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rad donosi popularan prikaz vremena koegzistencije neandertalaca i anatomski modernog čovjeka na području Europe

Kaštel Štafilić - Resnik prvi je sustavno istražen podvodni lokalitet iz srednjega paleolitika na području jugoistočne Europe, a možda i Sredozemlja. U vremenu kad je cijeli Kaštelanski zaljev bio kopno, to je područje bilo pogodno za staništa i lov, ali i za migracije koje su išle iz brdovitog zaleđa prema obali i obrnuto.

rad donosi popularan prikaz nestanka neandertalaca

Članak opisuje načine na koji su neandertalci izrađivali oruđa. Navedeni su osnovni tipovi varijabilnosti njihove materijalne kulture (tipovi musterijena). Umješnost izrade kamenog i koštanog oruđa te izrada kompozitnog oruđa uz pomoć lijepljenja pokazuje njihovu vještinu i složenost ponašanja.

Bone samples from two caves, Vindija (Donja Voća, NW Croatia) and Mujina Pećina cave (Plano, near Kaštela, Dalmatia), were selected for radiocarbon AMS dating at the Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI) laboratory. Collagen extraction yielded >1% of collagen for 10 samples. From six samples the collagen yield was lower than 0.5 % and those bones could have not been dated. The low collagen yield (

Članak navodi klimatske promjene koje su se dogodile tijekom srednjega paleolitika. Dugotrajna hladna razdoblja (glacijali i stadijali) prekidana su zatopljenjima (zadnji interglacijal i interstadijali). Te su promjene i oscilacije uvelike utjecale na uvjete u okolišu, a neandertalske populacije na prostoru današnje Europe izdržale su ekstremno hladne okolišne uvjete kroz duga razdoblja oledbi, ali i pokazale izuzetnu sposobnost prilagodbe na promjene koje su se ciklički odvijale.

Rad donosi popularan pregled novih spoznaja o neandertalcima

The project „Last Neanderthals at the Crossroads of Central Europe and the Mediterranean – NECEM“ (financed by Croatian Science Foundation, HRZZ-IP-2019-04-6649) aims to gain new data on the adaptations of late Neanderthals in today’s Croatia by interdisciplinary methods. Radiocarbon gives a chronological framework providing the samples are not older than about 50000 years. A total of 16 bone samples from two caves, Vindija (Donja Voća, NW Croatia) and Mujina Pećina cave (Plano, near Kaštela, Dalmatia), were selected for radiocarbon AMS dating at the Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI) laboratory. Collagen extraction yielded >1% of collagen for 10 samples. From six samples, the collagen yield was lower than 0.5 % and those bones could not have been dated since the low yield (

Ukratko su opisana istraživanja Velike pećine u Kličevici (Raštević kod Benkovca) i važnost tog nalazišta. Zadnji neandertalci na tom su nalazištu boravili vjerojatno prije četrdesetak tisuća godina kad su rani moderni ljudi već bili prisutni u jugoistočnoj Europi na području današnje Bugarske, a možda i na Apeninskom poluotoku. Stoga je na tom nalazištu zabilježen jedan od možda najkasnijih boravaka neandertalaca na prostoru istočne jadranske obale i njezina zaleđa.

Kao srednjopaleolitička nalazišta u Hrvatskom zagorju do sada su nam poznata samo špiljska staništa, dok u jadranskoj Hrvatskoj, uz špilje, imamo i nalazišta na otvorenom te podvodna nalazišta koja su nekoć bila na kopnu.

Rad donosi popularan pregled prvih otkrića neandertalaca i njihove glavne odlike.

Ukratko su opisani rezultati istraživanja i važnost Mujine pećine. Mujina pećina prvo je sustavno istraženo nalazište srednjega paleolitika u Hrvatskoj na kojem je primijenjena suvremena metoda iskopavanja i prvo kronometrijski datirano srednjopaleolitičko nalazište u Dalmaciji.

Rad donosi popularan prikaz značaja špilje Vindije u proučavanju neandertalaca

U članku su kritički prikazane različite vrste arheoloških situacija i nalaza simboličke prirode važnih za tumačenje simboličke komunikacije kod neandertalaca. Imali su već razvijene aspekte onoga što nazivamo modernim ponašanjem, drugim riječima: jezik, vizualnu simboličku komunikaciju, kulturno definiran društveni sustav, a možda i neke aspekte religije odnosno religioznosti.

Background: A vast amount of literature suggests a co-evolutionary relationship between Palaeolithic stone toolmaking, and cognition and specifically language. However, empirical data remain limited to indirect findings of neurophysiological studies. Furthermore, most Oldowan studies have used chert and have not investigated retouch, even though quartz and lava were predominant raw materials during periods of chert unavailability, and even though chert was disproportionately more frequently used for retouch compared to other raw materials during periods of chert availability, at least in the Olduvai Gorge. Methods: The study recruited 13 young adults with no prior experience in knapping. Subjects were taught by an experienced knapper to produce quartz choppers and chert sidescrapers in either a verbal or gestural condition. Two raters rated on a 5-point scale the subjects’ performances on specific steps of the two stone toolmaking tasks. In a post-experimental interview, subjects stated which aspects of the tasks they preferred or disfavored. Subjects also performed on a neuropsychological battery encompassing visuospatial, executive functioning, and linguistic tasks. Results: Given the small sample size, the results should be regarded as exploratory and preliminary. Our results are further limited to the early acquisition phase and may not reflect processes in modern experienced knappers. Descriptive data suggested better performance across all stone toolmaking variables in the verbal compared to gestural condition, but only flake quality on the sidescraper task was significantly different between groups. Analyses of the stone toolmaking variables suggested subjects perceived quartz and chert flaking very differently. Correlational and other analyses suggested that quartz chopper manufacture was not associated with cognitive performance. Conversely, chert flaking and retouch were strongly associated with visuospatial working memory, showing that subjects with a higher memory span produced better chert flakes and retouch. Retouch only was moderately associated with executive functioning measures, showing subjects who made fewer errors on the tasks were better on retouch. Specific aspects of chert flaking were also associated with verbal fluency performance, showing, among others, moderate and strong positive associations with the productivity and rate of production of syntactically transitive verbs on action fluency. Discussion: Evolutionary implications can be drawn from our research only if we controversially assume similar results would have been obtained had we tested early hominins and not modern humans. Following this axiom, our results suggest that Oldowan hominins relied on modern-like visuospatial working memory during chert flaking and retouch, and, to a lesser degree, modern-like executive functioning during chert retouch. This is contrary to previous Oldowan studies suggesting no involvement of executive functioning during Oldowan-like flaking. Results from the linguistic tasks controversially suggest that some of the prerequisites for aspects of action language and syntactic transitivity (verb-object phrases) in modern humans were to some degree present in Oldowan hominin populations. Because Olduvai Gorge hominins readily incorporated chert for stone toolmaking in periods of chert availability, our results suggest that these cognitive capacities were phylogenetically not related to chert knapping. Finally, we propose that the quality of performance on Oldowan flaking and retouch may not reflect the full level of cognitive capacities of Oldowan populations. Contributions: We provide the first direct evidence for an association between Palaeolithic stone toolmaking and cognitive performance in modern humans, while previous studies have inferred cognitive processes from neuroimaging data. We also provide the first direct evidence for an association between Palaeolithic stone toolmaking, and action language and simple syntactic transitivity in modern humans.