Exploring Neandertals with Erik Trinkaus
 Erik Trinkaus holds a cast of an early modern human mandible
by Fred Heeren
One of the hard questions that scientifically literate Christians wrestle with is: When did humans become human? Were the Neandertals, for example, made in the image of God? Is there a Bible verse to help us with this? As a young earth creationist, my paradigm told me that Neandertals were simply a different race of humans. Later, as an old earth creationist, my paradigm told me that Neandertals didn’t look as if they shared the special endowments that had suddenly hit the planet with the start of Adam’s lineage. I wasn’t quite sure what to believe in 2004 when I visited Erik Trinkaus and his cave-diving team in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains, during their excavation of Europe’s earliest known early modern humans. The cranial material from the gallery known as Peştera cu Oase (representing two individuals known as Oase 1 and 2, a jaw and an almost complete skull) were dated to about 40,000 years B.P. The first thing Trinkaus explained to me was that, considering the fact that Neandertals survived in that region until at least 32,000 years ago (and in Europe for much longer), these fossils show that Neandertals and early modern humans lived contemporaneously for many thousands of years—each retaining their identity as a distinct species. This meant that a strict multi-regional model of human origins was wrong—Neandertals weren’t one of many archaic groups that eventually evolved into modern humans. “Interbreeding happened,” Trinkaus said. “The only issue is, how much interbreeding took place?”
 Romanian adventurer Adrian Danciu at
the cave's entrance
The second thing Trinkaus claimed was that these specimens, though having traits clearly marking them as early modern humans, also had three features that put them off the charts from all other early moderns. No others, for example, had molars that big. “But there are Neandertals that had wisdom teeth that big,” he told me.” In fact, Trinkaus said you had to go back a hundred thousand years before finding some of these traits in archaic humans—and one region near the bottom of the skull (behind the ear, called the juxtamastoid eminence) was distinctively Neandertal.
“Interbreeding happened,” Trinkaus said. “The only issue is, how much interbreeding took place?” I was somewhat skeptical, and I was in good company—until 2010 when Svante Pääbo at Leipzig’s Max Planck Institute reversed his earlier conclusions and announced, based on more complete data, that between 1 and 4 percent of non-African modern human DNA is shared with Neandertals. Still-more recent news is that modern humans may even enjoy certain immunity benefits as a result. This means that a strict “out of Africa” model is also wrong—modern humans didn’t spread out of Africa, blitzkrieg fashion, exterminating all archaic humans. But it also meant I must accept that Neandertals, by the usual definition of species, belonged to ours. The fact that they interbred, according to Trinkaus, demonstrated that “When they met, they saw each other as people.” I asked if he thought Neandertals were inherently limited in any way, preventing them from leaving behind as many signs of higher culture as early modern humans. “Absolutely not,” he said. “If you look at the archeological evidence, which includes burials, there is very little difference between what we find associated with Neandertals and with early modern humans--from the same time period,” (his emphasis, by way of raised eyebrows). He went on to describe their similar tools, the same degree of their use of pigment, etc. “You simply can’t tell them apaaaa—”  Paleoanthropologist Erik Trinkaus cleans a giant bear skull
Trinkaus suddenly entered a state of suspended animation. I checked my recorder and noted that the light was still blinking red—time had not frozen everywhere.
He had been scooping sediment out of a giant, extinct bear skull from the previous day’s haul from the cave. When the action started again, Trinkaus was slowly lifting a thin, flat bone out of the bear’s nasal chambers. “I don’t believe it,” he said, several times. “Is that human?” I asked, guessing wildly at the cause of his stupefaction. “This is human bone,” he said, “a piece of cranium, stuffed up the guy’s nose!” He called for Hélène Rougier, a young, French Neandertal specialist, to proudly show her his discovery. “You see,” he said, “I don’t get to go in the cave, but I still get to excavate in the lab.” He tried out different ways to write up his discovery: “Let’s see …. Provenience: up the bear’s nose.” I had witnessed the discovery of just one piece of the many that eventually made up the almost complete skull, and the next day I got to make my own hour-long journey into the mountain to see the provenience of the rest—in the caves. As Hélène and others described to me the terrors and risks involved with that dark triathlon of climbing, swimming, and scuba-diving through narrow tunnels, any angst I felt over the Neandertals’ place in the story of Adam’s race took a backseat to my dread at that imminent venture into the darkness. As for Bible verses: we may not have one that tells us: “Adam was created with these anatomical traits on such-and-such a date.” Nor does Scripture advise us more generally: “Find a paradigm and stick with it.”
 Trinkaus & Neandertal specialist Hélène Rougier admire a piece of 40,000-yr-old human skull
Seeing the evidence for myself that week didn’t provide finality to my questions about the Neandertals’ place in the story of Adam’s race, but like that little piece of skull, it did provide a helpful piece in the puzzle. And I had stories for The Washington Post and New Scientist.
As for Bible verses: we may not have one that tells us: “Adam was created with these anatomical traits on such-and-such a date.” Nor does Scripture advise us more generally: “Find a paradigm and stick with it.” But we do see verses that, collectively, add up to something like opposite counsel: Seek knowledge, value truth, and even when you think you’ve got it, examine it: “The discerning heart seeks knowledge” (Prov. 15:14a). “Buy the truth and do not sell it” (Prov. 23:23:a). “Examine everything” (1 Thes. 5:21a).
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