Similar cranial trauma prevalence among Neanderthals and Upper Palaeolithic modern humans

Abstract

Neanderthals are commonly depicted as leading dangerous lives and permanently13 struggling for survival. This view largely relies on their reported high incidences of 14 trauma 1,2 , variously attributed to violent social behavior 3,4 , highly mobile hunter-15 gatherer lifestyles 2 , or attacks by carnivores 5 . The described Neanderthal pattern of 16 predominantly cranial injuries is further thought to reflect violent, close encounters 17 with large prey mammals resulting from a lack of long-distance hunting weapons 1 . 18 These interpretations directly shape our understanding of Neanderthal lifestyles, health 19 and hunting abilities, yet mainly rest on descriptive, case-based evidence. Quantitative, 20 population-level studies of traumatic injuries are rare. Here we reassess the hypothesis 21 of higher cranial trauma prevalence among Neanderthals using a population-level 22 approach, accounting for preservation bias and other contextual data, and using an 23 exhaustive new fossil database. We show that Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic 24 modern humans exhibit similar overall incidences of cranial trauma, which are higher 25 for males in both taxa, consistent with patterns shown by later modern human populations. Beyond these similarities we observed species-specific age-related variation 27 in trauma prevalence, suggesting either differences in the timing of injuries during life, 28 or differential mortality risk of trauma survivors in the two groups. Finally, our results 29 highlight the importance of preservation bias in studies of trauma prevalence. 31Neanderthals are commonly depicted as robust hominins leading stressful, dangerous lives 1,6-32 9 . Traumatic injuries, considered common among adult Neanderthal remains 1 , are a major 33 piece of evidence supporting this hypothesis: not only are Neanderthals proposed to suffer 34 from high trauma prevalence 2,3,10,11 , they are also thought to exhibit more traumatic injuries 35 than early modern humans 9,12,13 . Explanations for this include violent social behavior 3,4 , a 36 highly mobile hunter-gatherer-lifestyle in glacial environments 2 , and attacks by carnivores 5 . 37Moreover, Neanderthals are thought to show unusually high levels of head and neck injuries, 38 attributed to their hypothesized reliance on close range hunting, leading to confrontations with 39 large prey mammals 1 . These interpretations have important implications for reconstructions of 40 Neanderthal paleobiology and behavior, and have shaped the prevailing perception of the 41 species. However, they are largely based on anecdotal evidence, since trauma among 42 Paleolithic humans is often reported on a descriptive, case-by-case basis. The few systematic, 43 quantitative studies conducted to date have yielded contradictory results 2,4,11,14,15 , but question 44 the prevailing view of 'the highly traumatized Neandertal' 15 . 45 Current Paleolithic trauma research suffers from several limitations. Most previous work 46 assessed the proportional distribution of lesions throughout...

The not-so-dangerous lives of Neanderthals

“…"Risk and danger were as much a part of the life of Neanderthals as they were of our own evolutionary past." W hen the astronomical object 3C 273 was detected 1 , to most optical telescopes it looked just like a star in our Galaxy. But in 1963, astronomers discovered 2,3 that the object was shining from a distance of 750 megaparsecs (2.4 billion light years).…”

“…On page 686, Beier et al 1 provide evidence that challenges the long-standing view 2 that Neanderthal populations experienced a level of traumatic injuries that was significantly higher than that of humans. The result calls into question claims 2,3 that the behaviour and technologies of Neanderthals exposed them to particularly high levels of risk and danger.…”

“…Furthermore, although the authors' analyses 9 shows signs of a healed bone injury 10 in the region indicated by the arrowheads. Beier et al 1 assessed published analyses of ancient Neanderthal and human skulls, including that of Saint-Césaire 1. Contrary to the prevailing view 2 that Neanderthal existence was more violent than that of humans, the authors report that similar levels of trauma are present in Neanderthal and human fossils.…”

Prevalence of cranial trauma in Eurasian Upper Paleolithic humans

“…Nevertheless, population‐wide trauma patterns in UP humans have barely been researched. Trinkaus (2012) and Beier, Anthes, Wahl, and Harvati (2018) analyzed trauma in larger samples of UP fossils from Eurasia. They compared their findings to those of Neanderthals and found similar distribution patterns and trauma prevalence in the two groups.…”

The relative roles of maternal survival and inter-personal violence as selection pressures on the persistence of Neanderthal hypercoagulability alleles in modern Europeans

“…Trinkaus (Trinkaus 2012) does suggest that a highly mobile foraging lifestyle could explain the predominantly upper body distribution of injuries, as injuries to the lower limbs would have prevented mobility and resulted in the injured being left behind in locations where remains would not have fossilised. Beier (Beier et al 2018) analysed cranial trauma in 114 Neanderthal and 90 Homo sapiens skulls from the Upper Palaeolithic and showed that while males had a higher incidence of trauma than females there was no significant difference between the species. Importantly their work shows that it is not species that causes increased vulnerability to trauma but rather the risks posed by hunter-gathering in the Eurasian Palaeolithic.…”