There is an News and Analysis article in December 2000 Scientific American
p. 18. Here are some extracts:
"Grotte XVI, a site that he is currently excavating, is one of 23 caves that
line a 1.5-kilometer-long cliff running along that hill, he explains. The
locality has proved exceptionally rich. Over the past 17 years the field
team has documented upward of 50,000 artifacts from at least 11 different
archaeological levels dating back as far as 75,000 years ago, when
Neandertals inhabited the cave. As such, Grotte XVI provides a rare
opportunity for scientists to compare how Neandertals and early modern
humans used the same living space--a comparison that is indicating that the
two groups were more similar than previously thought. " Paleolithic Pit
Stop," Scientific American, Dec. 2000, p. 18
"Comparisons between the Mousterian and the Aurignacian--an Upper
Paleolithic cultural tradition associated with anatomically modern
humans--at Grotte XVI have led Simek and Rigaud to an intriguing conclusion.
Whereas a number of researchers have argued that the transition from the
Middle Paleolithic to the Upper Paleolithic was rapid, corresponding to a
replacement of Neandertals by moderns, the Grotte XVI assemblages fail to
support that idea. The Upper Paleolithic does represent a shift toward
specialized hunting, Simek observes, but the change is gradual.
Indeed, preliminary analysis suggests that the Neandertal and early modern
human inhabitants of Grotte XVI behaved in much the same way: in both cases,
small groups of hunters seem to have used the cave for only short periods
before moving on, and both hunted the same kinds of animals. In fact, both
groups appear to have fished extensively, judging from the abundant remains
of trout and pike, among other species. This finding is particularly
interesting because Neandertals are not generally assumed to have made use
of aquatic resources. Furthermore, Simek reports, Neandertals may have even
smoked their catch, based on evidence of lichen and grass in the Mousterian
fireplaces. Such plants don't burn particularly well, Simek says, but they
do produce a lot of smoke. "People don't tend to think of Neandertals as
using fire in very complex ways," he remarks, "and they did." (The
fireplaces, which date to between 54,000 and 66,000 years ago, are
themselves noteworthy as the best-preserved early hearths known, according
to Simek. Striking bands of black, red, pink, orange, yellow and white
reveal carbon and various stages of chemically decomposed ash that indicate
short, hot fires.) " Paleolithic Pit Stop," Scientific American, Dec. 2000,
p. 18-20
For groups like Reasons to Beleive, to continue to propagate their belief
that Neanderthals are nothing more than bipedal, soulless animals flies in
the face of anthropological knowledge. They are doing the same thing for
anthropology that young-earth creationists do to astronomy!!!
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