Archaeologists Find Neanderthal Tools Dating Back 55,000 Years
Researchers from the University of Washington excavating a site in China have found Neanderthal tools dating back almost 55,000 years. Their findings were published March 31 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to the study, scientists found at the site, known as Longtan, 'compelling evidence of core exploitation, production of large and thick flakes, shaping and maintenance of scrapers exhibiting the whole Quina concept, typical of contemporary European Middle Paleolithic technologies developed by Neanderthal groups.'The site dates back roughly 55,000 years, which is when researchers believe the Longtan community was incorporated. It also lines up with similar tools discovered throughout Europe. This particular type of manufacturing has long been associated with Neanderthals, but it wasn't believed to have moved into the borders of Eastern Asia. The discovery challenges the popular belief that China was slower to develop than other regions.
'This is a big upset to the way we think about that part of the world in that period of time,' Ben Marwick, co-author and a professor of archaeology at the university, told Ancient Origins. 'It really raises the question of, what else were people doing during this period that we haven't found yet? How is this going to change how we think about people and human evolution in this area?'
Marwick believes this discovery is just being made because of recent advancements in archaeology throughout China. As local archaeologists become more aware of finds around the globe, they're able to more easily recognize what they uncover. 'The idea that nothing has changed for such a long time in East Asia also has a tight grip on people,' he said. 'They haven't been considering the possibility of finding things that challenge that. Now maybe there are some scholars who are interested in questioning those ideas.'The excavation will continue until, Marwick hopes, human remains are discovered. 'That could answer the question of whether these tools are the product of a modern human like you and me,' he asserted. 'There have never been any Neanderthals found in East Asia, but could we find a Neanderthal? Or, more likely, could we find a Denisovan, which is another kind of human ancestor? If we can find the human remains associated with this period, we might find something surprising — maybe even a new human ancestor that we don't know about yet.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Wild boars began shrinking down to domesticated pigs 8,000 years ago
While some humans may slander pigs as dirty, messy, lazy animals, others celebrate these intelligent animals that have a long history in agriculture. Some roughly 8,000-year-old pig teeth now offer evidence that the mammals were first domesticated from wild boar in South China. It also indicates that these pigs were eating humans' cooked foods and waste–evidence that has eluded archeologists. The findings are detailed in a study published June 9 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). For years, archaeologists and anthropologists have considered present-day China as the likely location for pig domestication. This process is mostly associated with the Neolithic period about 10,000 years ago, as humans generally began to transition from foraging to farming. Both 10,000 years ago and today, wild boars are large and aggressive mammals that live fairly independently. They are native to Asia, parts of North Africa, and most of Europe, but are now found in parts of North America, South America, and Oceania. They typically live in forests, where they root for food from the undergrowth. Compared to domestic pigs, wild boars have larger heads and mouths, and bigger teeth. 'While most wild boars are naturally aggressive, some are more friendly and less afraid of people, which are the ones that may live alongside humans,' Jiajing Wang, a study co-author and anthropologist at Dartmouth, said in a statement. 'Living with humans gave them easy access to food, so they no longer needed to maintain their robust physiques. Over time, their bodies became smaller, and their brains also became smaller by about one-third.' When studying the domestication of pigs and other animals, archaeologists have often relied on examining the sizes and shapes of their bones in order to track the morphological changes to their skeletons over time. According to Wang, this can be problematic since that reduction in body size likely occurred later in the domestication process. 'What probably came first were behavioral changes, like becoming less aggressive and more tolerant of humans,' said Wang. In this new study, the team tried a different method using microfossil analysis on teeth and documented what the pigs had been eating over their lifespan. They used the molar teeth of 32 pig specimens from two of the earliest known sites where humans lived 8,000 years ago–Jingtoushan and Kuahuqiao in the Lower Yangtze River region of South China. These sites were waterlogged, which helped preserve the organic materials–including mineralized dental plaque called dental calculus. The analysis revealed that 240 starch granules were present within the teeth. The pigs had eaten cooked foods—including yams and rice—in addition to an unidentified tuber, acorns, and wild grasses. 