Throughout the first half of 21st
century Neanderthals were thought to have been primitive, unintelligent hunched-over
cavemen. It is as we see them depicted in countless movies and cartoons.
Why is that so? Anthropologists’
early impression of Neanderthals was partially influenced by popular ideology
at that time that one’s intelligence and humanity can be assessed from skull
shape. Many of those scientists also shared a view that evolution is straightforward
progress and so Neanderthals must have been much more primitive than nowadays
humans. It is also worth mentioning that was a brief period of time between 51,000
and 39,000 years ago when modern humans and Neanderthals coexisted, maybe
fought each other and definitely interbred. But at the end of an era only one
species left standing. So there should be something wrong with them, right?
But as we found more Neanderthal remains
and conducted proper analysis the stereotype of Neanderthals being primitive
started to fade.
Technology, they used it. Obviously
one of the most important indicators of intelligence is ability to use tools.
But Neanderthals didn't just use sticks, bones and stones, they crafted their own tools. Amongst
them were spears, blades, needles and clothing. Those tools were special
because of the level of details that indicated advanced craftsmanship. They
invented glue from using tar to attach wooden handles to stones. And they
cooked their food using fire, Neanderthals didn’t just preserve fire, they had
ability to recreate using sparking. That’s pretty much the same tools modern
humans used back in the time.
Neanderthals
were also spiritual. Amongst artifacts there were elements of jewelry made from
shells, eagle talons and musical instruments, like whistles. Some evidence
suggests that they had ritual practices. Thombs discovered in southern France
show that Neanderthals buried their dead people. At another site in France, researchers discovered that
Neanderthals descended deep inside a cave and created enigmatic stone circles from stalagmites 176,000 years ago. This behavior was
previously thought to be adopted only in homo-sapiens tribes.
They were
humane. One of the rocky caves provided some of the clues that Neanderthals
behaved, thought and felt as much as we do. It’s usually very hard to guess how
our prehistoric cousins behaved based on bones. But oddly enough one of the
most recent remains has a lot of skeletal pathologies(in other words injuries).
Most of pathologies that scientists found were teeth problems, arthritis etc.
But in case of so-called Shanidar 1 this individual was missing one arm, had fractured skull and scarred rib bone, that probably
collapsed his lung. The question is, how he kept on living? And the only way he
could survive and live like that is if someone cared for him. Someone spent a
lot of time and did a lot of work looking after him.
So how much Neanderthals were
actually similar or different comparing to us? This question is still very hard
to answer, but one thing is for sure – they were human.
Questions to discuss:
1) What is your attitude towards paleontology? Do you find it interesting or useless?
2) What was you image of Neanderthals?
3) Isn't that interesting, that they couldn't coexist with us? Do you thing we killed them, or something else happened?
Source: https://www.pbs.org/video/the-neanderthals-that-taught-us-about-humanity-ji6mki/,
https://www.pathwayz.org/Tree/Plain/NEANDERTHAL+CULTURE+&+TOOLS
Source: https://www.pbs.org/video/the-neanderthals-that-taught-us-about-humanity-ji6mki/,
https://www.pathwayz.org/Tree/Plain/NEANDERTHAL+CULTURE+&+TOOLS
Comments
2) I think I pictured them a bit as you wrote in your introduction - as primitive cavemen. I knew they were using different tools and were not stupid at all, but thanks to different movies and cartoons in which they were portrayed as muzzy, it kind of stayed somewhere in the back of my head that they weren’t the brightest.
3) It’s very interesting and I had no idea that they coexisted with us before reading your article. I don’t think that there is one correct answer, probably there was something on the evolutionary basis that made them unable to survive (maybe they had problem with adapting, or something in their character made them go extinct) while our species have managed to adapt to new situations and conditions.
There are scientific discoveries and facts about Neanderthals, about how they looked, how they lived. There are full-fledged models and images based on all the collected data about their lives.
In my opinion, they became extinct in the process of natural selection. With the advent of a smarter species, Cro-Magnon, they were simply supplanted. Cro-Magnons were smarter, they better adapted to conditions, they survived better and multiplied faster. The weak die and the strong survive, I believe in the theory of evolution and natural selection. Although I know people whom, in my opinion, the evolution has bypassed, I still continue to believe in it.
I find paleontology not very interesting but it is not useless. The effects of some projects are great but the time that must be spent to see the effect is very hard and very long. It takes a lot of people and a lot of time.
2) What was you image of Neanderthals?
My image of Neanderthal was the same as you presented because we had such topics in the school on history lessons. I also take my inspiration from watching Night at the Museum where they were presented.
3) Isn't that interesting, that they couldn't coexist with us? Do you thing we killed them, or something else happened?
