The Neanderthals may have become extinct because of their isolated lifestyle

Neanderthal remains recently discovered in a cave in France support well-known theory of why the Neanderthals became extinct, researchers behind a new study say.

In recent years, researchers have offered different explanations for why modern humans survived and the Neanderthals became extinct some 40,000 years ago.

A new study from the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen supports one of the main hypotheses. The researchers behind the new study discovered Neanderthal remains of a male in a cave in southern France, and the discovery supports the hypothesis that the Neanderthals may have gone extinct because of their antisocial lifestyle.

“When we look at these genomes from Neanderthals, we see that they are quite inbred and therefore don’t have much genetic diversity. They have been living in small groups for many generations. We know that inbreeding reduces genetic diversity in a population, which can be detrimental to their ability to survive if it occurs over a longer term,” one of the researchers behind the new study, Associate Professor Martin Sikora from the Globe Institute, explains and adds:

 “The newly found Neanderthal genome is from a different lineage than the other late Neanderthals previously studied. This supports the notion that social organization of Neanderthals was different to early modern humans who seemed to have been more connected.”

In other words, compared to the Neanderthals, early modern humans were more likely to connect with other groups, which is an advantage if you want to survive. 

“This is in the more speculative end, but even just the notion of being able to communicate more and exchange knowledge is something humans do that Neanderthals to some extend might not have done, due to their isolated lifestyles by organizing themselves in smaller groups. And that is an important skill to have. We see evidence of early modern humans in Siberia forming so-called mating networks to avoid issues with inbreeding, while living in small communities, which is something we haven’t seen with Neanderthals,” Postdoc Tharsika Vimala says.

DNA sheds light on the history of the Neanderthals

Researchers have found little Neanderthal DNA considering the substantial number of discovered Neanderthal remains across Eurasia. Some of the oldest Neanderthal DNA dates back to 120 thousand years ago and have been recovered from Neanderthals found in the Denisova Cave (Altai Mountains) and caves in Scladina (Belgium) and Hohlenstein-Stadel (Germany). In fact, the “new” Neanderthal genome is merely the fifth of its kind to be found in Western Europe with an age below 50 thousand years old.

“Our team in Copenhagen extracted DNA from his tooth, sequenced the DNA and analysed his nuclear genome, which is the DNA found within the core of the cells. The DNA was analysed along with other known Neanderthal genomes to understand their shared history,” Martin Sikora says.

In addition, the researchers re-analysed the genome of another known late Neanderthal from France and found that this individual also carried ancestry from a distant Neanderthal lineage which is different from the ‘new’ genome. The findings tell us that multiple isolated communities might have been present in Western Europe up until their demise.

According to the researchers, the hypothesis is not new and has previously been found for Neanderthals living in the Altai Mountains which is naturally a more isolated area. Up until now they did not have the genomic evidence to confirm it for the Western European Neanderthals. The new discovery is therefore an important piece in the puzzle of Neanderthal history.

“It is something that we have talked about for a while. But we needed more evidence, and this is some of the evidence that we were looking for and needed to figure out how likely this hypothesis of them going extinct because of their isolated lifestyle is. We do, however, need much more genomic data to paint a better picture of their history,” says Tharsika Vimala.

The study has been published in Cell Genomics.

Clovis people used Great Lakes camp annually 13,000 years ago

 

The earliest humans to settle the Great Lakes region likely returned to a campsite in southwest Michigan for several years in a row, according to a University of Michigan study.

 

Until recently, there was no evidence that people from the Clovis period had settled the Great Lakes region. Clovis people appeared in North America about 13,000 years ago, during the geologic epoch called the Pleistocene. During the Pleistocene, sheets of glaciers covered much of the world, including Michigan, making the land inhospitable for human settlers. But a 2021 U-M study confirmed that Clovis people built a camp, now called the Belson site, in southwest Michigan. 

