Neanderthal used stone drills to treat tooth cavities nearly 60,000 years ago, ancient molar suggests

Amazing stuff!

"Neanderthals had the know-how to identify a tooth infection and the motor skills to drill out the damage, according to a study published May 13, 2026, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Alisa Zubova of Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences ..."

From the abstract:

"Neanderthal medical knowledge has long attracted scholarly interest. Evidence suggests they cared for sick, injured, and elderly group members, with possible use of medicinal plants.

However, it remains uncertain whether such practices reflect deliberate medical strategies or instinctive self-medication akin to that observed in non-human primates.

Here, we analyze and interpret traces of deliberate artificial manipulation of Chagyrskaya 64, a Neanderthal lower left second molar found in Chagyrskaya Cave (Altai Krai, Russia).

The tooth exhibits a large human-generated concavity on the occlusal surface, created during the lifetime of the individual.

Traceological and microtomographic analyses of the observed modifications, combined with experimental verification, reveal that the concavity in Chagyrskaya 64 is indicative of the earliest documented instance of caries treatment involving the drilling/rotating with a lithic perforator, ca. 59 ka.

Evidence of two distinct types of manipulations requiring different tools, in addition to the drilling/rotating technique, necessitating complex finger movements, indicates that the Chagyrskaya Cave Neanderthals possessed the cognitive capacity to intuit the source of pain, comprehend the feasibility of its elimination, and deliberately select the most efficacious dental intervention.

These patterns bring Neanderthal behavior closer to modern humans and differentiate that behavior from the instinctive actions of other primates."

Neanderthal dentists used stone drills to treat cavities nearly 60,000 years ago, ancient molar suggests

Earliest evidence for invasive mitigation of dental caries by Neanderthals (open access)

Fig 2. Chagyrskaya 64 molar tooth and its macro-features.

Fig 4. Retouched points (1, 4) and perforators (2, 3, 5) from Layer 6c/2 in Chagyrskaya Cave.

Neanderthals survived on a knife’s edge Between 400,000 and 45,000 years ago

Amazing stuff! 350,000 years on knife's edge? Really!

"Between 400,000 and 45,000 years ago, Neanderthals had most of Eurasia to themselves, hunting large game, harvesting plants, expertly knapping stone tools, and fashioning clothing from animal skins. But their existence was precarious. Two new studies show many Neanderthals lived in small, far-flung groups; likely experienced significant inbreeding; and survived a close brush with extinction about 75,000 years ago. ...

The team found that Neanderthal sites and skeletal remains were widely distributed across the continent, and their genomes relatively diverse, until about 75,000 years ago, Then, as an ice age gripped the continent between 75,000 and 65,000 years ago, “we see the number of sites decline,” ... Archaeological data show some Neanderthals found refuge in southwestern Europe, taking shelter inside caves in the valleys of southern France, while abandoning or dying out in the rest of the continent. ..."

Neanderthals survived on a knife’s edge for 350,000 years | Science | AAAS

A high-coverage Neandertal genome from the Altai Mountains reveals population structure among Neandertals (open access)

Archaeogenetic insights into the demographic history of Late Neanderthals (open access)

Fig. 1 Neandertal D17 and its relationship with other Neandertals. (A) Locations of high-coverage Neandertal genomes used in the study.

The biggest myths about Neanderthals

Recommendable!

(1) The biggest myths about Neanderthals - Bruce Hardy - YouTube

Early neanderthals made fire 400,000 years ago in the UK pushing back the origin of human fire making by over 350,000 years

Amazing stuff! Another surprising discovery about the Neanderthals!

I had previously blogged here already about this discovery, but it was only about a video!

I bet this is not the earliest ever, but other places somewhere around the world will be discovered in the future.

"... Pinpointing exactly when this kind of fire use evolved is tricky, since the traces of natural burns and human-made ones look alike. Now, a new study reports on a concentrated patch of heated sediment and burned stone tools from the East Farm Barnham archeological site.

The researchers found two fragments of pyrite, a mineral that can produce sparks when struck against flint, indicating that the early Neanderthals used them as “a fire-making kit.” These ancient deposits mark the earliest known evidence of fire-making, roughly 400,000 years ago. ..."

"A stunning discovery at an archaeological dig in the UK is rewriting the timeline of when humans first made fire.

Researchers have discovered the earliest known instance of human-created fire, which took place in the east of England 400,000 years ago.

The new discovery, in the village of Barnham, pushes the origin of human fire-making back by more than 350,000 years, far earlier than previously thought. ..."

"The discovery shows humans were making fire around 350,000 years earlier than previously known.

