Exploring the intricacy of the Neanderthal mind What kinds of cognition did Neanderthals need to produce tar? An EU-backed project is providing new insight into technological complexity in prehistoric times. Society © Gorodenkoff/stock.adobe.com The more complicated a technology, the more complex the thought processes needed to create it. So, studying the methods that Neanderthals used to produce tar can help us understand how these hominids differed from modern humans in behaviour and technical cognition. With this goal in mind, researchers from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands recently published two papers on prehistoric production processes of birch bark tar, one of the world’s oldest technologies. Both studies were supported by the EU-funded AncientAdhesives project and published in ‘Scientific Reports’. Measuring complex thought processes Birch bark tar is the first evidence we have of a new material’s creation, according to Dr Paul Kozowyk, co-author of one of the papers. In this study, the research team used a modelling tool called Petri net analysis to compare different Neanderthal tar production methods and tie the results to cognitive requirements such as planning, inhibitory control and learning. The study’s lead author, Dr Sebastian Fajardo, states in a TU Delft news item: “Neanderthals used, at least on some occasions, a complex production process to make tar. To do that they needed ways to deal with a lot of information, like understanding and a way to transmit information very well.” This suggests that Neanderthals might have had certain cognitive characteristics that are associated with modern human thinking and behaviour. The complexity of scaling up The second study focuses on a method of birch bark tar production called the condensation technique. To improve on the low yield, Neanderthals probably needed to scale up the method. But how did scaling up affect the process’s complexity? To find out, the team used Petri net models and a complexity measure called an Extended Cyclomatic Metric. “The outcome in this case was that it has a very significant impact on the complexity and that suggests people had a way to deal with this complex upscaling,” reports Dr Kozowyk, who led the second study. This might have involved more cooperation and the ability to inhibit impulses and dominant behaviours, which is required when working together in a group. “We don’t prove that they were using a particular method, but our findings show that regardless of the methods employed, prehistoric tar making likely required a level of information processing that extended beyond simple behaviours.” AncientAdhesives (Ancient Adhesives - A window on prehistoric technological complexity) is working to create the first trustworthy computational method to compare ancient technological development and to study differences and similarities in Neanderthal and modern human technology and behavioural complexity. The project’s models are not limited to tar production methods, but can be adapted to analyse other technologies such as copper smelting and pottery production. For more information, please see: AncientAdhesives project web page Keywords AncientAdhesives, Neanderthal, tar, birch bark tar, prehistoric
