Comparing the archaeology of social relationships of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic (original) (raw)

2020

The preconception of Upper Palaeolithic (U.P.) being more behaviourally complex than Middle Palaeolithic (M.P.) lingers to modern day. It originates in assumption of Homo sapiens’ superiority and antiquated perspectives on Neanderthals, “thoughts…never soared beyond those of a brute” (King,1986,96). Sequencing of Neanderthal genome revealed that most Modern Humans (MH) share around 1-5 % of Neanderthal DNA (Green et al,2006,331), from MH and Neanderthal interbreeding. Consequently, people’s views of Neanderthals changed to perceive them more like MH. However, Neanderthals belong to a different evolutionary trajectory meaning different cerebral connections. Some researchers suggest this could mean they were less behaviourally complex (Pearce et al,2013,1,6). However, archaeological evidence of social relations suggests otherwise. To understand how behaviourally equal and different Neanderthals were to MH, investigations into evidence of care, social networks and long-ignored topic of prehistoric childhood, integral to development of social relationships are required (Spikins et al, 2014, 111).