Use it or lose it: A model-based assessment of the hypothesis that European Neanderthals relied on wildfires to create their campfires

TL;DR

The paper explores whether Neanderthals lost the ability to make campfires during cold periods and instead relied on wildfires, using a model to assess cultural loss.

Contribution

A novel computational model is introduced to evaluate the plausibility of Neanderthal reliance on wildfires due to cultural loss of fire-making skills.

Findings

Cultural loss, particularly memory decay and infrequent use, was more likely to cause fire-making skill loss than demographic factors.

Large variability in fire use was the strongest driver of skill loss in Neanderthal groups.

The wildfire hypothesis is supported as a plausible explanation for reduced fire evidence during colder periods.

Abstract

There remains debate about the pyrotechnical capabilities of the Neanderthals. Evidence of fire has been found at many Middle Palaeolithic sites, widely accepted to be associated with Neanderthals. However, multiple Neanderthal sites show a marked decrease in evidence for fire use during colder periods. This counterintuitive pattern was explained by the possibility that some Neanderthal groups were unable to create fire at will and relied on wildfire. Here, we evaluate the plausibility of this ‘wildfire hypothesis’ through formal modeling.

We computed the probability of a group of Neanderthals losing campfire-making skills due to cultural loss. The EMBERS model codes four empirically motivated mechanisms of skill loss: variability in use, period in between uses, memory decay and number of experts.

Our results indicate that losing the ability to use wildfire was more likely than retaining the it for most of our parameter values within reasonable ranges. Significantly, demography, in the form of expert numbers, was the least significant mechanism of loss. The rate of memory loss at group level, and intervals between uses where significantly more important than demography. Large variability in use was, by far, the strongest driver of loss. These results, linked with the estimated climatic, mnemonic, and demographic conditions for the Neanderthal's settlements in the glacial periods, support the plausibility of that the wildfire hypothesis and highlights the need to pay more attention to cultural loss as a factor in cultural evolution.

Our modeling shows that cultural loss can trigger the loss of campfire-use by some Neanderthal Groups in the context of cold climatic transition.

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