Man has always been interested in his origin. Who he is, where he came from and how he came - from ancient times these were one of the main questions. In ancient Greece, during the birth of the first sciences, the problem was fundamental in the emerging philosophy. And now this topic has not lost its relevance. Although over the past centuries, scientists have managed to move far ahead in the problem of the appearance of a person, there are more and more questions.
None of the researchers can be completely sure that the accepted hypotheses of the origin of life, including the appearance of man, are correct. Moreover, centuries ago, and today, anthropologists are real scientists of war, defending their ideas and refuting the theories of opponents.
One of the most well-studied ancient humans is the Neanderthal. This is a representative of the human race, extinct a very long time ago, who lived 130 - 20 thousand years ago.
The history of the origin of the name
In the west of Germany, near Dusseldorf, there is the Neandertal Gorge. It got its name from the German pastor and composer Neander. In the middle of the 19th century, an ancient human skull was found here. Two years later, the anthropologist Schaafhausen, who was engaged in his research, introduced the term "Neanderthal" into scientific circulation. Thanks to him, the bones found were not sold, and they are now in the Rhine State Museum.
The term "Neanderthal" (photos obtained as a result of reconstruction of his appearance can be seen below) does not have clear boundaries due to the vastness and heterogeneity of this group of hominids. The status of this ancient man is also not precisely defined. Some scientists attribute it to the subspecies Homo sapiens, some distinguish it as a separate species and even a genus. Now the ancient man, Neanderthal, is the most studied type of hominid fossil. Moreover, bones belonging to this species are still being found.
How it was discovered
The remains of these representatives were found the first of the hominids. Ancient people (Neanderthals) were discovered in 1829 in Belgium. Then this find was not given importance, and its importance was proved much later. Then their remains were found in England. And only the third find in 1856 near Dusseldorf gave the name to the Neanderthal and proved the importance of all previous fossil remains found.
Quarry workers opened a grotto filled with silt. After clearing it, they found a part of a human skull and several massive bones near the entrance. The ancient remains were acquired by the German paleontologist Johann Fulroth, who later described them.
Neanderthal - structural features and classification
The found bones of fossil people were carefully studied, and on the basis of research, scientists were able to recreate an approximate appearance. The Neanderthal is undoubtedly one of the first people, since his resemblance to it is obvious. However, there are also a huge number of differences.
The average height of an ancient man was 165 centimeters. He had a dense physique and, moreover, in terms of the volume of the cranium, the ancient Neanderthals were superior to modern humans. The arms were short, more like paws. Broad shoulders and barrel-shaped chest indicate great strength.
Powerful very small chin, short neck are other features of Neanderthals. Most likely, these features were formed under the influence of the harsh conditions of the ice age, in which ancient people lived 100 - 50 thousand years ago.
The structure of the Neanderthals suggests that they had a large muscle mass, a heavy skeleton, ate mainly meat and were better adapted to the subarctic climate than Cro-Magnons.
They possessed a primitive speech, most likely consisting of a large number of consonants.
Since these ancient people lived on a vast territory, there were several types of them. Some had features that were closer to the animal-like appearance, while others resembled a modern man.
Homo neanderthalensis habitat
From the remains found to date, it is known that the Neanderthal (an ancient man who lived thousands of years ago) lived in Europe, Central Asia and the East. They were not found in Africa. Later, this fact became one of the proofs that Homo neanderthalensis is not the ancestor of modern man, but his closest relative.
How did you manage to reconstruct the appearance of an ancient man
Starting with Schaafhausen, the "godfather" of the Neanderthal, many attempts have been made to recreate the appearance of this ancient hominid from fragments of its skull and skeleton. The Soviet anthropologist and sculptor Mikhail Gerasimov has made great strides in this. He created his own method of restoring a person's appearance using skeletal remains. He made more than two hundred sculptural portraits of historical figures. Gerasimov also reconstructed the appearance of the late Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon. The laboratory of anthropological reconstruction that he created continues to successfully restore the appearance of ancient people today.
Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons - is there anything in common between them?
These two representatives of the human race lived for some time in the same era and existed side by side for twenty thousand years. Scientists attribute the Cro-Magnons to the early representatives of modern man. They appeared in Europe 40-50 thousand years ago and were very different from the Neanderthals physically and mentally. They were tall (180 cm), had a straight forehead without protruding brow ridges, a narrow nose and a sharper chin. In appearance, these people were very close to modern man.
The cultural achievements of the Cro-Magnons surpass all those of their predecessors. Having inherited a large developed brain and primitive technologies from their ancestors, they made a giant leap forward in their development in a short time. Their discoveries are amazing. For example, Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons lived in caves and hides in small groups. But it was the latter who created the first settlements and finally formed them.They also tamed the dog, performed funeral rites, painted scenes of hunting on the walls of caves, knew how to make tools not only from stone, but also from horn and bones. Cro-Magnons possessed articulate speech.
Thus, the differences between these two species of ancient man were significant.
Homo neanderthalensis and modern man
For a long time in scientific circles there was a debate about which of the representatives of the ancient people should be considered the ancestor of man. It is now known for sure that the Neanderthal (photos taken based on the reconstruction of the remains of their bones clearly confirm this) is physically and outwardly very different from Homo sapiens and is not the ancestor of modern humans.
Previously, there was another point of view on this. But recent studies have suggested that the sentient lived in Africa, which lay outside the habitat of Homo neanderthalensis. In the entire long history of studying the remains of their bones, they have never been found on the African continent. But this issue was finally resolved in 1997, when the Neanderthal DNA was deciphered at the University of Munich. The differences in genes that scientists found were too great.
The study of the genome of Homo neanderthalensis continued in 2006. It was scientifically proven that the divergence in the genes of this species of ancient man from the modern began about 500 thousand years ago. Bones found in Croatia, Russia, Germany and Spain were used to decode DNA.
Therefore, we can say with confidence that the Neanderthal is a close to us extinct species that is not the direct ancestor of Homo sapiens. This is another branch of the vast family of hominids, which includes, in addition to humans and their extinct ancestors, also progressive primates.
In 2010, in the course of ongoing research, Neanderthal genes were found in many modern peoples. This suggests that mixing existed between Homo neanderthalensis and Cro-Magnons.
Life and life of ancient people
The Neanderthal (an ancient man who lived in the Middle Paleolithic) first used the most primitive tools he inherited from his predecessors. Gradually, new, more advanced forms of tools began to appear. They were still made of stone, but became more varied and complex in processing techniques. In total, about sixty types of products were found, which are in fact variations of three main types: a chopper, a side-scraper and a pointed tip.
During the excavation of Neanderthal sites, incisors, punctures, scrapers and gear tools were also found.
The scrapers helped in the cutting and dressing of animals and their skins, and pointed tips had an even wider scope of application. They were used as daggers, carcass knives, spearheads and arrows. The ancient Neanderthals also used bone for making tools. These were mainly awls and points, but larger objects were also found - daggers and clubs from the horn.
Weapons were still extremely primitive. Its main type, apparently, was a spear. This conclusion was made on the basis of studies of animal bones found at the site of Neanderthal camps.
These ancient people were not lucky with the climate. If their predecessors lived in a warm period, then by the time Homo neanderthalensis appeared, a strong cooling began, and glaciers began to form. The landscape was like a tundra all around. Therefore, the life of the Neanderthals was extremely harsh and full of dangers.
Caves still served as their dwelling, but buildings in the open gradually began to appear - tents made of animal skins and structures made of mammoth bones.
Lessons
Most of the time of the ancient man was occupied by the search for food. According to various studies, they were not scavengers, but hunters, and this occupation requires consistency in actions. According to scientists, large mammals were the main commercial species for the Neanderthals. Since the ancient man lived in a vast territory, the victims were different: mammoths, wild bulls and horses, woolly rhinos, deer. The cave bear was an important game animal.