I think that this was the natural way. We had a lot of species that went extinct throughout history and Neanderthals were one of them. In the future we will be perceived as primitives.
1. I wouldn't say that it is useless. It is a one of ways to discover the history of our world.
2. I've always perceived them as humanoid creatures that would smash a rock with another rock.
3. It is kind of normal. Not many species could co-exist with humans in my opinion.
I like that.
2. I have never thought about the intelligence level when it comes to compering Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals, but If I was to guess, I would probably say Neanderthals were less inteligent. I depicted them as people, dressed vaguely in fur, with a lot of hair on their body :D
3. I have no idea, anything could've happened. We could have fought each other to extinction or there could be a disease that Neanderthals were more vulnerable to. It could have been even some natural disaster that lowers their numbers and the rest assimilated with Homo Sapiens?
2) I read somewhere that Neanderthalshad bigger brains than homo sapiens (on average). This makes me wonder if it weren't for their extinction would they be more intelligent versions of us today.
3) Personally I think they just wandered north further than us and climate reduced their numbers siginificantly. Rest of them got mixed with our race and slowly got absorbed. Obviously I didn't research topic thoroughly so those are only my assumptions based on few articles I read in past.
This is a very interesting job. Unfortunately, we don't have so many sources to learn about such a distant past. However, thanks to this we can examine it.
2) What was you image of Neanderthals?
As very limited to be honest, little more than monkeys.
3) Isn't that interesting, that they couldn't coexist with us? Do you thing we killed them, or something else happened?
It's hard to say. I don't like talking about such topics.
2. I imagine that, they are looking like monkeys but has less hair then them on their body. It is something between todays human and monkey.
3. I think it is just an evolution, it is hard to answer to this question. Propably we can say that we killed them, but in my opinion it is a normal thing.
It is not useless, that’s for sure. I’ve never been interested in it and probably never will be but we have to acknowledge how important studying our ancestors is to fully understands who we are.
2) What was you image of Neanderthals?
My image of Neanderthals was that they were people who had more in common with monkeys than human as we know them nowadays. Not intelligent beings which tried to survive cold and hunger.
3) Isn't that interesting, that they couldn't coexist with us? Do you thing we killed them, or something else happened?
I think that evolution did it’s thing. The more advanced specie came and naturally eliminated Neanderthals from the existence.
It is most interesting indeed. Especially when you are not a paleontologist.
2) What was you image of Neanderthals?
A somewhat transition between humans and apes. There were in fact around six other "civilizations" of potential future peoples, and neanderthals in fact were around on the planet the longest.
3) Isn't that interesting, that they couldn't coexist with us? Do you thing we killed them, or something else happened?
They could not. Scientists at some point questioned, how far could you go back in time, take a baby out of there and raise it here, in the modern world so that it becomes a fully functional member of society. The result is in fact that only developing one thing separates an ape from a person -- critical thinking. To be more precise -- a language. It allows for much more efficient knowledge transfer and hence, more rapid development. Neandertals did not have one, so no, no coexistence would be possible.
2) Primitive humans, we sadly know very little about. Sometimes I wonder how our history could have played out if we had a different species of humans living beside us.
3) It turns out I'm embarrassingly badly educated on this topic. I guess I should find something to read about currently relevant theories on this topic.
It couldn't be useless, it's like history or archeology. Without all of it we wouldn't know our story.
2) What was you image of Neanderthals?
My image is not very different from what was presented in the article.
3) Isn't that interesting, that they couldn't coexist with us? Do you thing we killed them, or something else happened?
I don't think that this is kind of surprising.
2. Until now, I imagined them as primitive cavemen - not very smart, all hairy...
3. I think evolution has done its job. I dunno
I think it's necessary to get to know about our ancestors, it's as important as other fields of science.
2) What was you image of Neanderthals?
I have always thought about them as strong people who needed to be more practical to survive in harsh conditions. I think it's not far from the truth.
3) Isn't that interesting, that they couldn't coexist with us? Do you thing we killed them, or something else happened?
They weren't able to live in our conditions, they knew other world, the cruel one.
It is a very interesting topic. Earlier I was very interested in archeology and paleontology. For me was interesting to find out about tools Neanderthals used and that they could create fire.
2) What was your image of Neanderthals?
I thought that Neanderthals had more differences comparing to us than it is. I thought they were like it was described in school history books.
3) Isn't that interesting, that they couldn't coexist with us? Do you thing we killed them, or something else happened?
I think they were killed by us like many other species were killed by dominative ones.
2. I thought that they were very similar to people today but were shorter.
3. I think that evolution happened. Nowadays the world is more developed than ever so we are. If we live together today they would adjust.