Still, stone tools are one of the best available indicators of which species-modern human or Neandertal-inhabited a particular location. This link between tool and toolmaker is well supported by sites that do contain hominin remains, but there is nothing inherent in a stone tool that tells you who made it-not even if you find a skeleton right next to it. They argue, based on a meta-analysis of 164 archaeological sites that date to the period when modern humans and Neandertals overlapped in the Dordogne region of southwest France, that the modern-human population grew so rapidly that it overwhelmed Neandertals with its sheer numbers.īecause not all the archaeological sites in the study contained clearly identifiable remains of modern humans or Neandertals, Mellars and French made a common assumption: that sites containing stone tools of the Mousterian tradition had been created by Neandertals, and those containing more sophisticated and generally later stone tools of the Upper Paleolithic were made by modern humans. What happened?Ī stunning study that illuminates this decisive period was recently published inīy Paul Mellars and Jennifer French of Cambridge University. (The phrase “modern humans,” in this context, refers to humans who were anatomically-if not behaviorally-indistinguishable from ourselves.) The two species overlapped in Europe and the Middle East between 45,000 and 35,000 years ago at the end of that period, Neandertals were in steep decline and modern humans were thriving. One of the classic conundrums in paleoanthropology is why Neandertals went extinct while modern humans survived in the same habitat at the same time. They may have saved not only individuals but also our whole species, by “domesticating” us while we domesticated them.
But it just might be that dogs have done much, much more than that for humankind. Anyone who has ever loved a dog knows the amazing, almost inexpressible warmth of a dog’s companionship and devotion. And we’ve all heard heartwarming stories about dogs who save their owners-waking them during a fire or summoning help after an accident. We all know the adage that dogs are man’s best friend.
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