmer conditions.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And that would be a challenge for them too, because they're adapted to one environment and then it rapidly changes.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yeah, so, well, you really need an archaeologist to answer that one properly. But from my point of view, yeah, we know that the Neanderthals were capable technologically.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
They were more capable than probably, I would have said 20 years ago, I would have said that there was quite a big behavioral gulf between us and the Neanderthals, that we were making all these complex tools and making art and so on. And the Neanderthals largely weren't doing that.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
What we've learned in the last 20 years is Neanderthals were doing a lot of the things that we used to think were probably unique to Homo sapiens. So this behavioral gap has considerably narrowed. Some people think it's disappeared completely. I don't go that far, but they were very capable technologically.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So, yes, they were largely making stone tools, of course, was their main way of making stone.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
things for food processing and weapons but of course it wasn't the only material and we've got to remember that wood would have been very important for them and unfortunately in most cases the evidence of all that wood technology has disappeared there are a few rare examples where we find wooden artifacts but that must also have been important for them so for example we know that they were making wooden spears
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And we know that some of their stone points must have been mounted on handles as spears, either throwing spears or for thrusting.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes, that's right. And some of these may just have been simply pushed into a wooden shaft. But in other cases, it looks like they were even able to make resins, quite complex technology to treat tree material, tree resins and sap and so on.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
treat these with heat to make them into a kind of glue which enables you to fix the head on to the shaft so they were capable of that they certainly in many situations were capable of making fire it seems it will and that would have been very important for their survival And even art, there's evidence now that Neanderthals were marking cave walls.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
They certainly were making marks on bones and things. And there's quite a debate about, you know, how much artistic expression the Neanderthals had. In my view, we haven't yet got a representation by a Neanderthal of a person or an animal. That still seems to be unique to Homo sapiens.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
But in terms of their adaptations to different situations, we know now that they were in some cases adapted to living by the coast. So from our excavations in Gibraltar 20 years ago or more, we were able to show that there they were adapting to coastal living. They were collecting and eating mollusks from the sea. They were even butchering at times dolphin and seal.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Now the seals, they might well have been out and clubbed baby seals, but it's possible the dolphin was a stranding. But they certainly were very used to those coastal environments and they were exploiting them for food. And again, that's something that 20 or 30 years ago would have been much more debatable.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
Yes. I mean, it's difficult to really map how much these Neontal groups were connecting with each other. So there are different views on this. Some people think that they did have quite wide communication networks. We can look at that to an extent with the movement of raw materials. For example, stone tool resources move across the landscape.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And by and large, it looks like Homo sapiens extended the networks much wider. But the Neanderthals certainly were mobile and they certainly must have been in contact with other groups because they were exchanging mates. So there are a couple of sites where we can even look at the mating patterns of Neanderthal groups.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
And at least from the sites where we've got the data, it looks like the males were largely staying in one location and the females were coming into those locations from elsewhere. So what's sometimes called a patrilocal mating system.
The Ancients
The Last Neanderthals
So within a particular Neanderthal site, in mitochondrial terms, which is the lineages inherited through mothers to their children, the mitochondria suggests that the males are closely related to each other, but the females are more diverse in mitochondria. So that must indicate there is movement of people, and in this case, the movement of women into particular Neanderthal groups.