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ARTICLES
The Invisible Frontier. A Multiple Species Model for
the Origin of Behavioral Modernity
FRANCESCO D’ERRICO
The alternative scenario considers
behavioral modernity to be the out-
come of a gradual process in Africa
where anatomically modern humans
originated. This process is seen as cor-
responding to the technological
changes observed through the African
Middle Stone Age.
8–10
These changes
started around 250,000 years ago, at
the very end of the Acheulean, and
proceeded until the transition from
the Middle Stone Age to the Later
Stone Age, conventionally placed at
40,000 years ago.
BLOMBOS AND THE
AFRICAN EVIDENCE
Several recent discoveries seem to
reinforce the second model. The most
striking is the recent publication of
two ochre fragments (Fig. 1) from the
Middle Stone Age levels of Blombos,
Cape Province, which bear similar en-
graved geometric patterns;
11
they
have been dated by two different
methods to ca. 77,000 years ago.
These objects were found associated
with a Still Bay industry with shaped
bone awls and bifacial spear
points
9,12–13
(Fig. 2), a possible en-
graving on bone,
14
and with more
than 8,000 fragments of ochre, most
of which bear clear traces of use. The
presence of symbolic engravings on
artifactual pigment makes it unlikely
that the thousands of pigment frag-
ments found at Middle Stone Age sites
were strictly functional and suggests
instead that they were used for sym-
bolic purposes. Other engravings or
notched pieces are reported from
Middle Stone Age contexts at south-
ern African sites such as Klasies River,
Apollo 11, Hollow Rock Shelter, Bor-
der Cave, and Diepkloof.
7,14
In other words, Blombos engrav-
ings and bone tools may suggest that
southern African human populations
had already acquired behavioral mo-
dernity 30,000 years before the ap-
pearance of these innovations in Eu-
rope. In this context, it is very
tempting to consider this discovery,
together with the increasing corpus of
artifactual ochre, bone tools, and evi-
dence of diverse food sources, not
only as the final tolling of the bell for
the revolution model but also as a for-
mal demonstration of the gradual
“Out-of-Africa” theory. Such remote
evidence of symbolic culture in south-
ern Africa would conclusively corre-
late the origin of cultural modernity
and modern language with the origin
of anatomically modern humans.
It is possible, however, that accept-
ing this view might provide only a part
of the picture. Both these scenarios
share the assumption that behavioral
modernity arose only in a single spe-
cies. They differ in that the first model
sees cultural modernity as resulting
from a sudden change within this spe-
cies, and in a relatively small area.
Also, the first model postulates a hu-
manity that was biologically modern
but not culturally modern until the
“revolution” brought both moderni-
ties together. According to the second
model, biological and behavioral mo-
dernity were inextricably linked, ad-
Francesco d’Errico is a researcher at the
Centre National de la Recherche Scienti-
fique. His main research interest is the
evolution of human cognitive abilities. He
has published numerous papers on the
early use of bone tools, the origin of sym-
bolism, the emergence of behavioral mo-
dernity, the Middle-Upper Paleolithic
transition, grave goods associated with
Paleolithic burials, Paleolithic systems of
notation, bone taphonomy, and the appli-
cation of new techniques of analysis to
the study of Paleolithic art objects. He
leads a multidisciplinary research project
funded by the Centre National de la Re-
cherche Scientifique on the origin of mod-
ern humans and language and partici-
pates in research projects with colleagues
from France, the United States, England,
South Africa, Spain, and Belgium. E-mail:
f.derrico@iquat.u-bordeaux.fr
Key words: Middle Stone Age, Mousterian, Ne-
andertals, symbolism, modern humans
Evolutionary Anthropology 12:188 –202 (2003)
DOI 10.1002/evan.10113
Published online in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com).
Two contradictory theories of human cognitive evolution have been developed
to model how, when, and among what hominid groups behavioral modernity
emerged. The first model, which has long been the dominant paradigm, links these
behavioral innovations to a cultural “revolution” by anatomically modern humans in
Europe at around 40,000 years ago, coinciding with the first arrival of our species
in this region.
1–4
According to this model, the sudden and explosive character of
this change is demonstrated by the appearance in the archeological record of
previously unseen carvings, personal ornaments, musical instruments, depictions
on cave walls, and new stone and bone technology. A variant of this model sees
behavioral modernity resulting from a rapid biological change, a brain mutation
producing no apparent change in skull anatomy, which occurred in Europe or,
more probably, in Africa at ca. 50,000 years ago.
5,6
188 Evolutionary Anthropology
vancing together in a long and slow
dialectic. In fact, both models are de-
pendent on—I would say engendered
by—the “Out-of-Africa”model for the
biological origin of our species.
15–17
However, if we see archeology as an
independent discipline, we should be
able to assess issues that deal with
cultural change on purely archeologi-
cal grounds rather than through mod-
els shaped by current hypotheses of
human biological evolution. This is a
special danger if we trust archeologi-
cal evidence that is ambiguous or in-
consistent with suppositions as to
which human species might have
been involved. Because archeological
remains are numerous and ubiqui-
tous, while human remains are few
and rare, it is easy in this way acciden-
tally to prejudge the relationship be-
tween cultural and biological traits.
This is why, from an archeological
perspective, the equation of biological
modernity with cultural modernity
should be considered as no more than
a working hypothesis that needs to be
tested against the archeological
record. Following this approach, we
may find that a fourth scenario is
more consistent with the empirical
data.
18–20
In this scenario, the traits
that define behavioral modernity are
not peculiar to our species and arose
over a long period among different
human types, including Neandertals.
HOW TO IDENTIFY
BEHAVIORAL MODERNITY
What features define behavioral
modernity and how do we see them in
the archeological record? McBrearty
and Brooks
7
(Fig. 3) argue that mod-
ern behavior is characterized by four
traits concerning both adaptation and
cognition. They also provide a list of
archeological signatures that demon-
strate the acquisition of these traits
(Fig. 4).
This approach would be valuable if,
in a sense, the “criteria to find the
criteria”were made explicit. One can
expect, for example, that a list of traits
might result from a cross-cultural
comparative analysis
21
of various hu-
man societies and that the universal-
ity of a selected trait would be the
criterion for its inclusion in the list.
Otherwise one should accept that
other researchers having a different
cultural affiliation could propose fea-
tures that they consider to define the
modern experience, features which
we should grant an equivalent weight.