'These are plants that were present in the environment at that time and were found in human settlements,' says Wang. [ Related: Gladiator bones finally confirm human-lion combat in Roman Europe. ] Previous studies found rice at both sites with intensive rice cultivation at Kuahuqiao. This spot is located farther inland and has greater access to freshwater than coastal-based Jingtoushan. Other research has shown starch residues in grinding stones and pottery from Kuahuqiao. 'We can assume that pigs do not cook food for themselves, so they were probably getting the food from humans either by being fed by them and/or scavenging human food,' said Wang. An additional clue provided some evidence of human presence–the eggs of a human parasite specifically, those of a whipworm named Trichuris. These parasite eggs can mature inside of human digestive systems and they were found in the pig dental calculus. The brownish yellow, football-shaped parasite eggs were found in 16 of the pig teeth. This indicates that the pigs must have been eating human feces or drinking water or eating food with dirt contaminated by human feces. The team also conducted a statistical analysis of the dental structures of the pig specimens from Kuahuqiao and Jingtoushan. Some had small teeth similar to those seen in modern domestic populations in China. 'Wild boars were probably attracted to human settlements as people started settling down and began growing their own food,' said Wang. 'These settlements created a large amount of waste, and that waste attracts scavengers for food, which in turn fosters selection mechanisms that favored animals willing to live alongside humans.' This process called a commensal pathway in animal domestication occurs when the animal is attracted to human settlements, instead of humans actively trying to recruit the animals. The data also supports that early interactions involved domestic pigs under active human management. This represents a prey pathway in the domestication process in addition to a commensal one. 'Our study shows that some wild boars took the first step towards domestication by scavenging human waste,' said Wang. This study adds another piece of the puzzle of pig domestication and how parasitic diseases may have been spread in these early human communities.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Oldest known human fingerprint discovered on ancient Neanderthal artwork – with help from Spain's forensic police
A unique archaeological find has recently expanded our knowledge of Neanderthals' capacity for symbolic thought. The object in question is a granite stone, on which a red ochre dot was deliberately applied to reinforce the image of a human face. It is, to date, the oldest example of portable art associated with Neanderthals. The most remarkable aspect of this discovery was the identification of a fingerprint in the pigment, at a level we have unequivocally dated to more than 42,000 years ago. The fingerprint means the find is direct evidence of a symbolic action that we can attribute to a Neanderthal human (Homo neanderthalensis). This discovery is the fruit of over two years of research, and was published in May 2025 in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. In addition to the team of archaeologists and geologists, our paper was co-authored by members of the Central Identification Unit of the General Commissary of Scientific Police, whose contributions were vital to the work's success. The red-spotted stone was found at the Abrigo de San Lázaro archaeological site – in the Eresma river valley, downstream from the Spanish city of Segovia – where we found remains of occupations of the last European Neanderthals. The stone was in a level where we have previously found Mousterian (Middle Paleolithic) industry. These are stone tools clearly associated with Neanderthal occupations, such as those documented in the known areas of Abrigo del Molino and other nearby sites. In our study, we hypothesise that the object was chosen and collected from the riverbed because of its peculiar natural features. Put simply, it looks like a human face. Facial pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon whereby we perceive faces in inanimate objects, identifies the upper and lower indentations as eyes and a mouth in the stone. The application of red pigment to make a nose reinforces the perception of a face, and acts as a symbolically charged visual marker. The possibility that we are dealing with a symbolic representation of a human face adds a particularly significant interpretative dimension to the