Universidade de Brasília – UnB Depto. de Línguas Estrangeiras – LET No. de Identificação da Disciplina: 146064

Instituto de Letras – IL Professor: Dr. João Sedycias Civilização Hispano-Americana

Observação importante: Ao visitarem esta página de novo, não se esqueçam de acionar o dispositivo de "reload, recarregar" (no Netscape Navigator) ou "refresh, atualizar" (no Microsoft Internet Explorer) dos seus browsers para que a informação no cache dos mesmos seja atualizada e vocês possam visualizar os novos dados colocados na página. Caso contrário, verão apenas informação antiga e desatualizada.

¡OJO! – Esta página está actualizada hasta el: 14 de septiembre de 1999.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica

Neanderthal –

also spelled NEANDERTAL, early form of Homo sapiens that inhabited much of Europe and the Mediterranean lands during the late Pleistocene Epoch, about 100,000 to 30,000 years ago. Neanderthal remains have also been found in the Middle East, North Africa, and western Central Asia.

The name derives from the discovery in 1856 of the first remains of the type in a cave above the Neander Valley in Germany, not far from Düsseldorf. The remains immediately caused a lively controversy as to whether they were remains of ancient humans or merely bones of modern humans distorted by disease.

The origins of Neanderthals cannot be established with any certainty. Forerunners of Neanderthal peoples may date to some 100,000 to 200,000 years ago. Skull fragments found in France are of that age, but they have characteristics more like modern Homo sapiens than like the earlier H. erectus who, chronologically, should be Neanderthal's forerunner.

However, Neanderthals were probably a product of the last (Riss-Würm) interglacial stage (75,000 to 115,000 years ago) in Europe. Jaws, teeth, and skull parts have been found in many places in Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, and Spain that are unquestionably recognizable as Neanderthalian.

The last (Würm) glacial stage in Europe was about 10,000 to 70,000 years ago, and it is from those times that the most numerous skeletal remains of Neanderthals have been found. These have given some idea of Neanderthal physiognomy and habits. Neanderthals were short, stout, and powerful in build. Cranial capacity equaled or surpassed that of modern humans, though their braincases were long, low, and wide and flattened behind. Their faces had heavy browridges, large teeth, and small cheekbones. The chest was broad, and the limbs were heavy, with large feet and hands. The Neanderthals appear to have walked in a more irregular, lateral fashion than do modern humans. (See Würm glacial stage.)

The Neanderthals were cave dwellers, although they occasionally built camps in the open air. They wore clothing, used fire, hunted small and medium-sized animals (e.g., goats and small deer), and scavenged from the kills of large carnivores. They made and used a variety of stone tools and wooden spears. Their tool culture is known as the Mousterian industry.

The Neanderthals were the first hominids to intentionally bury their dead, both individually and in groups, and they also cared for sick or injured individuals. Evidence of ritualistic treatment of animals, which are sometimes found with human skeletons, may indicate that they practiced a primitive form of religion.

Evidence from a few sites indicates that Neanderthals coexisted for several thousand years with the modern humans (i.e., Cro-Magnons) that were living in Europe by 35,000 years ago. The nature of the Neanderthals' demise is no better understood than that of their evolutionary origins. They were certainly replaced by Cro-Magnons, but whether they were absorbed by the Cro-Magnons or simply died out in competition with them is unknown. (See Cro-Magnon.)

The taxonomic classification of the Neanderthals is still being debated. Originally they were classed as a separate species (H. neanderthalensis), and subsequently they were thought to represent a subspecies of H. sapiens (H. sapiens neanderthalensis); some workers, however, have begun to favour the original designation.

Neanderthal Origins and Anatomy –

The name Neanderthal (or Neandertal) derives from the Neander Valley near Düsseldorf, Germany. In a cave in the valley in 1856, quarrymen unearthed portions of a human skeleton. Sixteen pieces of the skeleton were rescued and described shortly thereafter. Immediately, there was disagreement as to whether the bones represented an archaic and extinct human form or an abnormal modern human. The former view was shown to be correct in 1886, when two Neanderthal skeletons were discovered in a cave at Spy, Belgium, associated with Middle Paleolithic stone tools and an extinct subarctic fauna. However, the view that the Neanderthals were somehow pathological still survives, despite abundant evidence to the contrary.

Side view of the La Ferrassie 1 skull, that of an adult male Neanderthal from western Europe.

