Evolutionary Anthropology 20:198–200 (2011)

BOOK REVIEW

tus/ergaster, are ancestors of all of their H. heidelbergensis predecessors News: us. Why is it that the in showing abundant evidence of are, as Trinkaus and Shipman1 aptly controlled use of fire. Faunal remains Extinct Species put it, ‘‘images of ourselves’’? from Neanderthal sites preserve evi- Homo neanderthalensis lived in dence of a broad diet that included Exhibits Variability western Eurasia between 250-30 Ka. birds, fish, shellfish, reptiles, and Most of their habitation sites and small mammals, as as large ter- Continuity and Discontinuity in the fossils are associated with faunas restrial mammals ranging from ga- Peopling of Europe: One Hundred and from temperate woodland and steppe zelle and ibex to , bison, rhi- Fifty Years of Neanderthal Study, habitats. The limits of their eastern nos, and . As among sites Volume 1. Edited by S. Condemi and G.- C. Weniger (2011) New York: Springer. range are unclear, with the southern- of roughly contemporaneous H. sapi- 398 pp. $139.00 (hardcover) ISBN: 978- most fossils coming from and ens, there are occasional finds of 94-007-0491-6 the easternmost from Uzbekistan. mineral , perforated shells, Neanderthal crania are distinct in modified bone tools, burials (some- Neanderthal Lifeways, Subsistence and featuring a divided brow-ridge, pro- times with mortuary furnishings), : One Hundred and Fifty nounced mid-facial prognathism, a and occasional evidence of cannibal- Years of Neanderthal Study, Volume 2. Edited by N.J. Conard (2011) New York: projecting occipital bone, and teeth ism (inferred from cut-marks and Springer. 308 pp. $139.00 (hardcover) with enlarged pulp cavities and bone breakage). Such symbolic evi- ISBN:978-94-007-0414-5 incompletely divided roots. Below dence as has been claimed for Nean- the neck, the Neanderthals were rug- derthal and early H. sapiens contexts Becoming Neanderthals: The Earlier gedly built, with thick cortical bone, before ca. 40-50 Ka share a quality British Middle Palaeolithic. By Scott B. enlarged joint surface areas, a barrel of idiosyncracy, rarely taking the (2011) Oakville, CT: David Brown Book Company. 248 pp. $100.00 (hardcover) chest, wide pelvis, and relatively same form at more than one site. ISBN: 978-18-421-7973-4 short distal limb segments. Some of Compared to contexts associated these features occur piecemeal with Pleistocene H. sapiens, Neander- The Paleoanthropology and Archaeol- among European H. heidelbergensis thal contexts lack evidence of noncu- ogy of Big-Game Hunting: , Fat fossils dating to ca. 300 Ka, and not linary pyrotechnology, such as heat- or Politics?. By Speth J. D. (2010) New in their African counterparts. This treatment of stone or the production York: Springer. 358 pp. $169.00 (hard- suggests the Neanderthals evolved in cover) ISBN: 978-14-4196-732-9 of ceramics; complex projectile tech- western Eurasia. The last appearance nology, such as bow and , What is it about the Neanderthals? dates for Neanderthal fossils range spearthrower, and dart; figurative No other extinct hominin captures between 45 Ka in the East Mediterra- and abstract notation; ocean-going the popular and scientific imagina- nean Levant and 28 or 30 Ka in Ibe- watercraft; freestanding architecture; tion the way the Neanderthals do. ria. The presence of Neanderthal fea- food storage; or either plant or ani- Virtually every aspect of their being, tures among some European Upper mal . their origins, behavior, appearance, Paleolithic H. sapiens fossils, as well Attaching the definitive article to interactions with other hominins, as the difficulty of discriminating any proper noun (‘‘the Neander- extinction (or survival?) is passion- between Neanderthal and H. sapiens thals’’) or using a proper noun as an ately debated not just among scien- fossils from Southwest Asia has long adjective (‘‘Neanderthal sites’’), as tists, but also the interested public. fueled hypotheses of gene flow this review has done up to this point, Their fate has been the subject of between the Neanderthals and early inevitably shifts the focus of discus- immensely popular novels, several H. sapiens. These continuity hypothe- sion toward modality and away from films, and countless television docu- ses have found support from analy- variability. And yet variability is of mentaries. There have even been se- ses of aDNA from fossils and varia- paramount evolutionary significance. rious calls to ‘‘revive’’ them by using tion in the DNA of living , Modalities in genotypes, phenotypes, fossil DNA. Why is it that people suggesting that some significant por- and behavior are merely byproducts care so much more about these later tion of Eurasian humans, and possi- of selection on variability. One inter- Pleistocene fossils than they seem to bly some North Africans as well, esting theme emerging in recent about earlier hominins? At most, the have genes that are traceable to Ne- books on Neanderthal paleoanthro- Neanderthals are ancestral only to anderthal