New Evidence About Neanderthals: Colour, Diet, Touch

New analyses have complicated the old image of Neanderthals as merely rugged hunters. In Crimea, archaeologists have studied Micoquian ochre fragments that were intentionally shaped, resharpened and, in one case, engraved; these objects, recovered from deposits dated to tens of thousands of years ago, display micro-wear that is best explained by repeated marking on soft surfaces. Such curated pigment tools, which were sometimes reused over long periods, suggest symbolic practices that overlap with early Homo sapiens behaviour.

Isotope chemistry has also been reassessed. High δ15N values in Neanderthal bones once implied extreme meat consumption, but controlled experiments have shown that fly larvae feeding on decaying flesh can concentrate nitrogen-15 to values far above those of muscle tissue (ranging from about 5.4 to 43.2‰). If hominins regularly consumed maggot-laden or fermented animal foods, then their bone chemistry would reflect those elevated values without requiring impossibly large meat intakes. Consequently, diet reconstructions must weigh taphonomic and biochemical pathways as well as hunting practices.

A behavioural study that reconstructed kissing on the primate family tree traced its origin to the ancestor of the great apes, dated between roughly 21.5 and 16.9 million years ago, and inferred that Neanderthals likely shared this mouth-to-mouth contact. Genetic analyses have long shown gene flow between Neanderthals and early modern humans, leaving small but persistent fractions of Neanderthal DNA in present-day non-Africans. Together, these lines of evidence paint hominin social life as more nuanced and connected than was assumed.

While debates continue, the cumulative evidence has shifted scholarly opinion and invites us to imagine Neanderthals as culturally and biologically entangled relatives rather than distant caricatures.