Despite the fact that hunting for large animals became their main occupation, Neanderthals continued to engage in gathering. According to research, they were not completely carnivorous and included roots, nuts and berries in their diet.
Culture
The Neanderthal is not a primitive creature, as was believed in the 19th century. An ancient man who lived in the Middle Paleolithic era formed a cultural trend that was called the Mousterian culture. At this time, the emergence of a new form of social life begins - the clan community. Neanderthals cared for the members of their kind. The hunters did not eat the prey on the spot, but carried it home, to the cave to the rest of the tribesmen.
Homo neanderthalensis did not yet know how to draw or create animal figures from stone or clay. But at the site of his camps, stones with skillfully made recesses were found. Ancient people also knew how to make parallel scratches on bone tools and make jewelry from drilled animal teeth and shells.
Their funeral rite also speaks of the high cultural development of the Neanderthals. More than twenty graves have been found. The bodies were placed in shallow pits in the posture of a sleeping person with bent arms and legs.
Ancient people also possessed the rudiments of medical knowledge. They knew how to heal fractures and dislocations. Some finds suggest that primitive people took care of the wounded.
Homo neanderthalensis - the mystery of the extinction of ancient man
When and why did the last Neanderthal disappear? This mystery has occupied the minds of scientists for many years. There is no definitively proven answer to this question. Modern man does not know why dinosaurs disappeared, and he cannot say what led to the extinction of his closest fossil relative.
For a long time, there was an opinion that the Neanderthals were supplanted by their more adapted and developed rival, the Cro-Magnon. And there is really a lot of evidence for this theory. It is known that it appeared in Europe in the range of Homo neanderthalensis about 50 thousand years ago, and after 30 thousand years the last Neanderthal disappeared. It is believed that these twenty centuries of existence side by side in a small area became a time of fierce competition of two species for resources. The Cro-Magnon won thanks to his superiority and better adaptability.
Not all scientists agree with this theory. Some put forward their own, no less interesting hypotheses. Many hold the view that climate change killed the Neanderthals. The fact is that 30 thousand years ago, a long period of cold and dry weather began in Europe. Perhaps this led to the disappearance of the ancient man, who could not adapt to the changed conditions of life.
A rather unusual theory was put forward by Simon Underdown, a specialist at the University of Oxford. He believes that the Neanderthals were killed by a disease that is characteristic of cannibals. As you know, eating a person was not uncommon at that time.
Another version of the disappearance of this ancient man is assimilation with the Cro-Magnons.
The extinction of Homo neanderthalensis was uneven in time. On the Iberian Peninsula, representatives of this type of fossil people lived a thousand years after the disappearance of the rest in Europe.
Neanderthals in modern culture
The appearance of ancient man, his dramatic struggle for existence and the mystery of disappearance have repeatedly become themes for literary works and films. Joseph Henri Roni Sr. wrote the novel Fight for Fire, which was highly praised by critics and was filmed in 1981. The film of the same name received the prestigious Oscar award. In 1985, the painting "The Tribe of the Cave Bear" was created, which tells how a girl from the Cro-Magnon clan, after the death of her tribe, began to be raised by Neanderthals.
A new feature film dedicated to ancient people was created in 2010. This is "The Last Neanderthal" - the story of Eo, the only survivor of his kind. In this picture, the cause of the death of Homo neanderthalensis was not only Cro-Magnons, who attacked their sites and killed, but also an unknown disease. It also discusses the possibility of assimilation of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The film was shot in a supposedly documentary style and on a good scientific basis.
In addition, a large number of films are devoted to Neanderthals, telling about their life, occupations, culture, and considering theories of extinction.
Who are the Neanderthals?