ancestors. pology is increased recognition of some of us. Earlier hominins, like Neanderthal fossils are associated variability in their fossil, genetic, and or Homo erec- with ‘‘’’ archeological records. stone-tool assemblages and a handful In 2006, it was 150 years since the of so-called ‘‘transitional’’ Middle- discovery and recognition of the first VC 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc. industries, mainly Neanderthal fossil from Feldho¨ fer, DOI 10.1002/evan20322 Published online in Wiley Online Library from Mediterranean Europe. Nean- Germany. A pair of volumes in the (wileyonlinelibrary.com). derthal sites differ from those of Springer Vertebrate Paleobiology BOOK REVIEW 199 and Paleoanthropology Series pres- The contents of the archeology vol- stone tools in response to situation- ent papers from an international ume are mostly rather narrowly ally variable selective pressures. congress held in Bonn to celebrated focused papers presenting evidence Archeological and biogeoisotopic this anniversary. Condemi and from particular sites or regions. evidence clearly points to carnivory Weniger’s Continuity and Discontinu- There are a few exceptions: Gaudzin- having a major role in Neanderthal ity in the Peopling of Europe compiles ski-Windheuser and Roebroeks on subsistence. However, as Speth asks, mostly papers dealing with physical subsistence in northern habitats, what motivates hominin carnivory? anthropology and genetics, but also Bocherens on the stable isotopic re- There have been two major shifts in papers looking at the big picture of cord of Neanderthal diet, Kuhn on archeologists’ thinking about the Neanderthal paleobiology. Conard the organization of stone-tool tech- motives for hominin predation on and Richter’s Neanderthal Lifeways, nology, Gamble on models of Nean- large game. Early theories focused, Subsistence, and Technology groups derthal social life, and Conard on the appropriately, on nutritional returns. together the archeological papers, roots of the Upper Paleolithic in Cen- In the 1960s and 1970s, archeologists those dealing with chronostratigra- tral Europe. saw protein as the target resource phy, subsistence, technology, and Two recent monographic works, but, as ‘‘middle-range’’ research symbolic or cultural behavior. by Scott and Speth, highlight the im- involving nutritionists, ethnoarcheol- The 49 papers in these two vol- portance of variability in models of ogists, and carnivore ethologists umes provide an excellent snapshot Neanderthal behavior, but they do so eventually showed, fat was as impor- of Neanderthal research at the start in different ways. Scott starts with tant as protein, if not more so, to of the twenty-first century. No review the archeological record and infers hominin predators. Speth reviews a can summarize them all adequately. patterns of behavioral variability. newly emerging focus on the social This reviewer was particularly struck Speth explores the sources of consequences of predation, increased by the several papers in Continuity variability in particular behavior and social standing, and reproductive and Discontinuity that explored the follows up with their implications for opportunities that accrue to success- origins of Neanderthals using newly archeology. ful hunters. As richly documented by discovered Middle Pleistocene fossils. Britain usually does not figure ethnographic evidence, this work In this, the Atapuerca Gran Dolina prominently in these debates because does not argue that social motives TD-6 (Spain) fossil sample is clearly there is a wide perception that, com- replaced nutritional ones, but rather, key. It is almost unique in providing pared to adjacent parts of northwest- that as part of a battery of variable a rich sample of contemporary H. ern Europe, it was sparsely occupied. incentives, they gave rise to similar heidelbergensis individuals, among Scott’s Becoming Neanderthals sets behaviors. A dead is a which one can see not only the evo- this record straight. While sites dat- dead mammoth, whether it was lutionary roots of the Neanderthal ing to Marine Isotopic Stages (MIS) killed for protein, fat, to ‘‘show off,’’ lineage, but also hints of other paths 5-3 (127-71 Ka) are indeed rare, or, more likely, all of these reasons. not taken in the European hominin there are well-documented earlier Where this relates to Neanderthals is evolution. Like us, Neanderthals Paleolithic sites in Britain that are that in modeling their behavior, pale- were but one branch on a bushy referable to MIS 10-6 (364-127 Ka). oanthropologists have a longstanding Middle Pleistocene hominin family Nearly all of these British sites are habit of seeing it as a simpler, ‘‘prim- tree. open-air sites, and many of them are itive’’ version of recent behav- Several papers also report progress sufficiently undisturbed by postdepo- ior. This book shows that more real- in sequencing the Neanderthal ge- sitional processes to permit success- istic models of Neanderthal behavior nome. One