 

Now, the same researchers have confirmed that Clovis people traveled to the site annually, probably in the summer, for at least three but likely up to five consecutive years, according to Brendan Nash, lead author of the study and a doctoral student of archaeology. Tools from the site also show evidence that the settlers' diets included a wide variety of animals, ranging from rabbits to musk ox. The team's results are published in the journal PLOS ONE.

 

At the Belson site, the researchers discovered tools that were made with a type of stone called chert from what is now western Kentucky, about 400 miles from the Belson site. These tools were then resharpened at the Belson site, leaving behind small pieces for researchers to analyze. 

 

Thomas Talbot, an independent researcher who discovered the first Clovis point at the Belson site in Mendon, Michigan, in 2008, also conducts the group's chert analysis. He discovered some of these chert pieces were from Paoli chert, which formed in northeastern Kentucky.

 

"It took me a year to identify it, and when I did, it was very surprising," Talbot said. "Then we found a broken base, which we call a diagnostic. The broken base was made from that Paoli material. Once you read the paper and look at the data and maps, there are some patterns that are starting to emerge that are pretty cool." 

 

The tools made in what is now Kentucky were traded to people in central Indiana, who then carried them to the Belson site. Nash says this suggests that the people who settled the Belson site likely moved there during summers and lived in central Indiana during the winter. They in turn likely traded for the tools from western Kentucky from people who moved from central Indiana to Kentucky on yearly routes. 

 

"In this way, people formed 'links in a chain' with yearly routes that likely connected the whole continent, from Michigan to Mexico," Nash said. "This is likely why technology from the Clovis period is so similar throughout most of North America."

 

The Clovis period is characterized by distinctive spear points. The points have a very characteristic central channel through the length of the tool, called a flute. A Clovis person would have used this channel as a place to attach a shaft to the spearhead, creating a composite hunting weapon—a spear that was used to hunt prey of all sizes. Also distinctive to the Clovis people is that they struck large flakes of material off the stone to create their points. The large, detached pieces had razor-sharp edges and would be used as expedient knives themselves. 

 

It is currently unclear where in the Americas Clovis technology was invented, but once it was, it spread quickly, according to archaeological standards. Researchers think they are one of the earliest groups of people to settle the Americas, and prior to the 2021 study, Clovis technology had not been reported from the Great Lakes region.

 

Talbot found the first Clovis point in the Belson farm field in 2008. He recognized it as a Clovis point both from its distinctive shape and that it was made of Attica chert, a kind of stone found 120 miles from the Belson site, in western Indiana and eastern Illinois. Talbot confirmed his findings with U-M archaeologist Henry Wright. 

 

Wright and Talbot visited the site in 2017, finding finished tools and small flakes of Attica chert, which made them suspect people had lived at the site rather than simply dropping a point or tool cache as they were passing through. Talbot, Wright and Nash's 2021 study described the surface sampling of the site.

 

The current study examines excavations of buried flakes—chips off of stone created when the Clovis people were resharpening, or creating, their points—and multiple tools buried in less disturbed sediment beneath the plowed surface layers of the field.

 

The researchers examined three of the dozens of discovered stone tools for traces of protein. They found evidence for musk ox, caribou or deer, hare and peccary, a Pleistocene relative of the pig. The hare and peccary protein came from the same Clovis point, according to Nash.

 

"Taken together, the ancient protein data suggests that these people had a broad spectrum diet, eating a wide variety of animals," Nash said. "Our findings are contrary to the popular notion that Clovis people were strictly big game hunters, most often subsisting on mammoths and mastodons."

 

Nash says the Clovis people would have also eaten plants, but plant material does not show up on protein tests, and unlike animal bones, their remains don't typically last for 13,000 years.

 

"This site teaches us about a way of life lost to time," Nash said. "Through the sourcing of stone and the styles of tools, we are tracking a group of people as they live and travel across the Pleistocene landscape of the American Midwest."