Shortly after the Spy discovery, up to about 1910, a series of Neanderthal skeletons were discovered in western and central Europe. Using those skeletons as a basis, scholars reconstructed the Neanderthals as semihuman, lacking a full upright posture and being somewhat less intelligent than modern humans. According to that view the Neanderthals were intermediate between modern humans and the apes (no older human forms were then generally recognized) but also too divergent to be the ancestors of modern humans. Only after World War II were the errors in the old Neanderthal postural reconstruction recognized, and the Neanderthals have since come to be viewed as quite close to modern humans evolutionarily. This view has been reflected in the frequent inclusion of the Neanderthals within the species Homo sapiens, usually as a distinct subspecies (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis). Some scholars maintain them in a different but closely related species, Homo neanderthalensis. In the meantime a number of Neanderthal skeletons have been found in caves and shelters across Europe, the Middle East, and eastward to Uzbekistan in Central Asia, providing abundant skeletal remains and associated archaeological material for understanding these prehistoric humans. The Neanderthals are now known from several hundred individuals, represented by remains varying from isolated teeth to virtually complete skeletons.

Side view of the Shanidar 1 Neanderthal skull, found at Shanidar Cave, Iraq.

The fossil evidence for the few hundred thousand years leading up to the time of the Neanderthals shows a gradual change from a Homo erectus form to one approaching the Neanderthals. Particularly in western Europe, the evidence shows a gradual decrease in the size and frequency of the anatomic characteristics of Homo erectus and a gradual increase in features suggestive of the Neanderthals. From this a gradual emergence of the Neanderthals from earlier regional populations of archaic humans can be inferred, especially in western Europe and probably across their entire geographic range.

The changes between Neanderthal ancestors and the Neanderthals highlight their characteristics. Brain size gradually increased to reach modern human volumes relative to body mass, even if Neanderthal brains and braincases tended to be somewhat longer and lower than those of modern humans. Neanderthal faces remained large and especially long, similar to those of their ancestors and retaining browridges, a projecting dentition and nose, and the absence of a full chin. Their premolars and molars were reduced to the size of early modern humans, and their chewing muscles and cheek regions were reduced accordingly. Yet, their incisors and canines remained large, like those of their ancestors, indicating continued use as a vise or third hand.

The postcranial skeletons of the Neanderthals changed little from those of their ancestors. They retained broad shoulders, extremely muscular upper limbs, large chests, strong and fatigue-resistant legs, and broad, strong feet. There is nothing in their limb anatomies to indicate less dexterity or an inability to walk bipedally. The details of their hand bones, however, suggest greater emphasis on power than precision grips. Furthermore, details of their pelvises, legs, and toes suggest that they engaged in more irregular, lateral movement during locomotion than do most modern humans. All of these features, however, appear to have been inherited and maintained from their ancestors.

The Neanderthals differed from their East Asian and African relatives (other late archaic humans) primarily in their retention of large incisors and canines and long faces to support those teeth. In Africa and East Asia front teeth and faces became smaller. At the same time, in both these and Neanderthal populations, the size of premolars and molars and facial massiveness were diminishing.

Latest Archaeological Findings:

In 1997 science fiction became fact when ancient DNA, believed to be between 30,000 and 100,000 years old, was extracted from a Neanderthal specimen originally discovered in 1856 in the Feldhofer Cave of the Neander Valley near Düsseldorf, Germany. In a technically brilliant tour de force, Matthias Krings, working in Svante PSSbo's laboratory at the University of Munich, Germany, succeeded in piecing together a nucleotide sequence for 379 base pairs of maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA preserved in a 3.5-g (0.11-oz) section of the specimen's right humerus. What made this claim so convincing was that the results were meticulously replicated by Anne Stone, working in Mark Stoneking's laboratory at Pennsylvania State University. When the Neanderthal DNA sequence was compared with the corresponding region in modern humans and chimpanzees, the overall Neanderthal-human difference was approximately three times greater than the average difference among modern humans but only about half as large as the human-chimpanzee difference. Because the Neanderthal sequence was so unlike any modern human sequence, many experts thought it highly unlikely that Neanderthals contributed to the human mitochondrial DNA pool. These data strengthened the case for the separate-species status of the Neanderthals initially advocated by William King in 1864, whereby the taxonomic designation Homo neanderthalensis is preferred to membership in Homo sapiens. It should be noted, however, that no biparental nuclear DNA was recovered from the Neanderthal humerus, and, thus, at present there is no way to refute the hypothesis that some Neanderthal genes still exist in the human nuclear gene pool or the conjecture that genetic differences between human and Neanderthal nuclear DNA are not as large as those exhibited by the faster-evolving mitochondrial DNA molecule.

