engleski

Handedness in the Krapina Neandertals: A Re- Evaluation

Dominant right-handedness is well-established in European Neandertals and their likely ancestors with ratios indistinguishable from modern humans. Based on a previous analysis of oblique scratches into the enamel, the Krapina Neandertals represent a large portion of the Neandertal sample with six right-handers and one lefthander. These scratches are produced when stone tools etch the tooth face in repeated oral manipulations. In this update, the Krapina sample was blindly re-analyzed by re-casting the teeth and re-cataloguing the scratches. Done by a different researcher (IF) from the original study (Lalueza and Frayer 1997), this was an independent test of the determination of handedness from scratch patterns in the Krapina sample. We confirmed the earlier results of a predominant right-handed pattern from the striations’ obliquity on the incisors and canines. Further, we identified the first deciduous tooth with a right-handed pattern, two more right-handers and added a second left-hander to the Krapina sample. Overall, our most up-to- date sample of all European Neandertals produces a frequency of about 90% right-handers. Handedness is a proxy for brain lateralization, and by extension, language capability. Coupled with other evidence from paleoanthropology to paleogenetics, it is apparent that Neandertals had all the capabilities of modern humans for language production.

handedness; Krapina; lateralization

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