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Book Review Evol Anthrop 2011 Condemi Evolutionary Anthropology 20:198–200 (2011) BOOK REVIEW tus/ergaster, are ancestors of all of their H. heidelbergensis predecessors Neanderthal News: us. Why is it that the Neanderthals 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 well 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 aurochs, bison, rhi- Fifty Years of Neanderthal Study, habitats. The limits of their eastern nos, and mammoths. 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 Israel and ens, there are occasional finds of 94-007-0491-6 the easternmost from Uzbekistan. mineral pigments, 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), Technology: 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: Protein, 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 arrow, 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 domestication. 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 humans, 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 Homo heidelbergensis or Homo erec- with Middle Paleolithic ‘‘Mousterian’’ 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. Upper Paleolithic 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 mammoth 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
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