has mixed feelings about ful artifact-refitting studies and tech- have to begin by assuming that the this development. On one hand, it nological analysis of core reduction cost-and-benefit calculus governing has the potential to clarify the or tool curation strategies. Earlier that behavior was as complex as is genetic basis for the morphological contexts evidence of the pro- observed among recent humans, contrasts whereby we have for so duction of handaxes and other large unless there are principled reasons long evaluated evolutionary relation- core-tools, but after 300-250 Ka these for expecting particular differences. ships between Neanderthals and are joined by various ‘‘Levallois’’ No good scientific investigation starts Homo sapiens. On the other, there is techniques for detaching large flakes by assuming that the null hypothesis also the potential risk of ‘‘genetic from hierarchically organized cores. is wrong. Whether the morphological reductionism,’’ of seeing quantifiable In later contexts (128-40 Ka), han- differences thus far identified genetic differences as the be-all and daxes eclipse Levallois products. Nei- between Neanderthals and Homo end-all of questions about Neander- ther of these replaces sapiens justify such assumptions is thal paleobiology. Genetic differences the other in a substitutional fashion; likely to be the next frontier in Nean- account for little of the anthropologi- rather, they vary in relation to local derthal paleoanthropology. cally interesting variability in recent geology or geography, raw materials, So what is it about Neanderthals? human behavior. There is no reason likely demographic factors, and cul- Why do we care so much about their to expect Neanderthal behavioral tural factors. Just as among recent place in human-origins research? variability to be any less complex in humans, Neanderthals apparently Two hypotheses seem to fit the facts loosely tethered genetics. chose to solve problems requiring well. The ‘‘looking-where-the-light-is- 200 Shea BOOK REVIEW good’’ hypothesis holds that we care popular interest in Neanderthals may who do not trace either their cultural so much about Neanderthals because reflect their perceived ancestral sta- heritage or their biological ancestry we know so much about them. Nean- tus to Europeans and western to ‘‘Neanderthal country’’ grows, will derthals were endemic to Europe Asians. Today, most hominin paleon- scientific interest in Neanderthals be and western Asia. This is where sci- tologists and Paleolithic archeolo- eclipsed by research on other Mid- entific human-origins research began gists trace their origins to Europe dle-Late Pleistocene hominins, such and where it has been pursued for and western Asia. (There is also a as those from East Asia or sub- the longest period. As a result, there pragmatic dimension to this. Nobody Saharan Africa? Only time will tell. are more well-documented Late has ever won accolades or attention For now, new research increasingly Pleistocene hominin fossils and Mid- for their fossil discoveries by trum- casts Neanderthals as, to paraphrase dle Paleolithic archeological sites in peting their status as evolutionary Foley,2 yet ‘‘another unique and vari- Europe and western Asia than in any dead ends.) able species.’’ other part of the world of equivalent Neither of these hypotheses is extent. As a purely practical matter, mutually exclusive, and both are REFERENCES Neanderthal fossils and their associ- potentially refutable. Human origins ated archeological record offer the research in other parts of the world 1 Trinkaus E, Shipman P. 1993. Neandertals: richest database with which to test is beginning to catch up to Europe images of ourselves. Evol Anthropol 1:194–201. 2 Foley R. 1987. Another unique species: pat- hypotheses about hominin paleobiol- and western Asia. At some point terns in human evolutionary ecology. Harlow, ogy and behavioral variability. soon, it will be possible to test paleo- UK: Longman Group. The ‘‘venerable ancestor’’ hypothe- biological and behavioral hypotheses sis holds that we care so much about in other regions just as well as in John J. Shea Neanderthals because they are plau- western Eurasia. Will Neanderthals Department of Anthropology sibly ancestral to us. Reverence for remain so central to paleoanthropol- Stony Brook University ancestors is a human cultural univer- ogy beyond this point? Similarly, as Stony Brook, NY 11794-4364 sal. Some measure of scientific and the number of paleoanthropologists E-mail: [email protected]

Articles in Forthcoming Issues

• Recent Advances in Culturomics Jonathan Marks

• A Geological History of the Turkana Basin Craig S. Feibel

• Geochronology of the Turkana Depression Francis Brown and Ian McDougall

• Stable isotope ecology in the Omo-Turkana Basin Thure Cerling, Naomi Levin, and Benjamin Passey

• Turkana Basin paleoecology: the fossil mammal evidence Rene´ Bobe

• Turkana Basin Fossil Hominins Bernard Wood and Meave Leakey http://www.springer.com/978-94-007-0491-6