 

In addition to Wright and Talbot, study co-authors include former U-M graduate student Elliot Greiner and Linda Scott Cummings of the PaleoResearch Institute in Colorado.

 

Study: Clovis organizational dynamics at a late glacial campsite in the central Great Lakes: Belson site excavations 2021 (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302255)

 

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The Roman siege of Masada lasted just a few weeks, not several years

Archaeologists at Tel Aviv University contest a widespread myth:

 

image: 

Masada National Park

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Credit: Omer Ze'evi-Berger.

• The researchers: "According to the common myth, the Romans laid siege to the desert fortress of Masada for three long years. A new survey employing advanced technologies indicates that the siege was probably a much quicker affair."

 

Researchers from the Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University used a range of modern technologies, including drones, remote sensing, and 3D digital modeling, to generate the first objective, quantified analysis of the Roman siege system at Masada. Findings indicate that contrary to the widespread myth, the Roman army's siege of Masada in 73 CE lasted no more than a few weeks.

The study was conducted by the Neustadter expedition from TAU's Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, headed by Dr. Guy Stiebel, together with Dr. Hai Ashkenazi (today Head of Geoinformatics at the Israel Antiquities Authority), and PhD candidates Boaz Gross (from Tel Aviv University and the Israeli Institute of Archaeology) and Omer Ze'evi-Berger (today at the University of Bonn). The study is part of the expedition's extensive mission, implementing advanced tools and posing fresh questions, to attempt a new understanding of what really happened at Masada. The paper was published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology.

Link to the research Video
Caption: A view from a drone of the excavation site at the center of the mountain platform of Masada.

Credit: The Neustadter Masada Expedition

 

 

Dr. Stiebel: "In 2017 my expedition renewed, on behalf of TAU's Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, excavations at Masada – a world-famous site explored extensively since the early 19th century and throughout the 20th century. Our expedition sets forward several new questions and implements many novel research tools that were not available to previous generations of archaeologists. In this way we intend to obtain fresh insights into what actually happened there before, during, and after the Great Jewish Revolt. As part of this extensive project we devote much scholarly attention to the site’s surroundings. We use drones, remote sensing, and aerial photography to collect accurate high-resolution data from Masada and its environs, with special emphasis on three aspects: the water systems, the trails leading to and from the palatial fortress, and the Roman siege system. The collected information is used to build 3D digital models that provide us with a clear and precise image of the relevant terrains. In the current study we focused on the siege system, which, thanks to the remote location and desert climate, is the best-preserved Roman siege system in the world."

Dr. Stiebel adds: "For many years, the prevailing theory that became a modern myth asserted that the Roman siege of Masada was a grueling three-year affair. In recent decades researchers have begun to challenge this notion, for various reasons. In this first-of-its kind study we examined the issue with modern technologies enabling precise objective measurements."

 

The researchers used drones carrying remote sensors that provided precise, high-resolution measurements of the height, width, and length of all features of the siege system. This data was used to build an accurate 3D digital model, enabling exact calculation of the structures' volume and how long it took to build them.

 

Dr. Ashkenazi: "Reliable estimates are available of the quantity of earth and stones a Roman soldier was able to move in one day. We also know that approximately 6,000-8,000 soldiers participated in the siege of Masada. Thus, we were able to objectively calculate how long it took them to build the entire siege system – eight camps and a stone wall surrounding most of the site. We found that construction took merely about two weeks. Based on the ancient historical testimony it is clear that once the assault ramp was completed, the Romans launched a brutal attack, ultimately capturing the fortress within a few weeks at the most. This leads us to the conclusion that the entire siege of Masada lasted no more than several weeks." 