archaeological find. Leer más: One of the most remarkable aspects of this research was its cross-disciplinary collaboration between archaeologists, geoarchaeologists and members of the General Commissary of the Spanish Scientific Police. To reach our conclusions, a combination of techniques were applied to the object. First, we performed detailed 3D mapping using high-precision scanners and digital models, which helped to rule out that the stone had served any any functional purpose, such as that of an anvil or hammer. We then carried out non-invasive analyses, such as X-ray fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy. The results confirmed that the red pigment was externally applied ochre, as opposed to a natural mark resulting from the decomposition of minerals in the granite itself. But the most surprising breakthrough came from multispectral analysis. This is a well-known technique that the Spanish General Commissary of Scientific Police developed and adapted specifically for the study of the stone. By using this method, Samuel Miralles Mosquera, a forensic imaging expert, revealed a fingerprint that was invisible to the naked eye, printed directly into the pigment. The image was later analyzed by M° Carmen Sastre Barrio, Encarnación Nieva Gómez, M° Remedios Díaz Delgado and Elena Ruiz Mediavilla, identification specialists of the same team. They confirmed that it matched the fingerprint of an adult human male. Their work allowed for the identification of the fingerprint with a previously unprecedented level of detail in the context of Paleolithic study. Their help made the research a pioneering reference in the field of applying archaeology and forensic identification to prehistoric times. It provides a new window on the symbolic world of the Neanderthals, and opens new avenues for the study of their artistic expression, their visual sensitivity and their capacity for abstraction. Combining these scientific techniques reinforces the authenticity of the find, and underlines its exceptional nature. It is one of the most complete physical testimonies of a symbolic act performed by a Neanderthal, whose fingerprint was deliberately left in the pigment. Who would have imagined that, more than 40,000 years later, not even Neanderthals could escape being identified by forensic scientists. Leer más: The origin of humans' symbolic behaviour – and with it the emergence of art itself – is one of the most hotly debated questions in research on humankind's cognitive evolution. While both phenomena did not emerge simultaneously, they are deeply interconnected, since the capacity for symbolic thought is ultimately the foundation of all forms of artistic expression. For decades, it was claimed that this ability was exclusive to 'modern' or present-day human beings (Homo sapiens). However, the development of new methodologies and the discovery of increasingly solid evidence have challenged this view to the point of refuting it. There is now a growing consensus that Neanderthals also possessed a complex symbolic repertoire, manifested through modified objects, use of pigments, ritual behaviours and other unambiguously symbolic expressions. One of the key milestones in this shift in opinion was the publication – in the journal Science in 2018 – of the dating of several cave paintings found in three Spanish caves: Ardales, La Pasiega and Maltravieso. These were the first paintings with a symbolic character attributed to Neanderthals. They included simple, geometric shapes, including discernible patterns. Their study revealed the ability of this human group to deliberately generate symbolic images charged with shared meaning. While the representations are simple, they appear repeatedly in different places on the walls of the caves. To this list of findings, we can now add the work of another anonymous Neanderthal. This male, one of Europe's last Neanderthal inhabitants, saw a face on a rock collected from the river, intentionally painted a red dot with ochre, and left his mark on history. Este artículo fue publicado originalmente en The Conversation, un sitio de noticias sin fines de lucro dedicado a compartir ideas de expertos académicos. Lee mas: Neanderthals: the oldest art in the world wasn't made by Homo sapiens Neanderthal remains found in France reveals there were not one, but at least two lineages of late Neanderthals in Europe How Neanderthal language differed from modern human – they probably didn't use metaphors Miguel Angel Mate Gonzalez has received funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) via a Ramón y Cajal grant (RYC2021-034813-I), co-financed by the EU's 'NextGenerationEU'/PRTR programme. Andrés Díez Herrero, David Álvarez Alonso y María de Andrés-Herrero no reciben salarios, ni ejercen labores de consultoría, ni poseen acciones, ni reciben financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y han declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del puesto académico citado.
