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Neanderthals and modern must have coexisted in Europe for several thousand years. What happened when they encountered each other and how they influenced one another are riveting questions. Jean-Jacques Hublin and his team at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary in Leipzig are searching for the answers. In the process, they have found clues as to what the Neanderthals learned from sapiens – and what they didn’t.

18 MaxPlanckResearch 3 | 17 Photo: Anna Schroll lin conductsresearch intohumanpre- partment headedbyJean-Jacques Hub- in Leipzig,theHumanEvolution De Anthropology stitute forEvolutionary their babyinmourning. even possiblethattheparentsburied today calltheGrotteduRenne.It’s in centralFrance,whichprehistorians parents leftthechildbehindinacave N TEXT Time travel: At the Max Planck In- KLAUS WILHELM KLAUS Perhaps. Inanycase,the mal? Acongenitaldisease? The attackofawildani baby diedof.Aninfection? obody knowswhatthe - - Frido Welker preparesbonefragments, , orpaleoanthropology. Postdoc about theidentityofliving being bone materialandrevealinformation nutest tracesofproteinsin ancient This method can detect even the mi - leoproteomics, thishasnow changed. such damagedwitnessesofprehistory. procedures forextractinginsightsfrom suchasWelkerthropologists hadno useless –ormoreaccurately, paleoan- ously consideredsuchfragmentstobe du Renne.Alltheexpertshadprevi some ofthemsplinters,fromtheGrotte Thanks to a method known as pa- - baby fromtheGrotteduRenne wasa ple,” Welker explains. relationships andlifestylesof thesepeo- able informationontheevolutionary teins ofStoneAgebonescontain valu- mantle fromDNAanalysis.“Thepro Paleoproteomics could take over this of assigningabonetocertainanimal. ously regardedasthestandardmethod Examination ofthegenomewasprevi- ger than DNA inancientbonematerial. ten times lon- Hublin. Proteinssurvive method,”saysJean-Jacques tionary from whichitstems–a“fairlyrevolu- It wasthusdeterminedthat the FOCUS_The RootsofHumankind their physiognomy. their of awe in stands still he years, many for Neanderthals studying been has Hublin Jean-Jacques Director Planck Max though Even behold: to sight impressive An 3 | MaxPlanckResearch 17MaxPlanckResearch 19 - FOCUS_The Roots of Humankind

10 mm

Underestimated artists: Neanderthals were long thought to have lacked the ability to make jewelry. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have been able to establish beyond doubt that these items of jewelry made from teeth, ivory and fossil shells were used by Neanderthals.

little , not even weaned, “It’s highly likely that the truth was gazes at the of a Neanderthal perhaps six months to two years old anything but romantic.” head in his office. It was fashioned at on the day it died 44,000 to 40,000 The witnesses to this past dating the beginning of the , but years ago. Its meager remains shed back tens of millennia – bones, teeth is still essentially in line with current more light than ever before on a de- and cultural objects such as and knowledge. This means that the face is cades-long dispute among paleoan- jewelry – are limited and often lead to long and projected forward, with strik- thropological experts. This genre of acrimonious discussions. “Of course ing ridges over the eyebrows, while the research is marked by sometimes that bothers me,” says Hublin. “We nose is voluminous, the jaw massive heated debate. On the question, for would be advised to distinguish and the chin area receding. “If you were example, of how Neanderthals and between fact and fiction.” to meet a Neanderthal in the train,” the “modern man” – meaning you and me paleoanthropologist explains, “you’d – encountered each other in Europe THERE WERE ALMOST NO change compartments.” roughly 45,000 years ago. Following HUMANS IN THE STONE AGE Even 45,000 years ago, it must have the latest high-tech analyses carried been a highly unusual event when rep- out by his team, Jean-Jacques Hublin So let’s take a look at the sapiens-Nean- resentatives of modern man, Homo sa- is convinced that “there was a cultur- derthals case – one of the Max Planck piens, first came across members of al transfer between the two hominins. scientist’s specialist areas – in this light. Homo neanderthalensis in the forests It was only when Homo sapiens ar- Ever since the first bones of this homi- and prairies of Europe. “For both sides,” rived that the Neanderthals sudden- nin were discovered in the Neander Hublin says with a laugh. According to ly began to do things they had never Valley near Düsseldorf in 1856, legends the results of recent studies, the Nean- done before.” have been woven around his exis- derthals could already look back on at The Leipzig-based scientist assumes tence – primarily because he looks so least 400,000 years on the continent – that this exchange “didn’t require any different from modern man. in an area ranging from Spain to the particularly intensive contact.” Let With a height of no more than 1.70 Russian Altai Mountains and up to the alone any love affair between Homo sa- meters, he wasn’t particularly tall, but latitudes of northern Germany. piens and Homo neanderthalensis, as his physique was strong and powerful, As hunters and gatherers, they was widely circulated in recent years. with a very wide chest, the males most likely wandered across stretches “Too many stories are being invented,” weighing up to 90 kilos. “Very impres- of land measuring many thousands of

says the Frenchman quite profanely. sive,” says Jean-Jacques Hublin as he square kilometers in groups number- Photo: M. Hardy/MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology

20 MaxPlanckResearch 3 | 17 Photo: M. Hardy/MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology

Photo: Anna Schroll (left), MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology (right) more complexthanwehad longas and (future)competitors.“They were phisticated asthoseoftheir cousins mental faculties that were almost as so- thals facedthislonelyexistence with cording tothelateststudies, Neander- was anemptyworld,”Hublinsays.Ac- derthal Europeans.”“TheStoneAge more thananestimated10,000“Nean- distribution, therewereprobablyno members. Evenintimesoftheirwidest tion phasesandwerereplacedbynew - groups simplydiedoutinlongstarva It’s likelythatmanyoftheirsmall of modernhumans. to twoyearsearlierthantheoffspring children ofthishomininmaturedone el onitsteeth.Thisshowedthatthe child fromwafer-thinlayersofenam- termined theageofaNeanderthal lived atafasterpace.Hublin’s teamde lieved. And Neanderthals probably greater extentthanpreviouslybe sumed plantsandvegetablestoamuch es withgreatefficiency. Theyalsocon large animalssuchasbisonandhors- women. Theywereabletokilleven ing nomorethan50to60menand Their winterswerebrutalandlong. - - - - vived forfurthertensofthousands of well. Theywoulddoubtless havesur the adverseconditionsinEurope quite Grotte duRenneinBurgundy. for instanceintheaforementioned culture inmanyarchaeological sites– plorers havefoundartifactsfromthis stones in a characteristic fashion. Ex- ers andbladesthatwerehewnfrom such asarrowpoints,scrapers,scratch- During thistime,theyproducedtools terized a period: theMousterian. leoanthropologists say – which charac- aspa 120,000 yearsago–or“” developed a culture roughly made intheirearliestdays.Theyeven denced bytheintricatespearsthey thals weredefinitelyskilled,asevi From a technical standpoint, Neander- THEM ASUPERIORMIND SAPIENS HOMO like, butalsonotlikeus.” cognitive powers,definitelynotape- identical atthistimeintermsoftheir then adds: “Both hominins were almost sumed,” theresearcher concedes.He The Neanderthalsthuscoped with BROUGHT WITH - - - ly createdastirinEurope45,000years years ifanotherspecieshadn’t sudden- areas east of the Rhine in Baden-Würt - ern Italy, and soontheywerescouring ny tomodernmanarefound innorth in huntingtechnology. bones, thatatthetimewere thefinest and jectile points,madefromivory as theAurignacian.Itistypifiedbypro –thisperiodisreferredto own industry rived inEuropethantheycreatedtheir and . No sooner had they ar- eggshells, andformedpointsforarrows frombones,snailsand ioned jewelry made fishhooksfromfishbones,fash- piens notonlyworkedstones,butalso that wasultimatelysuperior. tantly, theybroughtwiththemamind the establishedspecies.Moreimpor were much more delicatelybuilt than ago: modernman.Thenewarrivals Grotte du Renne (right). Renne du Grotte around 400,000 for Europe in lived have to estimated are 1910 the from bust realistic absolutely an here – Neanderthals settlers: Early The oldestbonesbearingtestimo - 45,000 years before modern man arrived years ago. Both used the the used Both ago. years 3 | MaxPlanckResearch 17MaxPlanckResearch Homo sa- s – – s 21 - - - FOCUS_The RootsofHumankind remains stem from. To do this, small quantities of bone material are first extracted from the find. the from extracted first are material bone of quantities small this, Todo the from. stem creatures remains which determine to used be can fragments bone in Proteins samples: for Drilling 22 recent layers. intheupper,gnacian industry more also discoveredremainsoftheAuri older excavationlayers,archaeologists the Mousterianartifactsindeeper, were continuallystoppingby. Besides refuge duringtheStoneAge.People The cavewasclearlyapopularplaceof layers of the buried for decades. covering richfindsfromthevarious for archaeologists, who have been un- beneathit–astrokeofluck erything ev roof ofthiscavecollapsed,burying Renne. Around20,000yearsago,the temberg, notfarfromtheGrottedu MaxPlanckResearch 3 MaxPlanckResearch | 17 - - not oftheNeanderthals. And ofHomosapiens. gnacian industry ly reminiscentofthesubsequentAuri- worked utensilsareoccasionallystrong typical.Theseelaborately are alsovery or kniveswitharounded,bluntedback grooved teeth;fossils;andsoon.Points tive pendantsmadefromperforated, found inthe1950s.Earrings;decora ry, andother materials were Many rings, pendants and clasps of ivo- perronian (CP)culturewerefound. sites withdeposits–relicsoftheChâtel the GrotteduRenne–andatfurther However, inanintermediatelayer 5 mm - - - At thesametime,however, easilyiden- component oftheconnectivetissue from thebonesamples,anorganic were foundintheCPlayerofGrotte tifiable remainsofbonesandteeth tor massspectrometersthat candeter- of atomsandmolecules, accelera- high-tech scalesthatmeasure themass can befoundinhisdepartment –both dozen of thelatest mass spectrometers nology,” Hublin says, smiling. Half a equipment. “I’mobsessedwithtech- came thehourofmodernanalytical that consists of protein chains. Then tion siteinSaint-Césaire. different, well-knownFrenchexcava the shinbone of a Neanderthal from a In addition,theresearchers examined from MousterianorAurignacianlayers. anderthal remains,andlessfrequently or Ne- from areas containing CP jewelry from theGrotteduRenne–mostly bonesamples lected 40well-preserved ries ofyear-longtests.First,histeamse national partnersheembarkedonase- to believe this, and together with inter were dugup. derthal relicswhenthelowerlayers subsequently mixedupwiththeNean- been madebymodernmanandonly had their interpretation, the jewelry Châtelperronian layer. Accordingto between thevariousfindsfrom proved thattherewereagedifferences British researchers believed they had this sparkedreneweddebate.In2010, study fromthe1990ssuggested.But du Renne–fromNeanderthals,asa The scientistsextractedcollagen Jean-Jacques Hublinwasdisinclined modern humans. modern of children than earlier years two to one matured they evidence, this to Accordingchildrenthal developed. Neander quickly how show to used seen in a digital digital a in seen here – enamel Tooth growth: Dental 3 -D model – can be be can – model -D

