Theme:
6. A Decade after the ‘Third Science Revolution in Archaeology’
Session format:
Round table (without formal abstracts, only list of confirmed discussants / session co-organisers to be provided)
Title:
Understanding Neanderthal Symbolic and Cultural Behaviour and Their Cognitive Underpinnings. Where Do We Stand? [PaM]
Content:
In the last decade evidence of sophisticated symbolic and cultural behaviour among Neanderthals has accumulated substantially across Eurasia. This is exemplified by Neanderthal’s usage of birds of prey feathers, talons, and phalanges at a number of European Mediterranean sites, by engraved rocks, lithics, and bone objects from a variety of places, the usage of spaces deep inside caves and colorants, by human burials, and potentially by cave paintings in Iberia, among further examples.
The very notion of sophisticated symbolic and cultural behaviour in Neanderthals pivotally bears implications in regard to human evolution and the cognitive abilities of one of our genetically closest relatives. Is Homo sapiens as special as we like to believe, or have there been other human species that – under yet unknown circumstances – disappeared in the past, but had strikingly similar abilities? What are the cognitive underpinnings of these recent discoveries and recognitions? Do we need more research on human cognitive evolution, neurosciences and past brain development connected to these particular questions?
The archaeological discoveries of objects with symbolically mediated behaviour lay the foundations for new possibilities to reconsider the very nature of Neanderthals – first regarded as primitives, later seen as capable of adapting to a variety of environments and climate changes, and now possibly as self-aware human beings that were able to communicate in abstract ways, displayed care for their deceased, and commanded imaginative means similar to us. Were these complex behaviours independent ‘inventions’ or the result of acculturation? Do we suffer from a historical legacy of seeing Neanderthals as ‘the others’?
Where do we stand today, and which direction does future research need to take in order to investigate such complex issues that ultimately aim to address one of the most essential questions humankind might have – what makes us human?
Keywords:
Neanderthals, symbolic behaviour, cultural behaviour, cognition, human burials, revision of theory
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
PaM - Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Community at EAA
Main organiser:
Dirk Leder (Germany) 1
Co-organisers:
Ana Majkić (Serbia) 2
Affiliations:
1. Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege
2. Department of Archaeology, University of Belgrade
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