Medscape
8 hours ago
- Medscape
Supplements Boost Postmenopausal Serum Biomarkers
Postmenopausal women who took vitamin B 12 , fish oil, or flaxseed oil as dietary supplements had significantly higher levels of accompanying serum biomarkers than those who did not use these supplements, based on new data presented at American Society for Nutrition (ASN) 2025 Annual Meeting. Dietary supplement use in the US is common among older adults, but data on the health effects of dietary supplements remain relatively mixed, said presenting author Hannah T. Baillie, MS, RD, in an interview. Hannah T. Baillie, MS, RD 'One way to measure whether or not supplements could be getting to the intended targets in the body is to measure the amount of the supplement's nutrients in the blood. This could inform whether the supplements have their intended health effects in an objective manner,' said Baillie, a PhD student at the University of Washington, Seattle. To examine the associations between dietary supplements and higher serum concentrations of corresponding biomarkers, Baillie and colleagues enrolled 153 participants in the Women's Health Initiative in a 2-week controlled feeding study. The participants consumed an individualized menu, including a habitual diet, and continued use of their usual dietary supplements. After 2 weeks, the researchers measured serum vitamin B 12 , lutein plus zeaxanthin, and phospholipid fatty acids. In a multiple linear regression analysis, the geometric mean serum concentration of vitamin B 12 was 58% higher among women who used any type of vitamin B 12 dietary supplement than among nonusers ( P < .001). In addition, the geometric mean serum concentrations of phospholipid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) ranged from 38% to 46% higher among users of fish oil or flaxseed oil supplements than among nonusers ( P < .0001). Use of dietary supplements containing lutein plus zeaxanthin had no significant impact on serum concentrations ( P = .72). However, individuals who used two sources of a dietary supplement containing vitamin B 12 as well as two different sources of supplementation with lutein plus zeaxanthin had significantly higher serum biomarker levels than either individuals who took a single multivitamin containing B 12 and lutein plus zeaxanthin or individuals who took neither ( P < .0001 for both). 'I was surprised by how many different supplements participants were taking; I expected it to be high, but one participant was taking 18 supplements per day,' Baillie told Medscape Medical News . 'I was also surprised by the lack of association between use of lutein + zeaxanthin-containing supplements and serum lutein + zeaxanthin concentrations,' she said. The negligible increases in serum concentrations with supplement use point to potential issues with absorbing or utilizing these nutrients from supplemental sources, she noted. The study findings highlight the need for clinicians to ask patients not only about the use of dietary supplements but also about the dose of those supplements, said Baillie. The researchers also looked at serum concentrations in response to different doses of vitamin B 12 . 'We looked to see if those taking individual vitamin B 12 , just a multivitamin containing B 12 , both those supplements, or neither had different serum concentrations of vitamin B 12 ,' Baillie said. The researchers found that individuals taking > 1000 mcg in a supplement (an average amount in single B 12 supplements) did not have significantly higher serum concentrations than those taking both supplements (which would represent a larger dose). The unreliable and inadequate labeling of nutrient content on dietary supplement packaging was a main study limitation, Baillie told Medscape Medical News . 'Although the contents from labels of each dietary supplement were recorded into our database, prior research has shown there may be discrepancies in what is reported on labels and what each supplement contains,' she said. 'Additionally, labels are not consistent in how nutrient information is reported; for example, for fish oil supplements, omega-3 fatty acids are sometimes displayed as total omega-3 fatty acids, sometimes as EPA and DHA, and on other labels as total EPA + DHA,' Baillie said. This discrepancy makes consistent assessment of total nutrient intake a challenge and limits what conclusions that can be drawn from the data, she noted. Raising Awareness, Examining Intake 'Additional research investigating best practices for assessing nutrient intake from dietary supplements is needed, and this may require changes in the requirements around dietary supplement labeling,' Baillie told Medscape Medical News . Future research also should address assessing serum response among a more heterogeneous population, she added. Older women often take supplements without knowing their full effect, and the current study is important to help alert clinicians to ask patients about type, timing, and dose, said Christine M. Sager, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, in an interview. The findings were not unexpected, said Sager, who was not involved in the study. 'In clinical practice, we see similar elevations in B 12 when patients are taking B vitamins,' she said. The current study is too short and too small to make global recommendations on supplement intake, but the results suggest that the type, dose, and time of day matter for many supplements, just as with medications, although research on this topic is limited, Sager said. 'Also, serum levels do not always correlate with goals of therapy,' she noted. Looking ahead, the safety and efficacy of intravenous vitamins and supplements is an important question for additional research, Sager added.
