Ancient humans looked after their own

 A fossilised jawbone found in the south of France has suggested that ancient humans began
 taking care of each other much earlier than previously thought. 

 The bone was from an individual who survived despite being unable to chew food. 

 The jawbone was found in a rock shelter - the Bau de l'Aubesier, near Monieux - embedded in
 a layer of debris about 170,000 years old. The jaw had no teeth, and the patterns of wear
 showed that its owner - whose sex is unknown - had lived for some time in that condition. 

 Since chewing tough meat and vegetables would have been impossible, the individual must have
 had access to food that had been processed into a mush by fine chopping, grinding or cooking
 - or some combination of the three. 

 "It reinforces the antiquity of what is a uniquely human characteristic -- and that is when
 we have problems our friends and relatives help us out," said Erik Trinkaus, a professor of
 anthropology at Washington University in St Louis, US, and a co-researcher on the jaw study. 

 "Except for mothers and infants among other species, that only happens at a fairly minimal
 level. 

 The jaw's owner is thought to have lived to about 40 or 50 years of age - very old by the
 standards of early humans. 

 Funny looking 

 The international team of researchers who found the remains think this means that other
 members of the group must have looked after the individual. 

 "They're archaic humans," Professor Trinkaus said. "They're strongly built. They've got big,
 strong, heavy bodies, and big faces by modern standards. If you saw one today all nicely
 cleaned up and dressed, they would look a little funny. But they would look basically human." 

 Wear on teeth found at the same site shows that they used them for gripping and working on
 materials, not just for eating. 

 Daily activities 

 Other remains show that they used fire, but there is no sign of any artistic activity. It
 is not known how far these people had gone towards such modern behaviour as using language. 

 The jaw discovery is reported in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of
 Sciences (PNAS). 

 The researchers write in their paper: "These human populations... achieved a level of
 sociocultural elaboration sufficient to maintain debilitated individuals and to provide
 the motivation to do so. 

 "However, they also were using their biology to accomplish daily activities, reflecting
 behavioural patterns and a level of technological development significantly different from
 those of Upper Palaeolithic and recent humans." 

 BBC webpage
 Tuesday, 11 September, 2001, 12:50 GMT 13:50 UK

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 `Perceptions' note:

 from  www.perceptions.couk.com/feathers.html we see that many other species devote
 time and effort to feeding a wounded or otherwise disabled individual - even when
 the individual is fully adult and not part of family group.

 so `helping-out' is not a "uniquely human characteristic" 

 n.b. anyone who has lived and worked 'in the field' knows that (healthy) modern humans
 will routinely use their teeth for gripping, securing or holding objects when living
 and working outdoors.

 in fact, if in several thousand years time 'scientists' unearthed this writer's jawbone,
 they _might_ speculate about signs of 'non-eating wear' - But will they realise that he
 gnaws a pipe-stem to help concentration? 
  
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