Reconstruction of an adult male Neanderthal based on remains found at Spy, Belgium. Photo by IR Stone.
This series explores how artefacts, animal and plant remains provide a rare glimpse into Hackney’s distant past. In this post, we introduce you to the area’s first residents – the Neanderthals.
Who were the Neanderthals?
Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic) tools found in Hackney were not made by modern humans, but by a mysterious and now extinct human species, the Neanderthals.
Neanderthals had wide noses and large eyebrow ridges. They had broad, strong bodies and were slightly shorter than modern humans. Modern humans (Homo sapiens) did not evolve from Neanderthals, but are closely related because of a shared common ancestor.
Neanderthals lived alongside early modern humans for at least part of their later existence, and we now know they had children together. The existence of these children and the fact they were raised to adulthood suggests that the two types of humans recognised their similarities and identified with one another.
Many populations today still carry Neanderthal DNA. It has even been proposed that rather than simply dying out, Neanderthals’ disappearance was in part a result of being integrated into our species through regular interbreeding with modern humans.
How did Neanderthals survive?
Neanderthals lived between 400,000 to 40,000 years ago – a longer period of time than modern humans have existed. They successfully adapted to the challenges of life in different climates and environments, living across a vast area, stretching from north Wales to Israel and Iran, and from Portugal to Russia.
At the time the Neanderthals lived in Hackney, it was on the north-western edge of human existence. Britain would have been a very hard place to live, with the Neanderthals’ physical strength and survival skills stretched to their limits.
The sharp edges of scrapers were used to clean fat from animal skins. The number of scrapers found from the Old Stone Age shows that this was an important regular task, and suggests that the Neanderthals were using animal skins, like furs or leather, for clothing.
The ability to create and wear clothing for protection from colder winters was important for life in northern Europe.
Handaxes
In popular culture the term Neanderthal is often used as an insult, and the species has an unfair reputation as thuggish primitive ‘cavemen’. Neanderthals are often shown using unshaped rocks or wooden clubs, which there is no archaeological evidence for. The stone tools discovered in the borough of Hackney show us that they were in fact highly skilled tool makers.
Handaxes are the most frequently found item from the Old Stone Age. Held in the hand, they would have been used for butchering and skinning animals. Handaxes were shaped out of a larger piece of stone, with flakes removed by hitting it against another stone or piece of deer antler (known as ‘knapping’). To create these elegant, symmetrical shapes would require forward planning and great technical skill.
Handaxes suggest that the toolmakers of the Old Stone Age had an appreciation for design and beauty. Handaxes often show far more skill, symmetry and size than needed for them to simply be a useful tool. In some cases, handaxes are so large that they would be impractical to use at all. Some archaeologists have proposed that handaxes were a way of showing off the maker’s knowledge and skill for status.
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Content for this blog featured in the exhibition ‘Hackney 300,000 BC: Meet the Neanderthal neighbours and curious creatures of the borough’s Old Stone Age’ at Hackney Museum 26 January – 29 July 2023.