Implications of Neanderthal-Homo Sapiens Hybrid from the Abrigo do Lagar
Velho (Portugal) In a recent excavation at Abrigo do Lagar Velho in Portugal,
Duarte et al (1999) unearthed what was later to be recognized as early human
skeletal remains which pointed to interbreeding between Neanderthal and Modern
Humans during the mid - upper Palaeolithic transition.
The morphology of the remains, belonging to a child of approximately 3-4
years old, indicates a Neanderthal typology in post-cranial features, and more
modern cranial features. The find has been cited as evidence of hybridization
between the two traditionally separate human lines, and offers an explanation to
the question of Neanderthal extinction. (Trinkaus 1999)
Anthropologists are now offered a line of evidence pointing to the
contemopranity of Moderns and Neanderthals in parts of Europe and assumptions
can be made about their contact: The discoverers…are making a ground-breaking
claim, that the skeleton shows traces of both Neanderthal and modern human
ancestry, evidence that modern humans did not simply extinguish the
Neanderthals, as many researchers had come to think. Instead the two kinds of
human were so alike that in Portugal, at least, they intermingled…for thousands
of years. (Kunzig, 1999)
By examining the theories of human evolution, and looking at the cultural
evolution of tool technology as well as the biological transitions and
differences between the two types of humans, we can see that this hybridization
just might be the answer. Perhaps this find will be able to tell us what exactly
did happen to the Neanderthals.
Firstly, it is useful to have an overview of the different theories of human
evolution, or I should say the two most widely accepted views as accepted by
palaeo-anthropologists in the field. For some years now it has been the
contention that the origins of modern humans stem from either a continuous
evolution from archaic to modern humans in local regions from an earlier
dispersal of Homo erectus, or conversely from modern humans evolved in Africa
only which then dispersed to replace those hominids in said regions. These two
theories are known as the Continuity or Regional model and the Replacement or
Out of Africa model respectively.
