© 2007 Institute of Current World Affairs
The Institute awards long-term fellowships to develop a deep understanding of an issue, country, or region outside the US and to share that understanding with a wider public.
Institute of Current World Affairs - Home Page

Below is a hobbled text version of a PDF document.
In order to read the actual document please click the link below and register if necessary.
(One-time registration is free and very quick.)
Read article

10/19/1986 - Cave Men by Neil A. Silberman

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT WRITER S CONSENT INSTITUTE OF CURRENTWORLD AFFAIRS NAS Yishay St Cave Men Abu Tor Jerusalem Israel October Mr Peter Bird Martin Institute Current World Affairs West Wheelock St Hanover New Hampshire USA Dear Peter The scene autumn Kebara Cave prehistoric coastal plain Israel Haifa could science fiction Suspended beneath mossy fissured large aluminum frame tightly strung dividing amorphous surface precise meter squares From corner network plumb established vertical mension reaching floor Narrow wooden walkways crisscrossed sharply defined excavation areas The effect artificial order imposed irregular natural formation meval dankness overlaid antiseptic technology The coolness glare electric lights strung along stone walls steady electric deepest excavation areas scene quite apart noise clouds excavations I identify typical Near Eastern archaeology Different which progressing The dozen crouching their individual digging areas various depths beneath surrounding surface slowly scraped undersized trowels stopping measure record artifact uncov never digging centimeters inches Painstaking excavation precise recording course themselves The challenge faced Israeli French American members Kebara Cave Expedition standard difficult They attempting uncover extensive remains ancient fortress whose known whose could fitted Israel recorded political economic religious history They instead trying detect ephemeral traces unique animal species survived hunting foraging nearby hills along coastal plain approxi mately years Propped against metal shelves filled boxes already excavated flint implements mounted sized replica skeleton Kebara Cave important prehistoric sites world Found Nell Silberman Institute Fellow studying political tural impact current archaeological research Middle East NAS skeleton called question assumptions about course human evolution raised doubts about species immediate ancestors The Kebara skeleton stocky young found lying right resting chest lying abdomen skull right missing But physical least trained physical anthropologists clear In skeleton infant physical characteristics discovered parallel layer Kebara first indication character occupants about about years Throughout period about times longer recorded history Kebara Cave apparently inhab least intermittently individuals species Homo neanderthalensis other words Neanderthal babies presumably Neanderthal women Neanderthals reputation popular culture usually depicted witted dwellers whose courtship rituals involve heavy various animal grunts bridegroom grasp fiance That caricature course really justif It inheritance early stage prehistoric research Europe scholars weren Neanderthals Until suspected different human types existed discovery strange skeleton Neander Valley Germany great surprise The quarry workers found bones initially believed human bones examined local naturalist Johann Fuhlrott Professor Hermann Schaafhausen Bonn Univer declared remains lived before great biblical flood Bitter criticism Fuhlrott Schaafhausen theory forth coming almost immediately In those before Origin Species published scholars ready contemplate possi bility physical evolution humanity Some claimed stocky skeleton Neanderthal arthritis others suggested remains Cossack ridden pursuit Napoleon retreating armies And there those likened heavy skull idiot present The acceptance possibility evolution however estab lished scholarly consensus The British geologist Charles Lyell British anatomist Thomas Huxley included description skeleton Neanderthal Lyell epoch making Geological Evidences Antiquity Man And clude unusual physical human evolution NAS I9 acknowledged closeness modern mankind giving scientific appellation Homo sapiens neanderthalensis But specific human evolution Was Neander Man direct ancestor merely evolu tionary The physical certainly distinctive pronounced idges receding forehead heavy squat heavi muscled superficially evoked images crudeness limited intelligence A distinctive class chipped flint tools eventually associ Neanderthals taking Le Mous France where class tools first recognized Despite doubts about Neanderthal intelligence Mousterian industry cluded dozens types specialized scrapers borers spear heads manufactured skillfully striking flakes solid flint