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Tar adhesives, Neandertals, and the tyranny of the discontinuous mind

2019; National Academy of Sciences; Volume: 116; Issue: 44 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1073/pnas.1916116116

1091-6490

Joào Zilhão,

Linguistics and language evolution

Were the builders of Stonehenge and the painters of Altamira (Fig. 1) cognitively and behaviorally like present-day humans? Did those prehistoric people have language? In the absence of writing, these never-asked questions cannot be answered with direct evidence. However, we take it for granted that, yes, they were, and they did. We do so because we instinctively know that such works require the capacity for abstract thought, deep foresight, and sophisticated communication. In current scientific discourse, this “complex” cognition is set against the simpler modes that can be observed in other species and are assumed to also have characterized our nonhuman ancestors. Hence the question that lies at the core of much paleoanthropological research: When, how, and why did humans acquire language and so-called “modern” (i.e., like present-day) cognition and behavior? Or, put another way, when did humans become, well, “human”? In PNAS, Niekus et al. (1) speak to these issues based on their analysis of a 50,000-y-old flint flake dredged from the postglacially submerged Rhine-Meuse Valley in the North Sea off Holland. The flake is embedded in birch bark tar and is of Neandertal make. It adds to comparable finds showing that Neandertals used artificial adhesives to haft, or better handle, stone tools across their entire geographic range and since at least 200,000 y ago. Fig. 1. Material culture as a basis for inferences about language and cognition. ( A ) Neolithic stone circle at Stonehenge, England. ( B ) Upper Paleolithic tectiform sign from El Castillo Cave, Spain. ( C ) Middle Paleolithic stalagmite circle at Bruniquel Cave, France. Reprinted with permission from M. Soulier/Societe Speleo-Archeologique de Caussade. ( D ) Middle Paleolithic scalariform sign from La Pasiega, Spain. If A and B , which were made by anatomically modern people, imply language and cognitive capacities like those of present-day humans, so too should C and D , … [↵][1]1Email: joao.zilhao{at}ub.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1