Sign in / up

back to article Tech war latest: Today's leather tools 'invented by NEANDERTHALS'

Neanderthals were just as good at working leather as modern humans - and used the same tools still employed by leather-workers today - a new study has found. Four views of the most complete lissoir found during excavations at the Neandertal site of Abri Peyrony Four views of the most complete lissoir found during excavations …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Sir Runcible Spoon

    Absurd opinion alert

    Don't forget this stuff is all, ALL I say, less than 10,000 years old so arguing about how we 'found out' how to use these tools is totally moot.

    Long live the sky fairies!

    7 5
    1. Dexter
      Reply Icon
      IT Angle

      Re: Absurd opinion alert

      And you "know" this how?

      1 3
      1. ian 22
        Reply Icon
        Paris Hilton

        Re: Absurd opinion alert

        We know because Bishop Ussher told us so. As does Mrs. Palin, lately Governor of Alaska.

        Such authorities should remove all doubt...

        5 2
        1. MJI Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: Absurd opinion alert

          I thought Helen was at home with Michael?

          0 0
        2. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Absurd opinion alert

          A down vote from a Yank Repulicrat! Hoo ya!

          Or a irony challenged fool.

          0 2
          1. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Coat

            Re: Irony Challenged Fool.

            Band-name Alert.

            Pass the coat. it's the one with a bible in one pocket and club-shaped bone in the other.

            0 0
      2. Sir Runcible Spoon
        Reply Icon

        @Dexter

        I know you read my post Dexter, but did you comprehend it?

        3 3
        1. Sir Runcible Spoon
          Reply Icon
          Coat

          Re: @Dexter

          I get the feeling there are some people out there who don't like it when people take the piss out of the belief that the Universe is < 10000 years old.

          1 1
          1. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Happy

            Re: @Dexter

            I think there is some confusion here.

            Are you being sarcastic or not?

            0 0
            1. Sir Runcible Spoon
              Reply Icon

              Re: @Skelband

              "Are you being sarcastic or not?"

              Considering what I put for the title of the post, I'm amazed that's even a question.

              For the avoidance of ALL doubt, yes, I was taking the piss.

              1 1
          2. Vociferous
            Reply Icon

            Yes let's beat this dead horse a bit more.

            I'm sure The Register, being a British tech site, is crawling with young Earth creationists, and that mocking them is brave and necessary and not just memetic masturbation.

            0 3
            1. Sir Runcible Spoon
              Reply Icon

              Re: Yes let's beat this dead horse a bit more.

              Blimey, I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition. (dun dun derrrrr!)

              1 0
              1. Vociferous
                Reply Icon

                Incredibly, that's LESS worn-out...

                ...than that the top posts on EVERY article about paleontology or cosmology has to be about young Earth creationism.

                0 0
              2. oolor
                Reply Icon

                Re: Inquisition

                Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

                But you could've been prepared!

                0 0
          3. Kyle Roberts
            Reply Icon

            Re: @Dexter

            You're quite right, of course, Sir Spoon... mind you, if you want a truly BIG reaction you'd just try suggesting the universe did NOT miraculously appear from nothing... all by itself

            ;-D

            Man, that almost always brings an avalanche of name calling!

            0 0
  2. LarsG

    What? So we still use dinosaur bones today?

    1 1
    1. Don Jefe
      Reply Icon
      Happy

      Don't you?

      Mammoth leather doesn't seam well if you don't scrape it thoroughly first. We use only genuine Apostasaur bone in our shop.

      3 0
    2. James 51
      Reply Icon

      "What? So we still use dinosaur bones today?"

      Does coal count?

      2 2
      1. Charles Manning
        Reply Icon

        Re: "What? So we still use dinosaur bones today?"

        No. Coal comes from plant matter.

        1 0
    3. Psyx
      Reply Icon
      Holmes

      Yes: Our entire society is entirely reliant on burning them.

      Pretty dumb, eh?

      1 2
    4. MrT
      Reply Icon

      Some still do...

      ...like on custom ipads for yacht owning CEOs, but admittedly they are not in common use...