Instead of following this path, the
authors have been inspired by Middle
Stone Age material culture and, to a
lesser degree, the European Upper Pa-
leolithic, to create a list of traits that
would demonstrate the acquisition of
behavioral modernity. The danger of
creating a theory that fits one’s expec-
tation seems evident to me in this
case. Also, if we model the traits sug-
gesting the modern character of a cul-
tural system on the archeological
record of a specific region or a partic-
ular human type, what heuristic value
will those traits have when they are
Figure 1. Engraved ochres from the Middle Stone Age levels of Blombos Cave with the
tracings of the incised pattern (modified from Henshilwood and coworkers
11
). Top: scale ⫽
1 cm; bottom, scale ⫽5 mm.
ARTICLES Evolutionary Anthropology 189
used to test the modern versus non-
modern characters of human popula-
tions living in different environments
and developing different evolutionary
trajectories? As I will show, when I
use these criteria, questionable
though they are, to compare the Afri-
can Middle Stone Age, where all these
modern traits are supposed to have
arisen, and the contemporary mate-
rial culture left by Neandertals in Eu-
rope and the Near East, no dramatic
differences appear between the two
records.
ECOLOGY AND SUBSISTENCE
STRATEGIES
There is no reason to believe that
Neandertals were less well adapted to
their environment than were Middle
Stone Age populations. This is demon-
strated not only by their widespread
geographical distribution over Europe
and the Near East, covering, from
north to south, several different eco-
logical and biogeographical zones,
but also by the fact that between
300,000 and 30,000 years ago they
were able to pass successfully through
three main glacial and three intergla-
cial periods (OIS 9-3).
22,23
Binford
24
has argued that Neander-
tals and Middle Stone Age hominids
were obligate scavengers who lacked
the ability to hunt large mammals.
Stiner and Kuhn
25
have argued in-
stead that Neandertals were able to
hunt but that they practiced opportu-
nistic scavenging more regularly than
has been documented for modern hu-
mans and that the balance between
these two foraging strategies was
probably determined by ecological
and climatic constraints. According to
this reasoning, Italian Neandertals
were primarily scavengers at sites
dated before ca. 50,000 years ago and
primarily hunters at younger sites.
However, zooarcheological studies
done in the last decade have shown
that scavenging played little or no role
in Neandertal subsistence strategies.
It has also become increasingly clear
that Neandertals were expert hunters
who could hunt a wide range of large
mammals, including dangerous ani-
mals such as bison, rhinos, and bear,
and could concentrate, if necessary,
on selected species. Marean and co-
workers
26–28
have shown that the
“head-and-foot”-dominated faunal as-
semblages, interpreted as evidence of
scavenging at key sites from Europe
and southern Africa, are due to the
fact that the excavators either kept
only the most easily identified bones
or if they collected all of them, ig-
nored some during the study of the
faunal material. Although Stiner
29
has
debated this point, Marean’s observa-
tion probably remains valid for a large
number of sites. Chase
30
had already
argued that Neandertals were fully ca-
pable of hunting and that there was
no evidence that they scavenged. A
growing body of evidence now indi-
cates that at sites dating between
125,000 to 55,000 years ago, Neander-
tal subsistence strategies were based
on hunting. At the ca. 200,000-year-
old site of Biache-Saint-Vaast, Nean-
dertals focused on adult bovids (70%
Figure 2. Bone spear points (left) and bone awls (right) from the Middle Stone Age levels of
Blombos cave (modified from Henshilwood and coworkers).
...if we see archeology
as an independent
discipline, we should be
able to assess issues
that deal with cultural
change on purely
archeological grounds
rather than through
models shaped by
current hypotheses of
human biological
evolution.
190 Evolutionary Anthropology ARTICLES
of the minimum number of individu-
als), but also hunted large bears, prob-
ably as they hibernated.
31
At the site
of Mauran, the Neandertals killed
hundreds of bisons, and processed the
carcasses on site.
32
A similar prefer-
ence for bovids is seen at sites such as
La Borde, Champlost, Coudoulous,
and Wallertheim. At the open-air site
of Salzgitter-Lebenstedt, dated to ca.
58,000 to 54,000 years ago,
33
Nean-
dertals systematically hunted rein-
deer; they also killed many animals
simultaneously in a type of hunting
that seems not to differ from that ob-
served at later Upper Paleolithic sites
or among sub-Arctic Inuit groups. A
recent study also has shown that Early
Upper Paleolithic hunting did not dif-
fer from Middle Paleolithic hunting in
its degree of specialization.
34
Studies
that have tried to contrast the adapta-
tions of Neandertals and anatomically
modern humans in the Near East have
reached similar conclusions: these
populations possessed broadly com-
parable organizational abilities.
35
The
two main subsistence strategies they
seem to have adopted, a “collector”
land-use strategy involving lower res-
idential mobility for the former and
encounter-based hunting for the lat-
ter, both occur among historically ob-
served hunter-gatherers.
Coastal Middle Stone Age sites
show an intense exploitation of ma-
rine resources, which has been used
to suggest the varied and modern
character of these societies.
7
Only a
few examples of the use of marine re-
sources exist at Middle Paleolithic
sites in Europe. The late Mousterian
levels of Figuiera Brava, Portugal,
have yielded evidence of systematic
collection of seashells, particularly
Mytilus and Patella.
36
Another case of
Neandertal shellfish use, and probably
seal-hunting, comes from Vanguard
Cave, Gibraltar.
37
It is a fact, however, that evidence
of the exploitation of marine re-
sources, with the exception of the use
of sea shells for beads, is as scant in
the Upper Paleolithic as it is in the
Middle Paleolithic of Europe. Still,
nobody has used this to argue against
the modern character of Upper Paleo-
lithic societies.
What about other inland resources?
Stiner
38
has shown that Neandertals
were able to diversify their diet and,
Figure 3. Traits defining behavioral modernity according to McBrearty & Brooks.
7
Figure 4. Archeological signatures of behavioral modernity according to McBrearty &
Brooks.