During the third ice age, the outlines of Europe were completely different, not the same as now. Geologists point to differences in the position of land, seas and coastlines on the map. Vast areas to the west and northwest, now covered by the waters of the Atlantic, were then land, the North Sea and the Irish Sea were river valleys. The ice cap, which covered both poles of the Earth, drew huge masses of water from the oceans, and the sea level dropped constantly, exposing vast tracts of land. Now they are under water again.
The Mediterranean then may have been a vast valley below the general sea level. In the valley itself there were two inland seas cut off from the ocean by land. The climate of the Mediterranean basin was probably moderately cold. The region of the Sahara, located to the south, was then not a desert with hot stones and sand dunes, but a humid and fertile area.
Between the glacier to the north and the Mediterranean Valley and the Alps to the south, a wild, dull edge stretched, the climate of which changed from severe to relatively mild, and with the onset of the fourth ice age again became harsher.
The advancement of the glacier southward reached its maximum in the fourth ice age (about 50,000 years ago), and then this process began to decline again.
The first Neanderthals
In the earlier third ice age, small groups of the first Neanderthals roamed this plain, leaving nothing behind that could now be evidence of their presence (other than the crudely hewn primary stone tools). Perhaps, in addition to the Neanderthals, at that time there were also other species of great apes, anthropoids, who could use stone tools. This we can only assume. Apparently they had many different wooden implements. By studying and using a variety of pieces of wood, they learned how to give the desired shape and stones.
After the weather conditions became extremely unfavorable, the Neanderthals began to seek shelter in caves and crevices of rocks. It looks like they already knew how to use fire then. Neanderthals gathered around open fires on the plains, trying not to move very far from water sources. They were already intelligent enough to adapt to new, more difficult conditions. As for the ape-like people, then, as you can see, they could not withstand the tests of the onset of the fourth ice age (the most coarse, poorly processed tools were no longer met).
It was not only humans who sought shelter in the caves. During this period, there were cave lions, cave bears, cave hyenas. Man had to somehow drive these animals out of the caves and not let them back. Fire was an effective means of attack and defense. The first people did not go too deep into the caves, because they could not yet illuminate their homes. They climbed into the depths just enough to be able to hide from the weather and store food supplies. Maybe they were blocking the cave entrance with heavy boulders. The only light source that helped explore the depths of the caves could be torchlight.
Who did the Neanderthals hunt?
It was very difficult to kill such huge animals as a mammoth, a cave bear or even a reindeer with the weapons that the Neanderthals had: wooden spears, clubs, sharp fragments of flint that have survived to our time.
Probably, smaller animals served as prey for the Neanderthals, although on occasion they, of course, ate the meat of large animals. We know that the Neanderthals partially ate their prey in the place where they managed to kill it, and then took large marrow bones with them to the caves, split them and ate. Among the various bone debris at the sites of the Neanderthals, there are almost no ridges or ribs of large animals, but in large numbers there are split or shattered marrow bones.
Neanderthals wrapped themselves in the skins of killed animals. It is also likely that their women were engaged in dressing these skins using stone scrapers.
We also know that these people were right-handed, just like modern people, because the left side of their brain (responsible for the right side of the body) is larger than the right. The occipital lobes of the Neanderthals' brains, which are responsible for vision, touch and general condition of the body, were quite well developed, while the frontal lobes associated with thinking and speaking were still relatively small. The brain of the Neanderthal was no less than that of modern man, but it was arranged differently.
Without a doubt, the thinking of these homo representatives was not like ours. And the point is not even that they were simpler or more primitive than us. Neanderthals are a completely different evolutionary line. It is likely that they were absolutely unable to speak or uttered fragmentary monosyllabic sounds. They certainly didn't have anything that could be called coherent speech.