Research ... provides evidence of the earliest known instance of fire-making by humans – around 400,000 years ago. Previous recorded instances of fire-making date to only 50,000 years ago. ..."

From the abstract:

"Fire-making is a uniquely human innovation that stands apart from other complex behaviours such as tool production, symbolic culture and social communication.
Controlled fire use provided adaptive opportunities that had profound effects on human evolution. Benefits included warmth, protection from predators, cooking and creation of illuminated spaces that became focal points for social interaction. Fire use developed over a million years, progressing from harvesting natural fire to maintaining and ultimately making fire.

However, determining when and how fire use evolved is challenging because natural and anthropogenic burning are hard to distinguish. Although geochemical methods have improved interpretations of heated deposits, unequivocal evidence of deliberate fire-making has remained elusive.

Here we present evidence of fire-making on a 400,000-year-old buried land surface at Barnham (UK), where heated sediments and fire-cracked flint handaxes were found alongside two fragments of iron pyrite—a mineral used in later periods to strike sparks with flint.

Geological studies show that pyrite is locally rare, suggesting it was brought deliberately to the site for fire-making.

The emergence of this technological capability provided important social and adaptive benefits, including the ability to cook food on demand—particularly meat—thereby enhancing digestibility and energy availability, which may have been crucial for hominin brain evolution."

"... Sites in Africa suggest humans used natural fire over a million years ago, but the discovery at the Palaeolithic site in Barnham evidences the creation and control of fire, which carries huge implications for human development and evolution. Until now, the oldest known evidence of fire-making was from 50,000 years ago, found in northern France. ..."

Early neanderthals made fire 400,000 years ago

The moment the earliest known human-made fire was uncovered "BBC News visits the prehistoric site in Suffolk"

Groundbreaking discovery shows earliest evidence of fire-making (official news release) "Researchers led by the British Museum have unearthed the earliest known evidence of fire-making, dating back over 400,000 years, in a field in Suffolk."

Earliest evidence of making fire (no public access)

The site at Barnham, where the discoveries were made

Humans made fire 350,000 years earlier than previously thought or 400,000 years ago in England by very early Neanderthals

Amazing stuff! By Neanderthals!

Neanderthal 1: The discovery that rewrote history

Very recommendable!

Inside the Last Neanderthal Stronghold in Gibraltar with Prof Alice Roberts

Recommendable!

Neanderthals Repurposed Cave Lion Bones Into “Multifunctional Tools” 130,000 Years Ago in Belgium

More and more evidence has appeared showing that Neanderthals were maligned for a long time as very primitive people! See also my recent blog post here.

"Neanderthals living in what is now Belgium made a kind of prehistoric Swiss Army Knife from the bones of a cave lion some 130,000 years ago. Found in the hugely significant Scladina Cave – which once yielded the remains of a well-preserved Neanderthal child – the ancient utensils provide the first evidence that our extinct cousins exploited Eurasia’s most fearsome predator for practical purposes. ..."

From the abstract:

"Throughout history, humans have had a complex relationship with lions, both reverencing and fearing them. Interactions between Neanderthals and cave lions (Panthera spelaea) remain poorly documented due to the scarcity of direct evidence. This study examines the selective use of cave lion bones by Neanderthals to determine whether this behaviour was driven by practical, functional, or symbolic factors, through a detailed zooarchaeological analysis.

Previous studies highlighted Neanderthals’ skinning and butchering of cave lions, yet new discoveries at Scladina Cave (Belgium) offer deeper insights into this relationship.

Dated to the end of the Saalian, the faunal assemblage provides the earliest evidence of bone tools crafted from cave lion remains.

A tibia was deliberately processed into multifunctional tools, initially serving as an intermediate tool before being repurposed as retouchers.

Proteomic analysis applied on the remains, confirmed the specific identification. These findings reveal that Neanderthals not only competed with but actively utilized cave lions for practical purposes, indicating complex ecological and behavioral interactions.

Relationships between pre-humans and large predators, rooted in the Middle Pleistocene, suggest a strategic exploitation of carnivore remains. However, opportunistic procurement cannot be entirely ruled out as a potential factor influencing animal choice in tool production. The intentional transformation of lion bones into functional tools highlights Neanderthals’ cognitive skills, adaptability, and capacity for resource utilization beyond their immediate survival needs."