7
ARTICLES Evolutionary Anthropology 191
particularly after 50,000 years ago,
paid more attention to sources of
foods such as lagomorphs and tor-
toises. Fowling has been suggested for
Mousterian sites in Portugal, Spain,
and Italy, among them Figueira
Brava, Cova Negra, Gorham’s Cave,
Archi, Mochi, Fumane, and Castelci-
vita. This interpretation is based on
the birds’large size and habitat rather
than on the occurrence of cut marks
and burning, which means we cannot
eliminate the possibility that they
were rock-nesting, cliff-roosting birds
that died naturally or were accumu-
lated by owls and mammalian carni-
vores. However, micro-residues of
feather and other avian tissues have
recently been found on stone tools
from the Late Mousterian levels of
Staroselie and the Streletskayan-like
stone tools from Buran Kaya level C, a
level underlying a Kiik-Koba Mico-
quian.
39
In sum, while zooarcheological and
isotopic analyses indicate that Nean-
dertals derived most of their dietary
protein from animal sources, they do
not demonstrate that Neandertals
were obligate large mammal hunt-
ers.
40,41
This takes us to the contradic-
tory nature of the criteria used to as-
sess behavioral modernity from
subsistence strategies. Once the obli-
gate
24
and opportunistic
25
scavenger
scenarios for Neandertal economies
are abandoned, little remains to dis-
tinguish the subsistence strategies of
Neandertals and anatomically mod-
ern humans. The same features are
used for and against the modern char-
acter of an economy depending on
which actor is under scrutiny. The ex-
ploitation of a wide range of resources
is used to suggest increased diet
breadth when sub-Saharan hominids
are concerned while, in a clear contra-
diction, the hunting of many mamma-
lian species is taken to demonstrate
the opportunistic character of Nean-
dertal economies. The focus on one or
a few species of large dangerous ani-
mals is at once interpreted as attesting
to the “modern”organization of ana-
tomically modern hunters, capable of
“specialized”hunting, and as demon-
strating the biologically handicapped
cognition of Neandertals, who could
not incorporate more resources into
their diet.
LITHIC TECHNOLOGY
Laminar technologies often have
been considered to characterize the
Upper Paleolithic, behavioral moder-
nity, and higher cognitive abilities,
while Levallois or Mode III technol-
ogy is taken to indicate a lack of plan-
ning capacities.
1,3,42,43
However, it has
now become clear that blades were
systematically produced at several
Middle Paleolithic sites in Europe and
the Near East, as well as at African
Middle Stone Age sites.
40
In my view, three observations
emerge from the temporal and geo-
graphic dispersion of blade technol-
ogy. Blade production appears as a
punctuated phenomenon in both the
Eurasian Middle Paleolithic and the
Middle Stone Age. After these periods,
the production of blades did not be-
come fixed in either continent, since
other forms of de´bitage continued in
both areas. The flake-based assem-
blages of the ethnographic Australian
Aborigines, whose approach to stone-
working was characterized by little or
no blade production, flourished into
very recent times.
45
New World Paleo-
Indians abandoned prismatic blade
technology as soon as they left the
Arctic.
46
Detailed technological analy-
sis of blade assemblages indicates that
“blade”is quite vague as an analytical
concept: in terms of raw-material
choice, preparation, and apprentice-
ship, the making of standardized
bladelets by pressure-flaking has little
to do with the production of Aurigna-
cian blades, which are thick, elon-
gated, and trapezoidal in section, and
which differ from the short, thin
blades produced by the late Neander-
tals to manufacture Chaˆtelperronian
points. Because “blades”may result
from very different reduction se-
quences, in which different types of
raw material are chosen and different
sequences of motions are applied, the
occurrence of blade production in the
archeological record is better ex-
plained as the expression of local tra-
dition than as a reflection of cognitive
evolution. Certainly blades are not a
simple diagnostic marker.
Partisans of the “Out-of-Africa”and
“modern-behavior”model make much
of the production of standardized for-
mal tool categories (Fig. 5) at the end of
the Middle Stone Age and of geograph-
ical and temporal variations in those
categories.
7,47
This modern trend would
be mainly exemplified by Still Bay bifa-
cial points and by Howieson’s Poort
segments. Similar standardized tool
categories and similar technological
variation in time and space are com-
mon in the Mousterian world. This is
the case for Levallois points and for
Mousterian of Acheulean Tradition bi-
faces. During the last forty years, many
attempts have been made to explain
technological and typological variabil-
ity in the Mousterian in terms of dif-
ferential function of sites, chronolog-
ical differences between assemblages,
resharpening of tools, and raw-mate-
rial availability, but these have all
failed.
2
Also, in both Europe and the
Near East at the end of the Moust-
erian we observe the same trends vis-
ible in the Middle Stone Age toward
increased production of standardized
tool categories. Segments very similar
to those associated with the Howie-
son’s Poort in southern Africa
7,8,47
were produced by Chaˆtelperronian
Because “blades” may
result from very different
reduction sequences, in
which different types of
raw materials are
chosen and different
sequences of motions
are applied, the
occurrence of blade
production in the
archeological record is
better explained as the
expression of local
tradition than as a
reflection of cognitive
evolution. Certainly
blades are not a simple
diagnostic marker.
192 Evolutionary Anthropology ARTICLES
Neandertals in France and Spain (Fig.
5) and by Uluzzian Neandertals in It-
aly and Greece.
18,48
The Szeletian and
other east European late Middle Pa-
leolithic technocomplexes, which de-
veloped locally from regional Moust-
erian traditions,
49
are characterized
by thin bifacial points that recall those
found at South African Still Bay sites
(Fig. 5). Again, we see no clear differ-
ence between supposedly modern
Middle Stone Age behavior and the
behavior of the Neandertals.
HAFTING AND RELATED
CRAFT SKILLS
It has been argued that the Moust-
erian was an immediate technology
involving a low degree of conceptual-
ization.
1,3,42
However, the discovery of
six wooden spears at the Lower Paleo-
lithic site of Scho¨ningen, Germany,
dated to ca. 400,000 years ago, con-
firms what was already known from
Clacton and Lehringen: Middle Pleis-
tocene hominids shaped wood with
specific techniques and produced
spears for hunting.
50,51
The finding of
four wooden hafts in another part of
Scho¨ningen also shows that compos-
ite tools were used in the middle part
of the Middle Pleistocene (OIS 11).
We know that hafting technology
was practiced in the Middle Paleo-
lithic of Eurasia. A convergent
scraper, three Levallois flakes, and a
cortical flake with traces of bitumen
adhesive used for hafting have been
found in Mousterian levels dated to
about 60,000 years ago at the site of
Umm El Tlel, in the El Kowm Basin,
Syria.
