Early humans' innovative hunting weapons didn't bully Neanderthals into extinction

A new study has revealed that early humans' innovative hunting weapons may not have caused the demise of the Neanderthals.

The researchers, from Nagoya University and The University of Tokyo, Japan, looked at innovative stone weapons used by humans about 42,000-34,000 years ago. Traditionally, anthropologists believed that innovation in weapons enabled humans to spread out of Africa to Europe.

However, the new study suggests that the innovation was not a driving force for humans to migrate into Europe as previously thought; they were no better equipped than the Neanderthals.

The researchers studied stone tools that were used by people in the Early Ahmarian culture and the Protoaurignacian culture, living in south and west Europe and west Asia around 40,000 years ago. They used small stone points as tips for hunting weapons like throwing spears. Researchers previously considered these to be a significant innovation - one that helped the humans migrate from west Asia to Europe, where Neanderthals were living.

However, the new research revealed a timeline that doesn't support this theory. If the innovation had led to the migration, evidence would show the stone points moving in the same direction as the humans.

But at closer inspection, the researchers showed the possibility that the stone points appeared in Europe 3,000 years earlier than in the Levant, a historical area in west Asia.

Innovation in hunting weapons can be necessary, but it's not always associated with migration - populations can spread without technological innovations.

By re-examining the evidence, the researchers showed that the comparable stone weapons appeared in Europe around 42,000 years ago and in the Levant 39,000 years ago. They believe the timings imply several new scenarios about the migration of modern humans into Europe. For example, they are likely to have migrated to Europe much earlier, and developed the tools there.

The study is published in the Journal of Human Evolution.