'Neanderthal tools' found at dig

[Melvadius]

"Dozens of tools thought to have belonged to Neanderthals have been dug up at an archaeological site called Beedings in West Sussex.

 

Dr Matthew Pope, of University College London, said the discovery provides new insights into the life of a thriving community of hunters at the site.

 

The tools could have been used to hunt horses, mammoth and woolly rhinoceros.

 

The archaeologists, funded by English Heritage, have been carrying out their investigations over the last few weeks.

 

It is the first modern scientific investigation of the site since it was discovered in 1900. "

 

.....Cont'd at:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7466735.stm

[Faustus]

This is fascinating M.

I've always wondered why, considering the large investiment of time involved in making tools like the one pictured, they were allowed to be left behind in any quantity or in concentration. Perhaps they were made up in advance and cached for later retrieval. If dropped and (or in use) they were left lying on the ground, they would be picked up and kept for later usage much the way we today will pick up even the smallest of loose change found lying in a parking lot.

 

To anyone fascinated by "Neanderthals", there are several interesting links provided to follow.

 

Much appreciated.

[ASCLEPIADES]

This is fascinating M.

I've always wondered why, considering the large investiment of time involved in making tools like the one pictured, they were allowed to be left behind in any quantity or in concentration. Perhaps they were made up in advance and cached for later retrieval. If dropped and (or in use) they were left lying on the ground, they would be picked up and kept for later usage much the way we today will pick up even the smallest of loose change found lying in a parking lot.

 

To anyone fascinated by "Neanderthals", there are several interesting links provided to follow.

 

Much appreciated.

Salve, Amici

 

A notorious Pope's quotation from many releases of this same note on Beedings (ie, at Discovery)

 

"The tools we've found at the site are technologically advanced and potentially older than tools in Britain belonging to our own species"

 

Culturally if not genetically, we might well be Neanderthal's descendants after all.

[Faustus]

Culturally if not genetically, we might well be Neanderthal's descendants after all.

Salve, and I hope this brief post doesn't go too far off topic:

 

Personally, I like that possibility. Note the popularity of the "Cavemen" in the Geico COMMERCIAL messages on TV. And, when asked on the subject, I was always fond of replying, "don't worry about them....They are alive and well in Chicago." (I used to live there)

 

Some of us feel a kind of "kinship" with them.

 

Faustus

[Melvadius]

This is fascinating M.

I've always wondered why, considering the large investiment of time involved in making tools like the one pictured, they were allowed to be left behind in any quantity or in concentration. Perhaps they were made up in advance and cached for later retrieval. If dropped and (or in use) they were left lying on the ground, they would be picked up and kept for later usage much the way we today will pick up even the smallest of loose change found lying in a parking lot.

 

To anyone fascinated by "Neanderthals", there are several interesting links provided to follow.

 

Much appreciated.

 

I am no expert but I feel that there are several issues to be considered

 

Over a long period of time the style of flint tools changed so what was manufactured in one period would not have been considered a useful size in another.

 

As far as I know the neolithic flint tools tended to be rougher than some of the later tools so I suspect that some older tools may have been reworked into different forms and so be unreckonized by us now.

 

Thirdly if tools were left in a cache, ignoring the damage to the sites caused over the centuries by later ploughing or other human activities, in the UK we have had at least one ice age since the flints were abandoned which could easily have moved then from their original deposition site to where they have been found.

 

Having just been working on a local mesolithic dig to some extent what we find from the neolithic or even the later stone age could as you say be the result of local manufacturing sites which may have only been used seasonally. Often finds of flint tools are associated with flint 'cores' from which the flints had obviously been struck along with other flint debris.

 

In may instances we have no real concept of what the local landscape was like when these tools were being used so over time even if we are dealing with a manufacturing site the smaller pieces may have broken down into smaller pieces so lost any characteristic percussion marks. We are only left with the other tools wherever they were last used or were lost during use.

[ASCLEPIADES]

This is fascinating M.

I've always wondered why, considering the large investiment of time involved in making tools like the one pictured, they were allowed to be left behind in any quantity or in concentration. Perhaps they were made up in advance and cached for later retrieval. If dropped and (or in use) they were left lying on the ground, they would be picked up and kept for later usage much the way we today will pick up even the smallest of loose change found lying in a parking lot.

 

To anyone fascinated by "Neanderthals", there are several interesting links provided to follow.

 

Much appreciated.

 

I am no expert but I feel that there are several issues to be considered

 

Over a long period of time the style of flint tools changed so what was manufactured in one period would not have been considered a useful size in another.

 

As far as I know the neolithic flint tools tended to be rougher than some of the later tools so I suspect that some older tools may have been reworked into different forms and so be unreckonized by us now.

 

Thirdly if tools were left in a cache, ignoring the damage to the sites caused over the centuries by later ploughing or other human activities, in the UK we have had at least one ice age since the flints were abandoned which could easily have moved then from their original deposition site to where they have been found.

 

Having just been working on a local mesolithic dig to some extent what we find from the neolithic or even the later stone age could as you say be the result of local manufacturing sites which may have only been used seasonally. Often finds of flint tools are associated with flint 'cores' from which the flints had obviously been struck along with other flint debris.

 

In may instances we have no real concept of what the local landscape was like when these tools were being used so over time even if we are dealing with a manufacturing site the smaller pieces may have broken down into smaller pieces so lost any characteristic percussion marks. We are only left with the other tools wherever they were last used or were lost during use.

Salve, Neanderthalophiles

 

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