52
A blade from the Hummalian
(Middle Paleolithic) levels at Hum-
mal, in the same region, bears similar
traces. Direct evidence of stone-tipped
spears also comes from Umm El Tlel,
which produced a Levallois point em-
bedded in the third cervical vertebra
of a wild ass.
53
Two birch-bark pitches
have recently been found at the Mid-
dle Paleolithic site of Ko¨nigsaue, Ger-
many. These pieces came from two
different layers dated to 43,800 and
48,400 years ago. One shows the im-
print of a wooden haft, the other a
bifacial tool.
54
A probable bone han-
dle made of a horse metapodial has
also been found in level C of Buran
Kaya III, in Crimea.
55
The pre-Aurig-
nacian industry from this level con-
sists of clusters of chips and small
flakes derived from bifacial shaping
and thinning, associated with pre-
forms and bifacial points recalling
those of the Streletskaya culture.
56
The maker of these objects is still un-
known, but it is noteworthy that level
C underlies level B1, which contains a
Figure 5. Backed pieces and foliates associated with the late Southern African Middle Stone Age and transitional technocomplexes in
Europe.
ARTICLES Evolutionary Anthropology 193
Kiik-Koba Mousterian dated to 28,600
B.P. The handle has been directly
dated by C14 AMS to 32,350 ⫾650
(OxA-6869), which is well before the
oldest C14 dates for the Crimean Au-
rignacian.
In sum, the available evidence pro-
vides no reason to believe that hafting
and the use of composite tools was
developed only in the Middle Stone
Age. Consistent, if not more evidence
of this technology is found in Moust-
erian sites from Europe and the Near
East.
BONE AND IVORY WORKING
Evidence of worked and, in some
cases, decorated bone awls comes
from Chaˆtelperronian and Uluzzian
sites in France and Italy.
18
But did
Neandertals produce an organic spear
technology before these late stages?
Villa and d’Errico,
57
in an analysis of
Torralba and Ambrona ivory points
formerly interpreted as shaped or
used tools,
58
found that these tusk
fragments are the result of natural
phenomena. These authors also have
shown that a natural explanation
must be favored for other bone and
antler points reported from Moust-
erian sites such as Vaufrey, Combe
Grenal, Camiac, and Pech-de-L’Aze´I,
and probably for those from other
sites the authors were unable to study.
On the other hand, a recent experi-
mental study by Schmitt, Churchill,
and Hylander,
59
indicates that the
thrusting spear was one of the princi-
pal sources of strength asymmetry in
both Neandertal and Early Upper Pa-
leolithic modern human male humeri.
Why, then, did Neanderthals use
wooden spears and stone-tipped
spears but not organic spear tips? The
reason may lie in the different type of
predatory tactics used by Middle and
Upper Paleolithic hunters.
57,60
Upper Paleolithic bone and stone
spear-tips are different from Middle
Paleolithic stone points in their aero-
dynamic properties and in the
amount of kinetic energy they carry at
impact. Even when carefully shaped
by retouch, Middle Paleolithic stone
spear-tips have a large, thick base, im-
plying a large, heavy shaft. This kind
of javelin has a low velocity but high
penetration power at short distances.
Similar organic points could not pen-
etrate deeply into the flesh of large
animals because of the softer nature
of the bone material. In contrast,
stone and bone spear-tips used by Up-
per Paleolithic hunters are similar in
that both types are thin, straight, and
light: they are made to travel at high
speed and to be cast from afar. This
allows them to penetrate the animal
body and injure vital organs. Thus,
while both Neandertals and anatomi-
cally modern humans relied on thrust-
ing spears before the appearance of
long-range projectile weapons, (spear-
throwers) during the early part of the
Late Upper Paleolithic, Neandertals
may have preferred more robust and
heavy weapons for closer-range hunt-
ing.
What impact did the production of
formal bone tools by Middle Stone
Age people have on their way of life?
Analysis of the twenty-eight bone
tools from Blombos Middle Stone Age
layers indicates that 90% of these ob-
jects are awls that were made on dif-
ferent types of long-bone shaft frag-
ments, shaped by scraping, and then
used at the site to pierce soft material
such as leather.
12
Three points shaped
by scraping and then completely fin-
ished by careful polishing probably
were projectile points made for haft-
ing. These points might have been pol-
ished to increase their penetration
power and to give them a distinctive
appearance—an “added value”—to re-
flect the distinct contexts of use of the
two tool categories and the different
social roles of their users.
However, one may argue that bone
tools are a possible, but not obligatory
outcome of the acquisition of modern
traits. Relatively few Middle Stone
Age sites have been excavated by mod-
ern standards in comparison with the
many Middle and Upper Paleolithic
sites in Europe. But does this differ-
ence fully explain why only a handful
of bone tools has been found in south-
ern Africa? There are bone harpoons
from Katanda
61–63
for which the min-
imum date of 90,000 years ago re-
mains controversial;
6
one quite doubt-
ful point from Mumbwa cave;
64
a few
notched and marked objects
7,14,65
from Klasies River and Apollo 11; and
one clear point from Peers cave.
Singer and Wymer
65
described a bone
point from a disturbed context at Kla-
sies River. Its shape is very similar to
that of Later Stone Age points, and it
probably should be attributed to a
more recent period.
12,57
In sum, while
we have at Blombos clear evidence of
bone tools produced by a varied rep-
ertoire of techniques and designed for
different purposes, we cannot use this
evidence to support either the hypoth-
esis that the Middle Stone Age as a
whole was characterized by system-
atic production of formal bone tools
or, because little is known about the
evolutionary significance of bone tool
shaping the notion that the produc-
tion of formal tools gives Middle
Stone Age material culture a modern
appearance.
THE COGNITIVE ABILITIES OF
NEANDERTALS AND THEIR
RELATIONSHIP TO MODERN
HUMANS IN EUROPE
In the last few years, studies have
begun to cast new light on the intel-
lectual abilities of these predecessors
and the chronology of their contact
...one may argue that
bone tools are a
possible, but not
obligatory outcome of
the acquisition of
modern traits. Relatively
few Middle Stone Age
sites have been
excavated by modern
standards in comparison
with the many Middle
and Upper Paleolithic
sites in Europe. But does
this difference fully
explain why only a
handful of bone tools
has been found in
southern Africa?
