Neanderthal extinction

Age of Bones Calls Into Question How Early Humans Died

By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 19, 2005

For decades, scientists have argued over the disappearance of Neanderthals
from prehistoric Europe about 30,000 years ago. Did they die from some
mysterious disease? Or did modern humans simply supplant them, either by
obliterating them or by interbreeding?


In research reported today in the journal Nature, an Austrian-led team has
added fuel to the debate, confirming that fossil remains from a famous
archaeological site in the Czech Republic are 31,000 years old -- putting
them at the period when Neanderthals vanished.


The bones from the Mladec Caves represent the only known remains in Europe
that can be linked directly to "Aurignacian" stone and bone tools,
ornaments, and other artifacts made 30,000 to 40,000 years ago, when humans
first began to fashion objects with aesthetic as well as utilitarian
purposes.


While the bones -- from six individuals found in the caves -- are generally
regarded as "modern," some of the fossil skulls show "archaic" features,
among them heavy brow ridges and protruding bone in the back of the head,
that are more associated with Neanderthals.



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