Finds from Üçağızlı II Cave on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast suggest remarkable cultural continuity between Neanderthals and the Homo sapiens who arrived later. Teeth and part of a jaw identified Neanderthal occupation from about 77,000 to 59,000 years ago and modern human occupation from roughly 59,000 to 47,000 years ago. Although the groups apparently did not overlap inside the cave, both obtained flint from the same local sources, made similar stone tools, and hunted wild goats, fallow deer, roe deer, and wild boar. Excavations also recovered 29 shells from small marine snails that appear to have been collected as ornaments rather than food. Several were pierced for stringing, and one from a Neanderthal layer had been deliberately heated, apparently to alter its color. The close match in hunting, technology, and symbolic practices suggests the two populations may have exchanged traditions elsewhere in the region, rather than one culture simply replacing the other.
🧐 Ancient Beat #200: Ancient fossil…
Finds from Üçağızlı II Cave on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast suggest remarkable cultural continuity between Neanderthals and the Homo sapiens who arrived later. Teeth and part of a jaw identified Neanderthal occupation from about 77,000 to 59,000 years ago and modern human occupation from roughly 59,000 to 47,000 years ago. Although the groups apparently did not overlap inside the cave, both obtained flint from the same local sources, made similar stone tools, and hunted wild goats, fallow deer, roe deer, and wild boar. Excavations also recovered 29 shells from small marine snails that appear to have been collected as ornaments rather than food. Several were pierced for stringing, and one from a Neanderthal layer had been deliberately heated, apparently to alter its color. The close match in hunting, technology, and symbolic practices suggests the two populations may have exchanged traditions elsewhere in the region, rather than one culture simply replacing the other.