Neanderthals Repurposed Cave Lion Bones Into “Multifunctional Tools” 130,000 Years Ago

Earliest evidence of Neanderthal multifunctional bone tool production from cave lion (Panthera spelaea) remains (open access)

Credits: The Flyover

Fig. 3 The four bone retouchers made on cave lion remains excavated in Scladina Cave Archaeological Assemblage 5—Sc1986-1278-160

Around 125,000 years ago, Neanderthals boiled bones in ‘fat factories’ to enrich their lean diet rendering them as modern humans

Amazing stuff! Perhaps, the Neanderthals were not so dumb after all!

Notice our far distant ancestors knew already that lean (low fat) or protein rich diets are unhealthy! 😊

"Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that Neanderthals rendered fat from bones 125,000 years ago. Modern humans have been using the process for at least 28,000 years, but the latest finding of “fat factories” reveals that Neanderthals were doing it much earlier. ...

Fat is a vital component of the hunter-gatherer diet, especially during the winter months, when animals are lean and hunted meat alone is not sufficient for sustenance. Eating lean protein without other nutrients can lead to protein poisoning, also known as ‘rabbit starvation’. Fat from bone marrow is a high-calorie source of nutrition, and is an important addition to a protein-heavy diet. ...

During the process of rendering fat, bones were broken down into small segments using stone hammers and were boiled to draw out the fat, which rose to the top and could be extracted after cooling. Containers made from bark and animal tissue have been suggested for this process, although such artefacts would be unlikely to be found in the archaeological record owing to the perishable nature of these materials.

The team analysed material from Neumark-Nord near Leipzig, Germany: a former lake landscape that has yielded artefacts left by humans and their ancient relatives dating back 400,000 years. The researchers excavated thousands of bone fragments and other remains and artefacts from a layer of the site that has been dated to about 125,000 years ago — long before modern humans arrived in Europe.

Butchered and broken

The bones were heavily fragmented and marked with cuts, and had been harvested from at least 172 large animals, suggesting a large-scale operation in which animals were purposely transported to the area. Many of the bones were scattered around the site, but the researchers found a dense cluster of marrow-rich bones that they describe as a “fat factory”.

No direct evidence of boiling was found, but there were signs of the use of fire near the bone cluster, including charcoal and bones, flint and other rocks that had been exposed to heat. ..."

From the abstract:

"Diet played a key role in human evolution, making the study of past diet and subsistence strategies a crucial research topic within paleoanthropology.

Lipids are a crucial resource for hunter-gatherers, especially for foragers whose diet is based heavily on animal foods. Recent foragers have expended substantial amounts of energy to obtain this resource, including time-consuming production of bone grease, a resource intensification practice thus far only documented for Upper Paleolithic populations.

We present archaeological data from the lake landscape of Neumark-Nord (Germany), where Last Interglacial Neanderthals processed at least 172 large mammals at a water’s edge site.

Their (partial) carcasses were transported to this location for the extraction of within-bone nutrients, particularly bone grease.

This “fat factory” constitutes a well-documented case of grease rendering predating the Upper Paleolithic, with the special task location devoted to extraction of nutritionally important lipids forming an important addition to our knowledge of Neanderthal adaptations."

Frühe Fettfabrik: Vor 125 000 Jahren kochten Neandertaler Knochen aus

Neandertaler betrieben bereits vor 125.000 Jahren „Fettfabriken“ (original news release) "Bahnbrechender Fund in Deutschland zeigt groß angelegte Fettverarbeitung durch Neandertaler"

Neanderthals boiled bones in ‘fat factories’ to enrich their lean diet "Germany digs reveal a large-scale operation 100,000 years earlier than oldest known fat rendering by modern humans."

Large-scale processing of within-bone nutrients by Neanderthals, 125,000 years ago (open access)

Fig. 1. Location of Neumark-Nord (Germany).

Fig. 7. Examples of cut marks in the NN2/2B faunal assemblage.

Fig. 8. Examples of hammerstone-induced impact damage on long bones from NN2/2B.

What Happened To The Last Of The Neanderthals at Gibraltar?

Amazing stuff!

Where did India’s people come from? Massive genetic study reveals surprises

Amazing stuff! Amazing Neanderthals!

"South Asia is home to one of the most diverse assemblages of people in the world. A mélange of different ethnic identities, languages, religions, castes, and customs makes up the 1.5 billion humans who live here. Now, scientists have revealed the most detailed look yet of how this population took shape.

In the largest ever modern whole-genome analysis from South Asia—published as a preprint last month on bioRxiv—researchers reveal new details about the origin of India’s Iranian ancestry and when ancient hunter-gatherers settled the region. The study also turns up a surprise: an unexpectedly rich diversity of genes from Neanderthals and their close evolutionary cousins, the Denisovans. Because no fossils of these ancient human relatives have been found in India, researchers are speculating about how these genes got there—and why they stuck around. ..."