And there other aspects Neanderthal culture merited attention7 there seemed among Neanderthals inten tional burial rituals presumably religious conscious The problem despite their admirable proficiency flint concern their departed Neanderthals still quite primitive compared modern mankind It seemed almost Neanderthals physical incapable progress therefore human entering Europe outside human history along That Homo sapiens sapiens twice empha intellectual superiority The earliest known skeletons Homo sapiens sapiens Europe dating around years associated flint industries slender blades place irregular flakes Mousterian apparently represented nificant advance manual dexterity Add sudden appear elaborate paintings fertility figurines associ Homo sapiens sapiens fairly early century scholars assumed intelligent Homo sapiens gifted Neanderthals belonged quite distinct evolutionary lines And comparative IQ assessment explanation disappearance Neanderthals modern first appeared Europe European prehistorians initially suspected genocidal conflict They assumed first Homo sapiens sapiens arriving somewhere Central Asia vague often suggested homeland mysterious ancient peoples skillfully hunted exterminated dumber clumsier Nean derthals stood their complete possession In retrospect early century archaeological theory symptomatic dominant philosophical approach mechanics culture change At never British Empire almost never those French Get NAS history continuing succession triumphs talented races their inferiors Hadn happened sweeping conquests Aryans Greeks Romans times Europeans themselves Why should history different As turned however simple Subse quent discoveries Neanderthal Homo sapiens sapiens fossils complicated archaeological reconstruction And relationship between human types today become object considerable controversy Israel today scene world intense bates about transformation Neanderthals Homo sapiens situation hardly surprising country traordinary wealth fossil remains But particular source wealth unnoticed Throughout century European chaeologists working Palestine almost entirely preoccupied biblical relics biblical history It scholars began recognize Palestine lying natural route overland animal migration Africa Asia Europe might provide missing fossil record relationship between Homo sapiens sapiens Ne anderth The first great discovery group caves about miles south Haifa outlet ravines running toward through hills Carmel range There joint expedition British School Archaeology Jerusalem American School Prehistoric Research directed Dorothy Garrod discovered unprecedented diversity human types three adjoining caves In comparison finds Europe where Neanderthal Homo sapiens sapiens fossils scattered never found together archaeological picture Carmel Caves puzzling In easternmost caves Wad there fully modern humans Only yards Tabun Cave classic Neanderthals And surprising third caves Skhul there skeletal remains seemed between Neander thals modern humans unique hybrid became popularly known Car Man These discoveries obviously called revision earlier theories invasion genocide existence intermediate suggested human variants single lutionary continuum The Carmel Cave finds therefore marked turning point prehistoric research might aggeration modern understanding human genetic inher itance balance Was conceivable those supposedly dimwitted Neanderthal dwellers direct ancestors Could there Neanderthals hanging lower branches family trees NAS I9 The question could answered definitively basis earlier excavations Arthur Jelinek University Arizona returned Tabun Cave effort determine whether clear evolutionary sequence could discerned In since Garrod pioneering discoveries techniques prehis excavation become precise And where Garrod distinguished successive levels accumulations Jelinek distinguished fewer And important collected studied flint artifacts vided insight development various types Most scholars believed earlier flakes associ Neanderthals later blades associated Homo piens sapiens reflected those human types differing manual terity But Jelinek observed believed gradual trans formation earlier flakes seemed foreshadow technology blades In conclusion technical ability Neanderthals static clear improved By measuring width thickness flint flakes associ distinct human types Carmel Caves other Jelinek recognized believed rehistoric sites Israel recognizeable pattern change A progressive thinning flakes apparently began classic Neanderthals Tabun Cave flakes associated transitional human types nearby Skhul Cave thinner flakes found fully modern humans Qafzeh Cave Nazareth thinnest So version Genesis written based finds Holy Land Jelinek maintained Neanderthals Israel presumably elsewhere evolutionary bridge According version disappearance Nean derthals invasion prehistoric