Latest Archaeological News:

Source: Associated Press, Friday, 16 April 1999

Ancient Skeleton Found in Portugal

LISBON, Portugal (AP) – Experts examining a 25,000-year-old child's skeleton in Portugal believe it represents compelling evidence that humans as we know them today evolved from mating between Neanderthals and anatomically modern man.

It is believed they coexisted on the Iberian Peninsula. Their hybrid offspring eventually evolved into what is recognized as modern man, the director of the Portuguese Archaeological Institute theorized Friday.

"Anatomically modern man arrived on what is now the Iberian peninsula 28,000 to 30,000 years ago and they found Neanderthal man here," Joao Zilhao said in a telephone interview.

"There are two theories about what happened. Some say the Neanderthal population was wiped out somehow, while anatomically modern man went on to evolve.

"But another view says there was an intermingling of the two, and the interpretation of this skeleton is that in fact there was significant hybridization," Zilhao said.

The hybrid thrived and is the genesis of modern man, according to Zilhao's theory. He said further research and finds will be required to back up his hypothesis.

Chris Stringer, an expert on Neanderthal man at the Museum of Natural History in London said he had few details of the find but expected it to make a "major contribution" to the debate on how the Neanderthals died out.

The hybridization theory has been difficult to prove because previously only fragments of skeletons have been found, Stringer said in a telephone interview.

He said current evidence was not enough to make him subscribe to the hybridization theory, but added he was ready to consider the Portuguese findings with an open mind.

"The Iberian peninsula is an area where there was a significant overlap in time and space between Neanderthal and modern man. They could have coexisted for as long as 10,000 years," he said.

The skeleton, believed to be of a four-year-old child, was discovered by chance in November in the Lapedo Valley near Leiria, 90 miles north of the Lisbon, the capital.

Known as the Child of Lapedo, the skeleton shows traits of modern man, including the jaw, teeth and spleen, and Neanderthal features like the size of the femur and tibia, according to Zilhao.

Carbon dating shows the skeleton is about 25,000 years old, Zilhao said.

Other evidence has shown that the Neanderthals and modern man coexisted in the area about 28,000 to 30,000 years ago.

Because the skeleton dates from 3,000 years later and displays strong anatomical features of both origins, Zilhao concludes that hybridization was very deep.

The skeleton is being studied at the National Archeological Museum in Lisbon.

Source: Time Magazine, 03 May 1999, Vol. 153, No. 17

A Bit of Neanderthal in Us All?

Specialists in human evolution have pretty well established that early modern Homo sapiens and the brawny, thick-skulled creatures we know as Neanderthals coexisted in parts of Europe for thousands of years, at the very least. It's also clear that the Neanderthals aren't here anymore (despite how you might feel about your brother-in-law). What is not clear, however, is what happened to them. Did our forebears wipe out the Neanderthals in an act of prehistoric genocide? Or did we interbreed with our evolutionary cousins until their genes were diluted beyond recognition?

Now comes the first hard evidence to address the question. Our ancestors, it suggests, made love, not war. Archaeologists in Portugal have stumbled onto a 24,500-year-old skeleton that has a mix of modern and Neanderthal features. The bones, which belong to a four-year-old child, had been carefully buried. They had been stained with red ocher and interred with a pierced marine shell lying next to the child's neck--typical features of Upper Paleolithic burials found throughout Europe.

What was striking was the shape of the bones. While the child's chin, jaw and arm bones resembled those of early Homo sapiens, the stocky torso and short legs were, to the scientists' astonishment, Neanderthal-like. This mixing of the races might have been a one-time thing--except that this child lived 3,000 to 4,000 years after these populations first began sharing the Iberian Peninsula. Says Erik Trinkaus, a Washington University paleoanthropologist who is a consultant for the project: "This is not one Neanderthal and one modern human making whoopee in the bushes."

The real message, Trinkaus believes, is that to people living in the Stone Age, Neanderthals were just another tribe. "They may have had heavier brows or broader noses or stockier builds, but behaviorally, socially and reproductively they were all just people."

Voltar ao começo da página

Voltar à página principal