 

Dr. Stiebel: "The narrative of Masada, the Great Jewish Revolt, the siege, and the tragic end as related by Flavius Josephus, have all become part of Israeli DNA and the Zionist ethos, and are well known around the world. The duration of the siege is a major element in this narrative, suggesting that the glorious Roman army found it very difficult to take the fortress and crush its defenders. For many years it was assumed that the siege took three long years, but in recent decades researchers have begun to challenge this unfounded belief. In our first-of-its-kind study we used objective measurements and advanced technologies to clarify this issue with the first data-driven scientific answer. Based on our findings we argue that the Roman siege of Masada took a few weeks at the most. As empires throughout history have done, the Romans came, saw, and conquered, quickly and brutally quelling the uprising in this remote location. Our conclusion, however, detracts nothing from the importance of this historical event, and many baffling questions remain to be investigated. For example: Why did the Romans put so much effort into seizing this remote and seemingly unimportant fortress?  To answer this and many other intriguing questions we have initiated a vast, innovative project in and around Masada – collecting data and analyzing it thoroughly in the labs of TAU's Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, in collaboration with other researchers, to ultimately shed new light on the old enigma: What really happened at Masada?"

 

Link to the article:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-archaeology/article/roman-siege-system-of-masada-a-3d-computerized-analysis-of-a-conflict-landscape/32C59BE59ACD3E9A91C95F947DFD271E

 

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Journal

Journal of Roman Archaeology

DOI

10.1017/S1047759424000084 

What a submerged ancient bridge discovered in a Spanish cave reveals about early human settlement

 A new study led by the University of South Florida has shed light on the human colonization of the western Mediterranean, revealing that humans settled there much earlier than previously believed. This research, detailed in a recent issue of the journal, Communications Earth & Environment, challenges long-held assumptions and narrows the gap between the settlement timelines of islands throughout the Mediterranean region.

Reconstructing early human colonization on Mediterranean islands is challenging due to limited archaeological evidence. By studying a 25-foot submerged bridge, an interdisciplinary research team – led by USF geology Professor Bogdan Onac – was able to provide compelling evidence of earlier human activity inside Genovesa Cave, located in the Spanish island of Mallorca.

"The presence of this submerged bridge and other artifacts indicates a sophisticated level of activity, implying that early settlers recognized the cave's water resources and strategically built infrastructure to navigate it,” Onac said.

The cave, located near Mallorca’s coast, has passages now flooded due to rising sea levels, with distinct calcite encrustations forming during periods of high sea level. These formations, along with a light-colored band on the submerged bridge, serve as proxies for precisely tracking historical sea-level changes and dating the bridge's construction.

Mallorca, despite being the sixth largest island in the Mediterranean, was among the last to be colonized. Previous research suggested human presence as far back as 9,000 years, but inconsistencies and poor preservation of the radiocarbon dated material, such as nearby bones and pottery, led to doubts about these findings. Newer studies have used charcoal, ash and bones found on the island to create a timeline of human settlement about 4,400 years ago. This aligns the timeline of human presence with significant environmental events, such as the extinction of the goat-antelope genus Myotragus balearicus.

By analyzing overgrowths of minerals on the bridge and the elevation of a coloration band on the bridge, Onac and the team discovered the bridge was constructed nearly 6,000 years ago, more than two-thousand years older than the previous estimation – narrowing the timeline gap between eastern and western Mediterranean settlements.

“This research underscores the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in uncovering historical truths and advancing our understanding of human history,” Onac said.

 

Study: Among Viking societies, Norway was much more violent than Denmark

Rates of violence in Viking Age societies were long believed to be comparable. New research challenges that assumption.

– Rates of violence in Viking Age Norway and Denmark were long believed to be comparable. A team of researchers including University of South Florida sociologist David Jacobson challenges that assumption.

Their findings show that interpersonal violence – violence not meted out as punishment by authorities -- was much more common in Norway. This is evident in the much greater rates of trauma on skeletons and the extent of weaponry in Norway. The study, published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, sheds new light on how Viking Age societies in Norway and Denmark differed in their experiences with violence and the role social structures played in shaping those patterns.

