Neanderthals already formed small communities. They shared food, they loved, they rested, they cared for their children and they died. They probably also protected themselves from outsiders and resolved their own conflicts. What’s this about? To a recent archaeological find. The remains of the oldest Neanderthal family were found.
United family
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig sequenced DNA. They took bones of Neanderthals from between 51,000 and 59,000 years ago. They were found in two caves in the Altai Mountains in Siberia (Russia).
A father was identified with his teenage daughter. Also a pair of second-degree relatives. They could be uncles, grandparents or cousins. The magazine ‘Nature’ tells the details. It is the oldest known Neanderthal family portrait.
Neanderthals did not live in completely isolated communities. It was learned by comparing genetic diversity in DNA. It was learned that females frequently migrated from one clan to another. And males tended to stay within their original nuclear family. This practice is called patrilocality. It was recognized among the Neanderthals at the El Sidrón site in Asturias.
“A very common strategy in human groups. It allows genetic exchange to reduce inbreeding and the establishment of kinship networks”, they explain.
More humans
The occupants of both caves spent their days hunting mountain goats, horses, bison and other animals. They gathered raw materials for their stone tools dozens of kilometers away. At Chagyrskaya, where they enjoyed the hunted prey, about 90,000 stone artifacts were found.
The inhabitants seem to be part of a larger population. They would be descendants of a late expansion of eastern European Neanderthals into Siberia. Benjamin Peter, co-author of the paper, notes, “Our study provides a concrete picture of what a Neanderthal community might have been like.” In his opinion, “it makes the Neanderthals look much more human”.