194 Evolutionary Anthropology ARTICLES
with the first anatomically modern
humans to colonize Europe. Debate
on this issue has generally taken for
granted that people like us arrived in
the far west of Europe from the east
about 40,000 years ago. According to
that assumption, Cro-Magnon popu-
lations, carrying a lithic and bone
technology called Aurignacian, would
have triggered, through acculturation,
the appearance of a new lithic tech-
nology, ornaments, decorated objects,
and bone tools among some late Ne-
andertal groups such as the Chaˆtelper-
ronians in France and Spain or the
Uluzzians in Italy.
1,2,4
The manufac-
ture of personal ornaments and bone
tools by Neandertals has been a con-
troversial issue; many researchers
preferred to attribute the presence of
such objects in the Chaˆtelperronian
layers of sites like the Grotte du
Renne, France, to a reworking of ar-
cheological layers incorporating Au-
rignacian artifacts, the Neandertal
collection of objects manufactured by
modern neighbors, or an actual trans-
fer of objects to Neandertals through
trade. Recent reassessments of the ev-
idence have shown that Chaˆtelperro-
nian Neandertals themselves made
the personal ornaments and bone
tools from the Grotte du Renne, as
demonstrated by the presence, in the
same layers, of refittings and manu-
facturing by-products.
18,19
This find-
ing is reinforced by a new study of the
fifty Chaˆtelperronian and nine Aurig-
nacian bone awls (Fig. 6) found in the
Chaˆtelperronian and Aurignacian lev-
els of the Grotte du Renne.
60
If the
bone tools found in the Chaˆtelperro-
Figure 6. Bone awls from the Chatelperronian layers of the Grotte du Renne at Arcy-sur-Cure, France (modified after d’Errico et al. in press).
ARTICLES Evolutionary Anthropology 195
nian layers had originated in the over-
lying Aurignacian level, we would ex-
pect their number to decline with
depth, but the opposite is true. The
lowest of the three Chaˆtelperronian
layers yielded four times the number
of awls found in the Aurignacian ho-
rizons of the site. The tools from the
two cultural horizons also show a dif-
ferent spatial distribution: in the
Chaˆtelperronian layers the bone tools
are concentrated inside a circle of
stone located in the northwestern part
of the excavated area, while the few
Aurignacian awls were found in the
southeastern part. The Chaˆtelperro-
nian tools also vary more in blank
types, methods of blank production,
and degrees of shaping. Nine Chaˆtelp-
erronian tools are marked with sets of
notches or v-shaped motifs. Only one
Aurignacian piece bears a decoration,
a set of crosses. The presence of delib-
erate decorations suggests that sym-
bolism, rather than restricted to a few
objects obtained through exchange,
played a role in the domestic aspects
of group life. Bone tools are not iso-
lated occurrences. Awls also come
from the Chaˆtelperronian level of
Quincay, Charente (Le´ve`que, personal
communication) and from several Ul-
uzzian sites from Italy such as Cavallo
and Castelcivita.
18
The lithics tell the same story.
18
While revealing the use of new knap-
ping techniques and tool types, late
Neandertal technologies from differ-
ent European regions show no affini-
ties with the technology that modern
humans introduced into Europe; in-
stead they appear as independent de-
velopments from local traditions. The
chronological precedence of the Au-
rignacian over these regional Nean-
dertal entities, which is fundamental
to their interpretation as the outcome
of prolonged contact, is also called
into question. Wherever archeological
layers of both cultures are represented
at the same site, the Chaˆtelperronian
always underlies the Aurignacian,
suggesting its priority. The only ex-
ceptions are two instances of inter-
stratification between Aurignacian,
and Chaˆtelperronian, which now have
been formally rejected by reappraisal
of these sites.
67
Similarly, analysis of
all the radiometric dating shows that
the earliest occurrences of a diagnos-
tic Aurignacian in Western Europe is
no older than ca. 36,500 BP. The avail-
able evidence suggests that at that
time late Neandertals were already de-
veloping their own transition to the
Upper Paleolithic, the Chaˆtelperro-
nian, and that this, like other late Ne-
andertal cultures, emerged before any
modern humans became established
in the same areas. This indigenous de-
velopment may have included the
manufacture and use of symbolic ob-
jects created for visual display on the
body. The alternative hypothesis,
which I and others have proposed, is
that it was precisely the new situation
involving contact between anatomi-
cally modern people and Neandertals
and the consequent problems of cul-
tural and biological identity that stim-
ulated an explosion in the production
of symbolic objects on both sides.
18,19
BURIALS
Thirty-five of the fifty-eight known
Middle Paleolithic putative burials
from Europe and the Near East be-
long to Neandertals.
68,69
Contesting
the opinion
1,70,71
that they must be in-
terpreted as accidental depositions of
dead bodies would require a detailed
discussion of each case, and that is
beyond the scope of this review. How-
ever, while I can easily accept that
most of these human remains, all ex-
cavated long ago, lack the information
required today to assess the human
origin of the inhumations, there is a
growing consensus on the existence of
Neandertal burials. This depends in
part on the observation
72
that com-
plete animal skeletons are so rare in
Near Eastern and, one may add, Eu-
ropean caves, as to make it unlikely
that interments were produced by
causes other than cultural processes.
Also, field observations (for example,
at Kebara) on the more recently found
burials help confirm the reality of this
phenomenon.
73,74
In sum, many
would agree that there is enough evi-
dence to believe that both anatomi-
cally modern humans and Neander-
tals buried their dead well before the
Later Stone Age or Upper Paleolithic.
Should the Neandertal burials be
seen as symbolic in nature? The only
difference we see between the burials
of these populations is that the use of
grave goods is apparently well estab-
lished for anatomically modern peo-
ple but remains controversial with re-
spect to the Neandertals. Also, the
recent rediscovery of the Neandertal
neonate from Le Moustier, the re-
mains of which were previously as-
signed to La Ferrassie LF4, eliminates
from the literature the only known ex-
ample of a Neandertal double buri-
al.
75
Although for these reasons the
funerary practices of anatomically
modern humans may appear to be
more complex than those of contem-
porary Neandertals, this cannot be
used to suggest that the latter invested
less consciously in symbolism. Many
fully symbolic ethnographic and even
modern societies bury their dead in
single tombs with few or no durable
grave goods. The idea that these dif-
ferences result from “incomplete
learning”of this behavior by Neander-
thals who obtained it through contact
with anatomically modern humans in
the Near East, supported by the dat-
ing of ca. 100,000 for the Qafzeh buri-
...that the earliest
occurrences of a
diagnostic Aurignacian
in Western Europe is no
older than ca. 36,500 BP.
