Neanderthals are Smarter than We Thought

The Abri-Peyrony Project

The term “Neanderthal” is quickly going out of style as a derogatory term to describing a simpler person: researchers and archaeologists have uncovered evidence that European Neanderthals were making bone tools thousands of years before the arrival of the modern humans who researchers previously believed were the origins of this knowledge.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences presented a paper that describes four bone fragments discovered in southwest France. The oldest of the four is dated at 51,000 years old while the others are between 42,000 and 47,000 years old.

Anthropological evidence of human toolmaking has led scientists in the past to conclude that Neanderthals did develop such tools, but that the knowledge to do so was imparted by homo sapiens. The archaeologists who conducted this study believe they have the first evidence of independent Neanderthal bone tool manufacture (most Neanderthal bone-made tools are knockoffs of stone designs).