      1 0
  3. Nifty Silver badge

    Suspiciously rounded corners on that.

    4 0
    1. perlcat
      Reply Icon

      Uh OH.

      The Beast of Cupertino will be out at the dig with their C&D's in 3..2..1...

      0 0
  4. Steve Button Silver badge

    Neanderthals have opinions too!

    and you can't still hear them in Youtube comments.

    2 0
  5. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    And I was expecting...

    ... a Neanderthal set of 6-way Revolving Punch Pliers...

    4 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 6-way Revolving Punch Pliers

      And the revelation that the ones they made then didn't punch all the way through either.

      2 0
  6. perlcat

    Have fun searching for pictures of a modern lissoir.

    Alternate search suggestion:

    "Did you mean pissoir pictures?"

    1 0
  7. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge
    Coat

    You can still see a few Neanderthals standing in the checkout line at Wickes.

    Mine's the one made of a saber tooth tiger hide.

    1 0
  8. Gordon 11

    It's even possible that humans got the idea from the Neanderthals

    You mean "intellectual property theft".

    I'm surprised the court case isn't still rumbling on today, with some extremely rich lawyers in tow.

    4 0
  9. Tom 7

    "Modern humans seem to have entered Europe with pointed bone tools only...

    and soon after started to make lissoirs."

    Modern human moved to Europe and though "fuck me its brass monkeys fetch me a set of lederhosen now!"

    Probably not a lot of need for them until the skiing season was invented.

    2 0
    1. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
      Reply Icon
      Boffin

      Re: "Modern humans seem to have entered Europe with pointed bone tools only and patent lawyers...

      "Sorry Neanderthals, you can't use those lissoirs, iBone megacorp have a design patent on lissoirs with rounded corners".

      This in turn lead to the extinction[1] of Neanderthal man people.

      [1] In reality the Neanderthals did not die out completely, and there is evidence that Neanderthal and 'modren' humans inter-bred, about 4% of modern human mitochondrial DNA seems to come from Neanderthals. In fact, it's possible to see some Neanderthal traits in modern humans; e.g, low forehead, prominent eye-brow ridge, broad nose, occipital bun/ridge, and in the USofA, membership of the republican party.

      2 0
  10. Katie Saucey
    Alien

    Pffft...

    I know the exact lineage of ALL prehistoric tech. I'm not going to say aliens, but guys, it's ALIENS! <insert pic of that the buffoon with the bouffant hair from The History Channel>

    1 0
  11. Tom 35

    Could that be...

    Leather tools on a mobile device?

    1 0
  12. ian 22

    I recognise those tools!

    And they are as new as those we used in the Navy. Better looking, though.

    0 0
  13. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Gotta keep em separated

    "It's even possible that humans got the idea from the Neanderthals, which are considered a separate species from homo sapiens."

    'Humans' got a lot more than ideas from the Old Ones, they also aquired some nasty old DNA, which we ALL carry around with us, some as much as an estimated 4.5% of the total. Somebody musta been tooling around.

    Mine's the black leather jacket with the eagle on the back...

    1 0
  14. Vociferous

    Neanderthals ARE humans. All members of the genus _Homo_ are humans. They are not modern humans.

    The idea that they're not humans goes back to a deeply and fundamentally flawed paper by Pääbo et al, published in Nature in the 90:s, in which they used flawed methodology to prove that sapiens and neanderthalensis never interbred.

    Today we know that they DID interbreed, that neanderthals never died out but merged with immigrants from Africa, and even Pääbo et al. today simply ignore that their initial claim to fame was that they "proved" that neanderthals a different species.

    They yet haven't managed to bring themselves to admit that the "out of africa" theory they championed, and which became dogma through their flawed Nature paper, was wrong, and the "multiregional theory" they claimed to have disproven was right all along. That Kuhnian paradigm shift probably can't come until Pääbo et al retire.

    1 0
  15. Kubla Cant

    Picture of a Neanderthal

    Scruffy red hair and beard,

    Brow ridges,

    Big nose,

    Furry smock,

    Bare legs,.

    BUT...

    Shiny black patent-leather shoes!

    2 1
This topic is closed for new posts.