Jacobson is part of an interdisciplinary team that combined archaeology and sociology along with the study of skeletons and of runestones – raised stones bearing inscriptions – to reveal key differences in how violence, social hierarchies and authority influenced these dynamics in the two regions. The other scholars on the team are from Norway and Germany.

“The interdiscipilinary approach taken in this study shows us how social and political patterns can be revealed, even when there are a paucity of written sources,” Jacobson said.

Norway: A More Violent Society?

Researchers analyzed skeletal remains from Viking Age Norway and Denmark and found that 33% of the Norwegian skeletons showed healed injuries, indicating that violent encounters weren’t uncommon. By comparison, 37% of the skeletons showed signs of lethal trauma, highlighting the frequent and often fatal use of weapons in Norway.

A notable feature in Norway was the presence of weapons, particularly swords, alongside skeletons in graves. The study identified more than 3,000 swords from the Late Iron Age and Viking periods in Norway, with just a few dozen in Denmark. These findings suggest weapons played a significant role in Norwegian Viking identity and social status – further emphasizing the culture’s connection to violence.

Denmark: Steeper Social Hierarchies and Controlled Violence

In Denmark, the findings show a different pattern. Danish society was more centralized, with clearer social hierarchies and stronger central authority. Violence was more organized and controlled, often linked to official executions rather than acts of personal violence.

For example, skeletal remains in Denmark showed fewer signs of weapon-related injuries but included evidence of executions such as decapitations. Skeletal evidence suggests about 6% of Viking Danes died violently, almost all from executions.

Denmark’s more structured society also had a smaller percentage of graves containing weapons than Norway’s. Instead, social order was maintained through political control, reflected in the construction of large earthworks and fortifications. These monumental structures, particularly during the reign of King Harald Bluetooth in the 10th century, demonstrated Denmark’s greater capacity for coordinated labor and more organized social hierarchies.

Why the Differences?

The study suggests that Denmark's more rigid social structure meant that violence was less frequent but more systematically enforced through official channels, such as executions. Meanwhile, Norway’s more decentralized society experienced more peer-to-peer violence, as indicated by the higher levels of trauma found in skeletons.

The findings also support the broader theory that stronger authority and steeper social hierarchies can reduce the overall levels of violence in a society by centralizing the use of force under official control.

“The findings of these patterns suggest that we are talking of distinct societies in the regions of Norway and Denmark,” Jacobson said. “This is quite striking, as the assumption has been that socially Viking Scandanavia was largely a singular space.”

Broader Implications

The research contributes to a growing body of work that explores how social structures influenced violence in historical societies. Similar patterns have been observed in other parts of the world, such as the Andes region of South America and in areas of North America, where less centralized societies also experienced higher levels of violence.

Jacobson said he hopes the study “is a step towards a new explanatory model, especially when written sources from the period are partial or even nonexistent.”

Isolation, endogamy and pathogens in early medieval Spanish community

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Stockholm University

 

image: 

Aerial view of the excavated area in the early medieval settlement of Las Gobas (Condado de Treviño, Spain). / GPAC (Grupo de investigación en Patrimonio Construido) Basque Country University

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Credit: GPAC (Grupo de investigación en Patrimonio Construido) Basque Country University

An archaeogenetic study sheds new light on the isolated medieval community Las Gobas in northern Spain. Besides isolation and endogamy, the researchers have also identified the variola virus which can offer a new explanation on how smallpox entered Iberia.

Researchers from Sweden and Spain have conducted a comprehensive archaeogenetic study on a community that lived on the border between the northern Christian kingdoms and Al-Andalus during the early Medieval period. This dynamic era, especially in the Iberian Peninsula, was marked by religious competition, power struggles, and significant human mobility—factors that shaped the foundation of modern Europe.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, focused on Las Gobas, a rural site in northern Spain's Burgos province, near the village of Laño. The community existed from the mid-6th to the 11th century and is notable for its church and living areas carved into caves. The site also provides evidence of violence, likely from sword blows, found on some of the buried individuals. Forty-one burials were excavated, and 39 of them were subjected to archaeogenetic analysis.

