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NEANDERTHALS SPOKE, BUT MAYBE NOT METAPHORICALLY  
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Steven Mithen
May 20, 2024
The Conversation
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_ Neanderthals possessed the vocal machinery for speech and were
sufficiently similar to modern humans that multiple instances of
successful interbreeding occurred. But their brain structure and
possibly their thinking was significantly different. _

Le Moustier Neanderthal Skull reconstitution Neues Museum Berlin, by
Gary Todd (CC0 1.0)

 

The Neanderthals (_Homo neanderthalensis_) fascinate researchers and
the general public alike. They remain central to debates about the
nature of the genus _Homo_ (the broad biological classification that
humans and their relatives fall into). Neanderthals are also vital for
understanding the uniqueness or otherwise of our species, _Homo
sapiens_.

We shared an ancestor with the Neanderthals around 600,000 years ago.
They evolved in Europe while we did so in Africa, before dispersing
multiple times into Eurasia. The Neanderthals became extinct around
40,000 years ago. We populated the world and continue to flourish.
Whether that different outcome is a consequence of differences in
language and thought has been long debated.

But the evidence points to key differences in the brains of our
species and those of Neanderthals that allowed modern humans (_H.
sapiens_) to come up with abstract and complex ideas through metaphor
– the ability to compare two unrelated things. For this to happen,
our species had to diverge from the Neanderthals in our brain
architecture.

Some experts interpret the skeletal and archaeological evidence as
indicating profound differences. Others believe there were none. And
some take the middle ground
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Disagreement is not surprising when trying to infer such intangibles
from material remains such as bones and artefacts. The evidence is
piecemeal and ambiguous, providing us with a complex puzzle for how,
when and why language evolved. Fortunately, recent discoveries in
archaeology and other disciplines have added several new pieces to
this language puzzle, enabling a viable picture of the Neanderthal
mind to emerge.

New anatomical evidence indicates the Neanderthals had vocal tracts
and auditory pathways not significantly different to our own,
indicating that, from an anatomical perspective, they were as capable
as us at communicating through speech
[[link removed]]. The discovery of
Neanderthal genes in our own species indicates multiple episodes
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which implies effective inter-species communication and social
relationships.

The discovery of Neanderthal wooden spears, and the use of resins for
making tools from separate components, have also enhanced our views of
their technical skills
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from bird talons
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and the likely use of feathers as body adornments
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examples of symbolism, along with geometric engravings on stone and
bone [[link removed]].

Cave painters?

The most striking claim is that Neanderthals made art, painting red
pigment on cave walls in Spain
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these cave art claims remain problematic. The evidence for Neanderthal
cave art is compromised by unresolved methodological issues
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and is unlikely to be correct, in my view.

Rapidly accumulating evidence for the pre-40,000-year presence
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in Europe
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challenges the idea that Neanderthals made these geometric designs, or
at least that they did so prior to the influence of the symbol-using
modern humans. However well-crafted, a wooden spear is little more
than a pointed stick, and evidence of technological progress is absent
throughout the entirety of Neanderthal existence.

While the archaeological evidence remains contested, that from
neuroscience and genetics provides a compelling case for linguistic
and cognitive differences between _H. neanderthalensis_ and _H.
sapiens_.

A 3D digital reconstruction of the Neanderthal brain, created by
deforming that of _H. sapiens_ and fitting it into a cast of the brain
(endocast) from a Neanderthal, indicates significant differences in
structure [[link removed]]. The
Neanderthals had a relatively large occipital lobe, devoting more
brain matter to visual processing and making less available for other
tasks such as language.

They also had a relatively small and differently shaped cerebellum.
This sub-cortical structure, which is packed with neurons, contributes
to many tasks including language processing, speaking and fluency
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uniquely spherical shape of the modern human brain evolved
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after the first _Homo sapiens_ had appeared at 300,000 years ago.

Some of the genetic mutations associated with that development are
associated with neuronal development and how neurons are connected in
the brain. The authors of a comprehensive study of all mutations
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unique to _H. sapiens_ (as of 2019) concluded that “modifications of
a complex network in cognition or learning took place in modern human
evolution”.

Iconic words

While such evidence has been accumulating, our understanding of
language has also changed. Three developments are of particular
significance. First is the 2016 discovery via brain scanning that we
store words, or rather the concepts we associate with words,
throughout both brain hemispheres and in clusters
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similar concepts in the brain. This is significant because, as we’ll
see, the way these clusters of ideas are connected – or not – was
probably different between _H. sapiens_ and Neanderthals.

Second is the recognition that iconic sounds – those that provide a
sensory impression of the thing they represent – had provided the
evolutionary bridge
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between ape-like calls of our common ancestor of 6 million years ago
and the first words spoken by Homo
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though we’re not sure which species that was.

Iconic words remain pervasive in languages today
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aspects of the sound, size, movement and texture of the concept the
word represents. This contrasts with words that are only arbitrarily
related to the thing they refer to. For example, a canine can equally
be called a dog, chien or hund – none of which provide a sensory
impression of the animal.

Third, computer simulation models of language transmission between
generations have shown that syntax – consistent rules for how words
are ordered to generate meaning – can spontaneously emerge
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This shift of emphasis from genetic encoding of syntax to spontaneous
emergence suggests that both _H.sapiens_ and Neanderthal language
contained these rules.

The key difference

While it may be possible to join the puzzle pieces in several
different ways, my long wrestle with the multi-disciplinary evidence
has found only one solution. This begins with iconic words being
spoken by the ancient human species _Homo erectus_ around 1.6 million
years ago.

As these types of words were transmitted from generation to
generation, arbitrary words and rules of syntax emerged, providing the
early Neanderthals and _H. sapiens_ with equivalent linguistic and
cognitive capacities.

But these diverged as both species continued to evolve. The _H.
sapiens_ brain developed its spherical form with neural networks
connecting what had been isolated semantic clusters of words. These
remained isolated in the Neanderthal brain. So, while _H. sapiens_ and
Neanderthals had equivalent capacity for iconic words and syntax, they
appear to have differed with respect to storing ideas in semantic
clusters in the brain.

By linking up different clusters in the brain that are responsible for
storing groups of concepts, our species gained the capacity to think
and communicate using metaphor. This allowed modern humans to draw a
line between widely different concepts and ideas.

This was arguably the most important of our cognitive tools, enabling
us to come up with complex and abstract concepts
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While iconic words and syntax were shared between _H. sapiens_ and
Neanderthals, metaphor transformed the language, thought and culture
of our species, creating a deep divide with the Neanderthals. They
went extinct, while we populated the world and continue to
flourish.[The Conversation]

Steven Mithen
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Professor of Early Prehistory, _University of Reading
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This article is republished from The Conversation
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the original article
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* Science
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* human evolution
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* Neanderthals
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