The available evidence
suggests that at that
time late Neandertals
were already
developing their own
transition to the Upper
Paleolithic, the
Chaˆtelperronian, and
that this, like other late
Neandertal cultures,
emerged before any
modern humans
became established in
the same areas.
196 Evolutionary Anthropology ARTICLES
als, is now contradicted by the ther-
moluminescence dating of Tabun
layer C to 160,000.
76
This could make
the Neandertal burial therein the old-
est known burial in the world or, if
one takes a minimalist view of the ev-
idence, a burial as old as the oldest
anatomically modern burials found in
the region.
77
Again, we see no clear-cut indica-
tions that anatomically modern hu-
mans were culturally more “ad-
vanced”than Neandertals. In fact,
burials produced by both human
types appear to resemble each other
more than they do burials dated to the
Upper Paleolithic of Europe because
of the virtual absence of ochre, bone
tools, and personal ornaments. Many
fragments of ochre bearing traces of
use and ochre-stained stone tools
come from the Qafzeh layers that
yielded the burials,
78
but none of
them were found in clear association
with the skeletons.
COLOR
There is no traditional modern so-
ciety in which the production and use
of colorant is merely functional. Re-
cent excavations at Kapthurin in Ke-
nya
79
and Twin Rivers in Zambia
10,80
have yielded convincing proof that
colorants were systematically used as
far back as the Acheulean to the Mid-
dle Stone Age transition, ca. 200,000
years ago. At GnJh-15 in the
Kapthurin Formation, more than sev-
enty pieces of red pigment weighing
more than 5 kg altogether are associ-
ated with an early Middle Stone Age
assemblage dated to 285,000 years
ago. Field work at Twin Rivers pro-
duced 176 colorant fragments in lay-
ers dated between 260,000 and
400,000 years ago. Five different col-
ors and traces of their use are attested.
Layers dated to 200,000 years ago
yielded 132 pieces of colorants. The
discoveries at these two sites confirm
isolated occurrences of red pigments
signaled in the past from sites such as
Nooitgedacht in South Africa, Kabwe
in Zambia, and Charama in Zimba-
bwe. Watts
81
has shown that the use
of red pigments increased during the
Middle Stone Age and became a con-
sistent feature of MSA2b/Still Bay,
Howieson’s Poort, and Late Stone Age
sites. Middle Stone Age people pre-
ferred strong red colorant even when
yellowish or yellowish-brown mate-
rial of similar chemical composition
was available. This choice argues
against a purely functional interpreta-
tion of pigment use. Many Middle
Stone Age colorants are shaped like
crayons, suggesting that they were
used to trace lines on soft material like
leather or to paint the body. Addi-
tional evidence indicating that the
spread of pigment use was not limited
to sub-Saharan regions comes from
the Wadi Sodmein cave in Egypt,
where Van Peer and Vermeersch
82
have reported a Middle Paleolithic as-
semblage with Levallois debitage
dated to ca. 115,000 years ago in
which there is a Levallois flake
marked on both sides by a continuous
red line perpendicular to the main
flake axis (Fig. 7).
Is pigment use exclusively a Middle
Stone Age attribute? Neandertals, too,
used colorants. Black pigments,
mostly manganese dioxides, and to a
lesser extent fragments of ochre, come
from at least seventy layers excavated
at forty Neandertal sites in Eu-
rope.
83,84
While most of the sites with
pigments represent the Charentian
Mousterian and Mousterian of
Acheulean Tradition and date from
OIS 3 (60,000 to 35,000 years ago),
evidence of pigment use in Europe ex-
tends back to the Acheulean. The rich-
est collection, comprising 451 colo-
rant fragments and grinding stones,
comes from the Mousterian of Acheu-
lian Tradition levels of Pech-de-l’Aze´I,
dated to ca. 60,000 to 50,000 years
ago.
84,85
Most of these pigments show
traces of use in the form of abrasion
facets like those visible on Middle
Stone Age colorants; some also show
evidence of use as crayons. There is no
conspicuous difference between pig-
ment use at Pech-de-l’Aze´I and at
Middle Stone Age sites in terms of the
weight, number, and proportion of
pigments used. Moreover, Pech-de-
l’Aze I provides evidence of more in-
tensive use of pigment than does any
Middle Stone Age site except Blom-
bos. Evidence of systematic use of pig-
ment by Neandertals has recently
been reported from the Cioarei cave in
Romania, where eight subcircular
ochre containers made of stalagmite
fragments, associated with fifty-five
ochre fragments, were found in a
Mousterian layer older than 50,000
BP.
86
In sum, while the widespread oc-
currence of pigments at Upper Pleis-
tocene Middle Stone Age sites is an
important phenomenon that, follow-
ing the discovery of Blombos engrav-
ings, probably reflects the growing
role of symbolic activities in these
communities, evidence from Euro-
pean Middle Paleolithic sites gives no
reason to believe that Neandertals
were not using pigments in compara-
Figure 7. Levallois flake from the Middle Palaeolithic level 4 at Wadi Soldmein Cave showing
an ochre band on both faces. Hatched pattern on dorsal face indicates a calcite crust. On
the ventral face, note a circular inclusion of different color in the chert (after Van Peer,
Vermeersch
82
).
ARTICLES Evolutionary Anthropology 197
ble activities. The chronological attri-
bution of the older pigments from Af-
rica (Kapthurin, Twin Rivers) and
their association with Lupemban
stone tools seem to indicate that the
use of pigments originated with Homo
heidelbergensis or archaic Homo sapi-
ens. If colorant use is taken as an ar-
cheological indication of symbolic be-
havior, then the origin of these
abilities, traditionally attributed to
anatomically modern humans, has to
be considered more ancient. This is
clearly consistent with the hypothesis
I offer here: these abilities did not nec-
essarily emerge in a single species; a
model for their origin must be primar-
ily archeological and independent of
biological scenarios for the origin of
our species.
ABSTRACT AND DEPICTIONAL
REPRESENTATIONS; PERSONAL
ORNAMENTS
Little evidence of abstract or depic-
tional representations exists in the
Middle Stone Age.
