Call them prehistoric techies.
Sure, they may not have had smart phones and laptops, but these short, stocky hominids developed their own tools and adapted their behavior to changing environments, according to a study of Neanderthal cultures in ancient Italy.
The research shatters the image of Neanderthals as dull, primitive figures who were unable to compete with quick-witted Homo sapiens.
"Basically, I am rehabilitating Neanderthals," said Julien Riel-Salvatore, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado Denver. "They were far more resourceful than we have given them credit for."
Riel-Salvatore spent seven years studying Neanderthal sites throughout Italy. He focused on the rise of the Uluzzian culture, a Neanderthal group that arose in southern Italy about 42,000 years ago.
The Uluzzians used bone tools, projectile points and tools that could have been used for hunting and fishing.
These tools may have been a response to a change in climate that made the landscape more open and more arid, forcing the Uluzzians to focus on hunting small animals for food, Riel-Salvatore said.
"When we show Neanderthals could innovate on their own it casts them in a new light," Riel-Salvatore said. "It 'humanizes' them if you will."
Neanderthals lived in Europe and parts of Asia until about 28,000 years ago. They shared a common ancestor with Homo sapiens, though the Neanderthal branch of the family tree left Africa sooner, according to New Scientist.
The first Neanderthal remains were found in Germany in 1856. Studies showed that they were short and stocky, with large faces and barrel chests.
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They shared more than 99 percent of their DNA with humans, making them our closest known relatives, studies say.It has long been thought that Homo sapiens wiped out Neanderthals on their way to conquering the globe. Riel-Salvatore disagrees, saying that human beings may have "absorbed" Neanderthals on their way to conquering the globe.
"My research suggests that they were a different kind of human, but humans nonetheless," Riel-Salvatore said. "We are more brothers than distant cousins."