The interdisciplinary research, led by Ricardo Rodríguez Varela from the Centre for Palaeogenetics (CPG)* in Stockholm integrated genetic, archaeological, and historical data to reveal the presence of an endogamous community in northern Iberia that remained relatively isolated despite centuries of turbulent regional history.

"Our findings indicate that this community stayed relatively isolated for at least five centuries," said Rodríguez Varela. Although Las Gobas is located just north of regions under Islamic rule, "we found relatively low levels of North African and Middle Eastern ancestry compared to other medieval individuals from the Iberian Peninsula, and we did not observe a significant increase in these ancestries after the Islamic conquest of Iberia," he concluded.

Zoé Pochon, also from CPG, highlighted the discovery of several understudied pathogens in Las Gobas human remains. "For example, Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, a bacterium that causes skin disease through contamination of open wounds, often infects humans via domestic animals, suggesting that animal-keeping was important for this community."

She also identified the variola virus, the causative agent of smallpox, in an individual from one of the more recent burials. This specific strain is similar to those found in Scandinavia, Germany, and Russia, underscoring the pan-European presence of smallpox during the Middle Ages.

Anders Götherström, the senior author of the study and also based at CPG, emphasized the exhaustive nature of their research: "It is amazing how much information we were able to gather on this group of people through our archaeogenetic investigation." He further explained, "An endogamous group, familiar with violence, appears to have established itself in Las Gobas during the 6th or 7th century. By the 10th century, smallpox seems to have affected Las Gobas, likely spreading through Europe rather than via Islamic routes, as was previously theorized for how smallpox entered Iberia."

This study provides new insights into the complex social, genetic, and health dynamics of a long-isolated community in early Medieval Spain.

Publication Details: The study is published in Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/scieadv.adp8625.

People started pruning, protecting and managing fruit trees as early as 8000 yr BP.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Science China Press

 

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(a) percentages of the woody plants; (b) tree-ring curvature of main woods; (W), (M), and (S) represent weakly, moderately, and strongly curved rings.

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Credit: ©Science China Press

This study is led by Hui Shen, Keliang Zhao, Xinying Zhou, Xiaoqiang Li from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Zhenwei Qiu from National Museum of China. The researchers have reconstructed how early millet farmers explored and shaped local woody plants, and the protection and management of Prunus fruit trees to acquire more food resources since 8000 yr BP.

Wood charcoal identification at Xinglong revealed a variety of woody plants, including Prunus, Populus, Ulmus, Acer, Juniperus, Rhamnus, and Tamarix, showing the presence of large-scale woodland distributions around the site. The abundance of Prunus wood likely correlates with an importance of fleshy fruits at ancient Xinglong. On the basis of the habitats of identified plants, Xinglong people appear to have made full use of available wood resources, including riparian woodlands, shrubs on sunny slopes, and sparse forests in mountain valleys. Populus and Ulmus were the main sources of fuel. During 8000–7000 yr BP, the warm and humid climate promoted the emergence of Acer, Juniper, Tamarix, and Rhamnus plants, and the expansion of riparian Populus woodland, contributing to the increased harvesting of poplar woods.

The measurement of tree-ring curvature indicates that people mainly collected trunks or large branches of Ulmus, Populus, Acer, and Juniperus plants. Meanwhile, Xinglong people probably had mastered the knowledge of how to protect and manage Prunus woodlands via pruning and increasing the cutting of nonfruit trees to increase food supply, demonstrating the active response and adaptation of early millet cultivators to their environments.

See the article:

Shen H, Qiu Z, Zhao K, Zhou X, Li X. 2024. Wood use and forest management by Neolithic millet farmers at the Xinglong site, northern China.

Science China Earth Sciences, 67(6): 1910–1921, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-023-1330-6

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Journal

Science China Earth Sciences

DOI

10.1007/s11430-023-1330-6