A very interesting historical reconstruction of the life of Neanderthals. (I am so sorry, I used to call the Russo-Nazis Neanderthals, thus making a painful and undeserving insult to Neanderthals.) They lived on vast territories from todays Middle Asia to Portugal, their biggest numbers being in what is now Southwestern France. It is thought that they came to Western Asia and then to Europe some 100,000 years ago. They were perfectly adapted to living in the cold climate, as the most part of Europe and Western Asia was still suffering the consequences of the Ice Age. Their bodies were short, which helped them to maintain relatively high body temperature. They developed the art of making clothes from animal skin; to that end, they skinned a killed animal (usually a wild bore, which was usually furry), and then separated the fat under the skin from the skin per se, using their teeth (this was, typically, a womans job). They lived in small clans, sometimes as small as 12-25 individuals (a patriarch, his 2-3 sons, each with 2-3 wives and children). They were very territorial and had no collaboration of any kind with other clans; in fact, it was common to kidnap women from another clan and to make them bear children for the clan of the kidnappers. They were real masters of eliciting and keeping fire, even when it was raining or snowing. Their diet was >90% meat, raw until ~40,000 years ago when they discovered that meat cooked on fire is more satisfying and sustaining. Their most common way of getting the meat was chasing game (mostly deer and wild pigs), and making the game fall off a cliff (their clumsy spears were not designed to be thrown, and they had no idea about bows and arrows). About ~35,000 years ago, the Neanderthals were invaded by the Cromagnons, another arrival to Europe from Africa who were more intelligent in our modern understanding of the world. The Cromagnons evolved in a warmer climate, and took full advantage of the fact that by the time they made their move to Europe, the climate over there also warmed up. Its fascinating that for some 465 thousand years, two species of the genus Homo co-existed on our planet, and that one of them outsmarted the other. Maybe we will be next...? https://youtube/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=w33PQJV9jEA&x-yt-cl=84503534&x-yt-ts=1421914688
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 03:05:23 +0000