Much of What We Thought About Neanderthals Was Wrong. Here's Why That Matters - Time

"The Neanderthals never really had a chance." Thus Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art begins a summary of her conclusions. This and Barbara J. King's review 'Kindred' Dismantles Simplistic Views Of Neanderthals tell us perhaps as much about moderns as they overturn traditional views of Sykes' "fellow travelers along evolution's swift and mighty cataract." Perhaps it's a "fine point," but Homo erectus, Not Humans, May Have Invented the Barbed Bone Point, according to Bruce Bower. That refinement may be more than eight times earlier than its previously-held advent, taking it literally out of the hands of H. sapiens. Redating human-created tools is also upending our notions about the current hominin, per Keith Randall's Texas A&M Expert: New Clues Revealed About Clovis People. Distinctive Clovis tools now seem only a 300-year industry, which challenges the traditional view that Clovis-bearers colonized as far as South America. The new study may "provide a baseline" for understanding the Clovis people's "origin and demise," but along with these other examples underscores how malleable is our received understanding of the human past. (WM)

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from THE ANOMALIST https://bit.ly/3kHtHnD