- - - -

Photos: MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology (top), Anna Schroll (bottom) Photos: MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology (top), Anna Schroll (bottom)

Photo: Anna Schroll for this purpose. this for laboratory the in samples the prepares Welker Frido origins. its determine to spectrometry mass using analyzed be can material bone The termine whether proteins in a bone that theirmethodscanbeusedtode They demonstratedforthefirsttime rowed fromthefieldofproteomics. shotgun proteomics,methodsbor study: peptidemassfingerprintingand ods withinpaleoanthropologyinits therefore applied relatively new meth- and nottomodernhumans. Renne oncebelongedtoNeanderthals– from theCPlayerinGrottedu unambiguous evidence that the bones Could have!Buttherewasstillalackof created theCPindustriesinFrance. picture perfectly. from Saint-Césairealsofitsintothe 41,500 years, theNeanderthal skeleton of thesediments.With an ageof er layers, thus ruling out any mixing didn’t overlap withthefindsfromoth the agesofChâtelperronianfinds assigned tothisculture.Inaddition, years oldandthereforemustindeedbe layers arebetween41,000and35,500 the samplesfromChâtelperronian The extensiveanalysesshowedthat INNOVATIONS NEANDERTHALS ADOPTEDMANY carbon isotopesinmolecules. stance, byusingthedecayofradioactive mine theexactageofbones,forin The teamworkingwithHublin Neanderthals couldthusalsohave - - - - come from a Neanderthal or from a different Early Stone Age groups with- we are back in the realm of ever-popu- modern . Tiny bone samples suf- in our Homo genus,” says Welker. lar legends. And Jean-Jacques Hublin fice for the test, and this is the aspect The big question overshadowing the again urges caution. that is crucial and new. It is also the pre- studies is: How did Homo sapiens get cise reason why the scientists were able, along with Homo neanderthalensis? The TWO PERCENT OF OUR DNA COMES for the first time, to conduct a molecu- new finds can be interpreted in differ- FROM THE NEANDERTHALS lar analysis of 28 bone fragments from ent ways. One could take them to mean a layer of attributed to the that Neanderthals independently made The transfer of cultural innovations Châtelperronian period. an unexpected leap forward in their de- didn’t require constant contact, much “They come from Neanderthals,” velopment just as Homo sapiens spread less close friendship. Modern man, says Frido Welker. By combining the pa- across Europe. “But that would border too, had to master the harsh life of the leoproteomic analysis with paleogenet- on a miracle,” says Jean-Jacques Hublin. hunters and gatherers, and competed ics, it was ultimately clear that the bone For him, it is far more likely “that the with his contemporaries in the other fragments were those of an infant from two hominins came into contact and species for territory and . Even if the Châtelperronian period. “Our study the Neanderthals adopted some of the there were only dozens or a few hun- shows that with paleoproteomics alone, innovations of modern man.” dred groups that seldom encountered it is possible to differentiate between The Neanderthals could have con- each other in the empty world of the ceivably found tools and jewelry made Stone Age, most meetings of these con- by Homo sapiens – and then copied and, temporaries are more likely to have in time, introduced them to neighbor- been unfriendly if not even hostile, ag- ing groups. They were likely intelligent gressive and violent. enough to do so. Perhaps a well-mean- Admittedly, there is no concrete ing, modern human showed them how proof that this was the case. Neverthe- to make these wonderful articles. There less, we know that encounters between were conceivably barter transactions competing tribes seldom went smooth- between the groups. Who knows? Now ly in human history. It is therefore