7
Apart from the ob-
jects I mentioned at the beginning of
this paper, the only evidence of depic-
tions are the painted slabs with ani-
mal figures from the Apollo 11 site,
Namibia, found in a level overlying
assemblages with Howieson’s Poort
affinities. The chronological attribu-
tion of this level, however, is unclear.
The young age suggested by radiocar-
bon dating, 26 to 28,000 years ago,
seems to contradict the cultural attri-
bution of the assemblage. No personal
ornaments are known at Middle Stone
Age sites. The oldest traces of their
manufacture come from the Kenyan
site of Enkapune ya Muto, dated to
40,000 years ago,
87
and from the site
of Ntuka River 3, GvJh11, associated
with a 29,975 year old Late Stone Age
microblade industry (Ambrose, per-
sonal communication). Perforated
and ochre-stained Glycymeris shells
apparently were found at Qafzeh in
association with early modern human
burials dating to 90,000 to 100,000
years ago; the Mousterian levels of
Skhul may have yielded similar
shells.
88
However, as long as no de-
tailed publication of this material is
available it is difficult to evaluate the
evidence. In fact, the oldest evidence
of the production of personal orna-
ments comes from the Early Upper
Paleolithic levels of Uc¸agizli, Turkey,
and perhaps from the contemporary
layers at Ksar’Akil, Lebanon. Recent
excavation at the former site by Kuhn
and colleagues
89
has yielded a large
number of perforated marine shells of
different species from levels dated to
ca. 39 to 41,000 years ago. The stone-
tool assemblage associated with the
beads is characterized by pointed
blades and small end-scrapers; it
shows no Aurignacian affinities. The
makers of these shell beads are still
unknown and, considering the age of
the layers, might well have been Ne-
andertals. A morphologically modern
child was found in the Aurignacian
layers of Ksar’Akil, but the layer from
which the modern remains come is
dated to ca. 29,000 years ago
90
and
overlies the Ahamarian layers in
which the oldest beads occur.
It is difficult to establish whether or
when Neandertals or earlier hominids
produced deliberate engravings or
used personal ornaments because
many objects that have been de-
scribed as such are actually the result
of natural phenomena.
91
This is the
case with the Pech-de-l’Aze II rib and
several purported engraved bones
from Cueva Morin, Stranska Skala,
and other sites. It is also true of per-
forated bones from Pech-de-l’Aze´,
Bois Roche, Kulna, Bockstein-
schmide, and Repolustho¨hle, as well
as putative musical instruments like
the “flute”from the Slovenian site of
Divje Babe. The putative engravings
are blood-vessel impressions, the pu-
tative pendants are actually bone frag-
ments regurgitated by hyenas, and the
perforations on the so-called flute are
punctures produced by cave bears.
92
Although no reports have been pub-
lished regarding some of them, a lim-
ited number of bone and stone objects
from Acheulean and Mousterian sites
in Europe and the Near East do seem
to bear deliberate engravings in the
form of sequences of more or less par-
allel incisions. These include the well-
known mammoth shaft fragment
from Bilzingsleben, which has an en-
graved fan-like motif; the Tata “en-
graved”nummulite and polished
mammoth dental plate; the parallel
lines on the Temnata slab; parallel in-
cisions on bone or antler from Ermit-
age, Ferrassie, Vergisson IV, and Vau-
frey; shaft fragments with dozens of
parallel lines from the late Mousterian
levels of the French sites of Unikote,
La Chapelle-aux-Saints, and Marillac;
and shaft fragments with criss-cross
patterns from Peyre`re.
We also have seen an increase in the
number of sites dated to ca. 35,000 to
40,000 years ago and located in peri-
arctic regions that have yielded
Middle Paleolithic or “transitional”
stone-tool industries associated with
sequentially notched bone and ivory
working.
93
At the moment, nothing
demonstrates that these assemblages
were not produced by Neandertals. In
spite of the consistent, albeit discon-
tinuous, presence of anatomically
modern humans, near Eastern Mous-
terian sites are as spare as those from
Europe in potentially symbolic ob-
jects. The only two examples are, so
far, a flint cortex engraved with a set
of concentric lines, which was found
at Quneitra
94
in a level dated to ca.
60,000 years ago, and another cortex
with a set of parallel incisions, which
was found at Qafzeh in the same levels
as the burials.
95
The only evidence
from the Near East that might offer
symbolic expressions from periods
comparable with the most ancient Af-
rican evidence of systematic use of
pigments is the so-called Berekhat
Ram figurine.
7,79–81
This piece comes
from an Acheulean layer sandwiched
between two well-dated volcanic de-
posits, indicating that the human
presence at the site is older than
230,000 years and probably lies be-
tween 250,000 and 280,000 years
ago.
96–97
A recent microscopic analy-
sis has shown that the object was pur-
posely modified by humans, but this,
of course, does not demonstrate its
symbolic nature.
98
It is noteworthy that most of the
more convincing “representations”
found in Europe come from relatively
late Neandertal sites, indicating an in-
crease in the production of possible
symbolic objects more or less at the
same time as the increase in the pro-
duction of engravings and pigment
use in the southern African Middle
Stone Age. We see no difference in the
frequency and nature of such objects
between Europe and the Near East,
where anatomically modern humans
198 Evolutionary Anthropology ARTICLES
were present since at least 100,000
years ago. As with the Middle Stone
Age, very little evidence exists for the
use of personal ornaments by Nean-
dertals at sites before the end of the
Mousterian. At the end of the Nean-
dertal period, however, Neandertals
did produce different types of per-
sonal ornaments and decorated bone
tools with sets of notches. This ap-
pears clearly at the Grotte du Renne.
18
Personal ornaments also come from
the Chaˆtelperronian level of Quincay
in the Charente.
99
Shell beads have
also been reported from several Uluz-
zian sites in Italy such as Cavallo and
Castelcivita.
18
Several small rods
made of hare and wolf long bones that
bear no trace of use as tools and that
might well have been used as pen-
dants come from the level C of Buran
Kaya III in the Crimea.
55
(See the sec-
tion on hafting and related craft skills
for the context and dating of these
objects). This review of the evidence
makes it clear that, with the possible
exception of the shell beads from
Qafzeh, there is no convincing proof
of the use of personal ornaments be-
fore 40,000 years ago and no dramatic
difference in the amount and nature
of depictional and abstract represen-
tations between the archeological
records produced by the two human
types.