From the abstract:

"India has been underrepresented in whole genome sequencing studies. We generated 2,762 high coverage genomes from India––including individuals from most geographic regions, speakers of all major languages, and tribal and caste groups––providing a comprehensive survey of genetic variation in India. With these data, we reconstruct the evolutionary history of India through space and time at fine scales. We show that most Indians derive ancestry from three ancestral groups related to ancient Iranian farmers, Eurasian Steppe pastoralists and South Asian hunter-gatherers. We uncover a common source of Iranian-related ancestry from early Neolithic cultures of Central Asia into the ancestors of Ancestral South Indians (ASI), Ancestral North Indians (ANI), Austro-asiatic-related and East Asian-related groups in India. Following these admixtures, India experienced a major demographic shift towards endogamy, resulting in extensive homozygosity and identity-by-descent sharing among individuals. At deep time scales, Indians derive around 1-2% of their ancestry through gene flow from archaic hominins, Neanderthals and Denisovans. By assembling the surviving fragments of archaic ancestry in modern Indians, we recover ∼1.5 Gb (or 50%) of the introgressing Neanderthal and ∼0.6 Gb (or 20%) of the introgressing Denisovan genomes, more than any other previous archaic ancestry study. Moreover, Indians have the largest variation in Neanderthal ancestry, as well as the highest amount of population-specific Neanderthal segments among worldwide groups. Finally, we demonstrate that most of the genetic variation in Indians stems from a single major migration out of Africa that occurred around 50,000 years ago, with minimal contribution from earlier migration waves. Together, these analyses provide a detailed view of the population history of India and underscore the value of expanding genomic surveys to diverse groups outside Europe."

Where did India’s people come from? Massive genetic study reveals surprises | Science | AAAS

50,000 years of Evolutionary History of India: Insights from ∼2,700 Whole Genome Sequences (open access)

Figure 1 Population structure and admixture in India.
(A) We show the sampling locations of individuals in the DAD study. States are colored by region (North, North-east, Central, South, East and West) used for analysis.
(B) n Principal component analysis (PCA) for Indians in LASI-DAD and 1000G individuals of European (EUR), East (EAS) and South Asian (SAS) ancestry. We show the projection of the first two principal components, colored by of birth.
(C) Using qpAdm, we inferred the ancestry proportions for each individual on the ‘Indian cline’ using m_EN as a proxy for Iranian farmer-related, Central_Steppe_MLBA as a proxy for Steppe pastoralist-related and (Onge) as a proxy for AASI-related ancestry. We compared AHG-related ancestry proportion by region (left), ge family (middle), and caste group (right) of each individual.

In a new study Neanderthal Genes Linked to Severe Cases of COVID-19 in Bergamo, Italy

More evidence that genes inherited from Neanderthals are likely implicated in a significant number of severe or lethal outcomes of Covid-19 infections.

"... Scientists in Italy found people with Neanderthal gene variants were more likely to be hospitalized.

The research suggests the variants are a "major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19." ..."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• The Neanderthal haplotype is the major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19

• The effect size of the locus further increases in most severe patients

• The risk haplotype likely influences the expression of LZTFL1 and CCR9

Summary

Large GWAS indicated that genetic factors influence the response to SARS-CoV-2. However, sex, age, concomitant diseases, differences in ancestry, and uneven exposure to the virus impacted the interpretation of data. We aimed to perform a GWAS of COVID-19 outcome in a homogeneous population who experienced a high exposure to the virus and with a known infection status. We recruited inhabitants of Bergamo province—that in spring 2020 was the epicenter of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic in Europe—via an online questionnaire followed by personal interviews. Cases and controls were matched by age, sex and risk factors. We genotyped 1195 individuals and replicated the association at the 3p21.31 locus with severity, but with a stronger effect size that further increased in gravely ill patients. Transcriptome-wide association study highlighted eQTLs for LZTFL1 and CCR9. We also identified 17 loci not previously reported, suggestive for an association with either COVID-19 severity or susceptibility."

Neanderthal Genes Linked to Severe Cases of COVID-19 Did you have a severe case of COVID-19? Research suggests that Neanderthal genes could be to blame

A GWAS in the pandemic epicenter highlights the severe COVID-19 risk locus introgressed by Neanderthals (open access)

Graphical abstract

Who were the Neanderthals?

Very recommendable! Apparently, Neanderthals were not as primitive as was believed for a long time! They may have e.g. developed some language skills.