Neanderthal Culture War

In an argument that takes the phrase “culture wars” to a new level, a group of researchers says it’s possible that cultural superiority gave human ancestors the upper hand over their Neanderthal cousins.

Neanderthals lived in what is now Europe for hundreds of thousands of years before humans arrived. Last year, researchers dated the oldest human skull found outside of Africa, in Manot Cave in Israel, to 55,000 years old. That marks the known start to a time when the two hominids lived side by side, a period likely full of interaction and competition for food and other resources. By 45,000 years ago, humans had arrived in Europe. Some 5,000 years later, the Neanderthals were extinct.

Archaeologists are in two camps over what exactly happened. Some believe the Neanderthals died off because of climate change or epidemics. Others think modern humans wiped them out with better tools, clothing or social organization.
The team modified a mathematical model frequently used to predict competition between populations and added, for the first time, new dimensions for cultural advantage and the ability to learn.

They set the model so that the more culturally advanced a group was, the larger it could grow. Because humans were spreading into Neanderthal territory, it’s likely that those leading the charge arrived in small numbers, compared with the established Neanderthals. Despite this disadvantage, the cultural skills they brought with them could have allowed them to hunt, settle land and otherwise use resources more efficiently than the original residents. Eventually, their numbers would swell, making them even more