SINGLE-SPECIES OR MULTIPLE-
SPECIES ORIGIN OF
BEHAVIORAL MODERNITY
The application of the criteria used
so far to identify behavioral moder-
nity in the material culture of Nean-
dertals and contemporary anatomi-
cally modern humans does not seem
to support the single-species or single-
population model for the origin of
these modern traits. Neandertal sub-
sistence strategies and technological
and symbolic traditions do not signif-
icantly differ from those of contempo-
rary human populations in Africa and
in the Near East. Submitted to close
scrutiny, comparable evolutionary
trends common to the two geograph-
ical areas may be detected in a num-
ber of domains (Fig. 8). It may be ar-
gued that it is not the mere presence
of “advanced”behaviors that matters,
but rather the frequency, consistency,
and association of those behaviors.
Considering, for example, that rela-
tively few southern African Middle
Stone Age sites have been excavated
as compared with the number of
Mousterian sites in southwestern
France, the association at Blombos of
bone tools, engravings, and a large
quantity of pigments can be inter-
preted as highly significant. One can
counter, however, that none of the
other eleven South African Middle
Stone Age sites with fauna have pro-
vided bone tools like those found at
Blombos. And if we accept that the
relevant comparison is between the
whole Mousterian in Europe and the
whole Middle Stone Age in Africa,
there are at least sixty Middle Stone
Age sites throughout Africa that could
be expected to show what Blombos
does, and none do. Although there are
many more excavated sites in Europe,
there are enough in Africa to show
that “modern”markers are no more
common in the Middle Stone Age than
they are in the Mousterian of Europe.
Also, it is dangerous to equate the
frequency of a type of archeological
material with its ancient social signif-
icance. The amount of pigment recov-
ered in an excavation depends on ta-
phonomic factors, including the
technique used to prepare the pig-
ment, the media on which the pig-
ment was applied, and the frequency
of the activities in which pigments
were used. The presence of used pig-
ment indicates that other colorants
may also have been used but did not
survive archeologically. Thus, can the
presence of pigment at “only”forty
Mousterian sites be used to suggest
that symbolic activities were less im-
portant in Europe than in Africa? The
same applies to most of the other
modern traits. We can note only that
some of them, such as burials, “for-
mal”tools, hafting, blade technology,
and even pigments, are clearly present
in the two records, and well before the
appearance of transitional techno-
complexes such as the Chaˆtelperro-
nian. Other traits such as deliberate
markings are rare in both records.
Still others, such as personal orna-
ments and geometric stone tools,
seem to appear only at a relatively late
stage in both records, while depic-
tional images are virtually absent
from both. Some behavioral innova-
tions, such as a bone-tool technology,
seem to appear in the Middle Stone
Age of Africa before they do in the
Mousterian of Europe, but their use
does not seem to have been wide-
spread. Also, the chronology of the
cultural entities associated with these
new behaviors on both continents is
still uncertain. Some “transitional
technocomplexes”from Europe, tra-
ditionally considered to postdate the
beginning of the Aurignacian, are now
considered to be older and so are
closer in age to some Middle Stone
Age assemblages.
19
And even if a more
precise chronology does demonstrate
that Middle Stone Age people had pri-
ority in some of these innovations,
should this be taken as supporting a
single-species model for the origin of
behavioral modernity? It is possible
that the more precocious appearance
of some of these traits in Africa was
fundamentally a question of that con-
tinent’s greater size and larger human
population,
100
which created greater
opportunities for innovations to de-
velop and survive.
101
On the other hand, the traits used to
identify behavioral modernity are no
more than a list of the major archeo-
logical features that characterize the
Upper Paleolithic in Europe. The
problem is that this behavior is highly
derived within Homo sapiens. It does
not consistently characterize the be-
havior of the earliest Homo sapiens
populations nor does it appear in
many parts of the world (much of Af-
rica, most of Asia, all of Australia) un-
til long after its appearance in Europe
ca. 40,000 years ago. Rather than ac-
cept that this complex of behaviors
reflects adaptive strategies that were
unique to the problem of colonizing
Europe, many archeologists cling to
the notion that the course of human
behavioral evolution can be modeled
in terms of a simple progression from
archaic to modern behavior.
We might reconstruct the concept
of modernity encompassing behav-
ioral universals among ethnohistoric
humans and excluding behavioral
convergences revealed by primate
ethology. However, this would result
in the exclusion from “modernity”of
many recent Homo sapiens archeolog-
ical populations and, as I have shown
ARTICLES Evolutionary Anthropology 199
here, the inclusion of various Nean-
dertal or earlier hominid populations.
After that, could we continue to use
modernity as a metaphor for the hu-
man condition? Behavioral modernity
has been a useful concept to highlight
the inconsistencies of the revolution
model, but we now need to go further.
“Modern”traits may have appeared
in different regions and among differ-
ent groups of humans, much as hap-
pened later in history with the inven-
tions of agriculture, writing, and state
society. Two hypotheses, which are
not mutually exclusive, may explain
both convergences and differences be-
tween the two populations on which I
have focused here. The first is that the
two populations reacted in compara-
ble ways to comparable ecological
pressures. The other is that, as their
similar lithic technology in the Near
East suggests, cultural barriers, and
perhaps biological ones, between
these populations were permeable.
The limited amount of fossil DNA
available seems to indicate
17,101
that
differences between Neanderthals and
recent humans were of the order of
two or three times those found within
recent humans. But even in this case,
the data can be used to support the
placement of Neandertals and recent
Figure 8. Occurrence of “modern”traits in the African, Near Eastern, and European archeological records. Interrupted lines indicate
discontinuous presence.
200 Evolutionary Anthropology ARTICLES
humans either in the same species or
in different ones, given the recent or-
igin of common ancestry. And Europe
was, at all times, a cul de sac.
Handaxes arrived there one million
years after their invention in Africa,
and agriculture, in some areas of Eu-
rope, 7,000 years after its invention in
the Near East. This demonstrates that
we do not need to assume different
cognitive abilities to explain gaps in
the appearance of some behaviors in
the two populations.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to Richard Klein for
inviting me contribute this paper and
for his stimulating critical reading of
the manuscript. I also thank Christo-
pher Chippindale, Paola Villa, John
Fleagle, and two anonymous referees
for their constructive comments on
earlier drafts. This work was pro-
duced in the framework of the Centre
National de la Recherche Scienti-
fique/European Science Foundation
program “Origin of Man, Language
and Languages.”
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