genocidal conflict evolutionary transformation The evidence noted Science magazine suggested orderly continuous progres flint industries southern Levant paralleled phological progression Neanderthal modern It would Jel theory matter theory tenor times The replacement colonial conquest steady technological improvement peoples potential contributors world progress accord policy papers First World governments ternational development agencies Unfortunately facts support theory ongoing excavations Kebara Cave Professor Ofer Bar Yosef Hebrew University directors expedition convinced Neander modern theory chronological ideolog mirage NA Bar Yosef conclusion partly result recent excavations Qafzeh Cave Nazareth which dermine Jelinek basic evolutionary timetable At Qafzeh fully modern human fossils associated thinnest flint tools apparently ancient Tabun Neanderthals The latest analysis various animal species found Homo sapiens level revealed presence archaic rodents Mastomys batei Arvicanthis ectos specific found lowest Neanderthal levels Tabun This would Homo sapiens sapiens existed Israel before appearance first Neanderthals evolutionary transition between types would therefore impossible And ongoing excavations Kebara about miles south Carmel Caves provided surprises Bar Yosef believes finds there necessitate revision ideas comparative intelligence manual dexterity Homo sapiens sapiens Neanderthals Since Kebara Cave scene yearly excavations undertaken international specialists whose professional prominence evidence importance In addition Bar Yosef ludes geologist Paul Goldberg zoologist Eitan Tchernov Hebrew University physical anthropologist Baruch Arensburg Tel Aviv University previously cooperated excavation Israel significant prehistoric remains And French contingent including Bernard Vandermeersch Henri Laville University Bordeaux A M Tillier University Paris Louis Meignen Centre Recherches Arch6ologiques Valbonne among known scholars problem European Neanderthals The results already justified their efforts The superim posed levels Kebara remains human activity layers hearths large quantity worked flints flint chips concluded served workshop thousands years And flint tools themselves provide expected pattern Those upper levels predominantly flakes while those lower refore earlier levels contain large number supposedly advanced blades What human fossil evidence Kebara tradicted Neanderthal modern progression That stocky young Neanderthal supposed limited dexterity lived there about years buried level contained flint blades Neanderthals seems capable ducing those delicate stone tools Homo sapiens sapiens And since there apparent difference technical ability Nean derthals modern humans Bar Yosef returned earlier ideas prehistoric migrations explain Israel suprising Stone Age diversity NAS Sometimes early archaeologists right wrong reasons Bar Yosef points emphasizing physical differences between Neanderthals modern humans factor difficult ignore But earlier scholarly tendency evolutionary value judgements about differences fails believes recognize developments place almost simultaneously different regions world The story evolution Bar Yosef contends gradual spread humanity earlier Homo erectus African homeland world Facing environmental conditions challenges mankind blossomed spectrum forms As scholars noted concentration Neanderthals Europe their physical merely regional adaptation conditions encountered there thousands years Their characteristic stockiness example enabled maintain their efficiently Europe periglacial environment Homo sapiens sapiens itself another regional adapta finds Qafzeh recently excavated sites North Af suggest human common ughout Middle East early years But changing climate beginning around years previously tinct types begun mingle Bar Yosef believes ditions colder difficult Europe scattered groups Neanderthals began migrations southeastward arriving modern Syria Lebanon Israel settling among existing population Homo sapiens sapiens The nature their social relations uncertain cumstances final disappearance these Neanderthal colonies But Bar Yosef contends extinction Neanderthals Middle East later Europe probably reflection their intelligence relative Homo sapiens sapiens It perhaps because their bodies grown specialized Europe survive period dramatic climatic fluctuations Or because course history favor countless cultural groups later history The continues Kebara excavation slowly scraping accumulated searching conclusive answer Neanderthal mystery The debate settled Jelinek supporters still holding their evolutionary theories But whether Neanderthals ultimately prove ancestors whether prove specialized doomed forces beyond their control their modern archaeological image midst dramatic transformation Think caveman cartoon Best Regards Received Hanover