'Neanderthal tools' found at dig (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Christine McGourty
BBC science correspondent

Dozens of tools thought to have belonged to Neanderthals have been dug up at an archaeological site called Beedings in West Sussex.

Dr Matthew Pope, of University College London, said the discovery provided new insights into the life of a thriving community of hunters at the site.

The tools could have been used to hunt horses, mammoth and woolly rhinoceros.

The archaeologists, funded by English Heritage, have been carrying out their investigations over the last few weeks.

It is the first modern scientific investigation of the site since it was discovered in 1900.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7466735.stm

[muntrv]

1. Bush and Cheney were found at a dig?

:evilgrin:

[Xipe Totec]

3. They found a slingshotgun

and a skull encrusted with small rocks.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Darn! You beat me to it!

:rofl:

[frogmarch]

4. Interesting article. Thanks!

Another snip from the article:

The tools at Beedings could equally be the signature of pioneer populations of modern humans, or traces of the last Neanderthal hunting groups to occupy the region.

If the tools did indeed belong to Neanderthal people, and the tools appear to have been made for a type of hunting other than killing at close quarters, like in a forest, it would pretty much blow the why-Neanderthals-became-extinct hypothesis that states that the physique of Neanderthals would have made chasing after large animals like horses, mammoths and rhinos difficult, if not impossible.