‘Neanderthals could adapt, evolve own technology’

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It has long been believed that Neanderthals developed “modern” tools after coming into contact with Homo Sapiens, but a new study has suggested that these prehistoric humans were more advanced than thought as they could adapt, innovate and evolve technology on their own.
Anthropologist Julien Riel-Salvatore of the University of Colorado, Denver, who studied Neanderthal sites throughout Italy for seven years, found that the sturdy ancients were “far more resourceful than we have given them credit for”.
His research, to be published in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, challenged the decades-old belief that Neanderthals were thick-skulled, primitive “cavemen” overrun and outcompeted by more advanced modern humans who arrived in Europe from Africa.
“Basically, I am rehabilitating Neanderthals,” said Riel-Salvatore, assistant professor of anthropology at UC, who focused his research on the vanished Uluzzian culture. About 42,000 years ago, the Aurignacian culture, attributed to modern Homo Sapiens, appeared in northern Italy while central Italy continued to be occupied by Neanderthals of the Mousterian culture which had been around for at least 100,000 years.
At this time a new culture arose in the south, one also thought to be created by Neanderthals. They were the Uluzzian and they were very different, said Riel-Salvatore.