Although the inner ear and middle ear ossicle of the Neanderthals are built differently 10 mm than ours, both work in a similar way. This points to similarities in the sense of balance

and the use of sound for communication. Photo: Anna Schroll (top), MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology (bottom)

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Left Focus on the facts in futuristic surroundings: Jean-Jacques Hublin takes a critical view when research and fiction are combined – for instance in the claim that there were love relationships between modern man and Neanderthals. Hublin suspects that encounters between the two were more likely to have been unfriendly.

highly likely that things would have And that they wear jewelry and deco- that, behind the objects, modern man been no different when Homo sapiens rate their bodies as a sign of their alle- recognized stories, mythical elements and Neanderthals met. giance to a larger community consist- and faith. “This is a very strong factor It’s also possible that the females of ing of hundreds or perhaps thousands. that the Neanderthals apparently had the competing group were stolen in the People who act in solidarity even if no sense of,” Hublin says. process. So it may not have been fiery they don’t see each other every day. Things of this are “difficult romances that led to sex between the There’s nothing like this in the world to investigate,” even with the battery parties, but acts of violence. They have of the Neanderthals. of equipment on hand at the Max left demonstrable traces to this day, as Planck Institute in Leipzig. Just how researchers have known for years. HOMO SAPIENS PAINTED IMAGES much this frustrates the tech fan is no- Around 2 percent of the DNA in our ge- FROM THEIR IMAGINATION ticeable. But who knows? Forty years nome today stems from the Neander- ago, when he began his career as a thals – a limited but long-lasting lega- Second, Homo sapiens painted on cave young student, Hublin believed that all cy of this long-extinct hominin. walls in the early stages of their early the essential elements of human histo- The earth has revealed evidence of European existence, also representing ry had already been researched, and the last Neanderthals in layers that objects that didn’t exist in reality, but that methodology wouldn’t make any are 40,000 or perhaps 38,000 years only in their imagination. Men with further significant progress: “I couldn’t old. At some point during this period, lion heads, for instance. This means have been more mistaken.” the last of their species disappeared. “Because of us,” says Jean-Jacques

Hublin laconically. From a purely mo- lecular standpoint, the differences be- TO THE POINT tween modern humans and Neander- thals are small: a mere 87 proteins l Neanderthals had similar cognitive abilities to Homo sapiens in the Stone Age. separate the two species. Many of them, l For example, they adopted the tool-making techniques of newly arrived however, are important for func- modern man. tion and development. l The superiority of Homo sapiens probably consisted in their ability to form Something in modern man was dif- networks over large distances and to use artistic and mythical elements to reinforce the group. ferent. It’s possible he took a more ag- gressive approach than his related competitors; he probably cooperated more effectively in larger teams and in GLOSSARY multiple groups, also showing more Paleoproteomics: Identification of prehistoric finds by means of protein analyses, empathy and consideration for fellow for example in bone fragments. members. (Tool) industries: Stone Age cultures characterized by certain tools – in some cases Experts have found some indica- also jewelry and works of art – and the production techniques used. tions that this was the case. First, mod- : The Neanderthal tool culture, marked by points, scrapers and ern humans apparently bartered even blades hewn from stone in a characteristic fashion. in the early stages of their time in Eu- : A culture that coincides with the appearance of modern man in Europe. . For example, shells from the Med- Typified by projectile points of bone and ivory, long, narrow blades, and the first iterranean have been found in Germa- miniature works of art. ny. “That suggests networks operating Châtelperronian: The last culture with which the Neanderthals are associated. It over- over large areas,” says Hublin. “People laps in time with the older Aurignacian and is characterized by bone, and ivory knew that fellow humans were living tools as well as jewelry.

Photo: Anna Schroll (top), MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology (bottom) on the other side of the mountains.”

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