How a Neanderthal lived
Homo neanderthalensis
Fire was a real treasure at that time. Having lost the fire, it was not so easy to light it up again. When there was no need for a large flame, it was extinguished, raking up the fire in one heap. They made a fire, most likely by striking a piece of iron pyrite on flint over a heap of dry leaves and grass. In England, inclusions of pyrite and flint are found next to each other where chalk rocks and clays coexist.
Women and children needed to constantly monitor the fire so that the flame did not go out. From time to time they went in search of dry dead wood to keep the fire going. This activity gradually developed into a custom.
The only adult male in each group of Neanderthals was probably an elder. Besides him there were also women, boys and girls. But when one of the teenagers became old enough to cause jealousy of the leader, he pounced on the opponent and drove him out of the herd or killed. When the leader was over forty, when his teeth were worn out and his strength left him, one of the young men killed the old leader and began to rule in his place. There was no room for the elderly at the fire of salvation. At that time, the weak and the sick faced only one fate - death.
What did the tribe eat in the parking lots?
Primitive people are usually portrayed as hunters of mammoths, bears or lions. But it is unlikely that a primitive savage could hunt an animal the largest of a hare, rabbit, or rat. Rather, someone hunted a man than he was a hunter himself.
Primitive savages were both herbivorous and carnivorous at the same time. They ate hazelnuts, peanuts, beech nuts, edible chestnuts, and acorns. They also collected wild apples, pears, cherries, wild plums and thorns, rose hips, rowan and hawthorns, mushrooms; they ate the buds, where they were larger and softer, and also ate juicy fleshy rhizomes and underground shoots of various plants.
On occasion, they did not pass by bird nests, picking up eggs and chicks, picking out the combs and honey of wild bees. Newts, frogs and snails were eaten. They ate fish, alive and asleep, freshwater molluscs. Primitive people easily caught fish with their hands, entangling it in seaweed or diving after it. Larger birds or smaller animals could be caught by knocking down with a stick or arranging primitive snares. The savage did not refuse from snakes, worms and crayfish, as well as from the larvae of various insects and caterpillars. The most delicious and nutritious prey, without a doubt, were bones, crushed and ground into powder.
Primitive man would not protest if he had meat that was not the first freshness for lunch. He constantly searched for and found carrion; even half-decomposed, it still went into food. By the way, the craving for moldy and semi-moldy foods persists to this day.
In difficult conditions, driven by hunger, primitive people ate their weaker relatives or sick children, who happened to be lame and ugly.
No matter how primitive primitive man may seem to us now, it is possible to call him the most advanced of all animals, because he represented the highest stage of development of the animal kingdom.
No matter how much more ancient Paleolithic people did with their dead, there is reason to believe that later homo neanderthalensis did it at least with respect to the deceased and accompanied the process with a certain rite. One of the most famous Neanderthal skeletons found is that of a young man whose body may have even been deliberately buried.
Human and Neanderthal Skull
The skeleton lay in a sleeping position. The head and right forearm rested on several pieces of flint, carefully arranged like a pillow. Near the head was a large hand ax, and around were scattered many charred, split bovine bones, as if left after a funeral.
Throughout Europe, Neanderthals roamed, camped around campfires, and died over a period spanning 100,000 years or more. Moving higher and higher along the evolutionary ladder, these people improved, straining their limited abilities. But the thick cranium seemed to fetter the creative powers of the brain, and to the very end the Neanderthal remained a low-browed, undeveloped creature.
There is an opinion of scientists that the Neanderthal type of man, homo neanderthalensis, is an extinct species that did not mix with people of the modern type (homo sapiens). But many of the scientists do not share this point of view. Some prehistoric skulls are seen by them as the result of mixing Neanderthals with other types of primitive people.
One thing is absolutely clear - the Neanderthal was on a completely different evolutionary line.
Last Paleolithic people
When Tasmania was discovered by the Dutch, they found there a tribe isolated from the rest of the world, which in terms of level of development did not differ much from the people of the Lower Paleolithic times. The Tasmanians did not belong to the same type of people as the Neanderthals: this is proved by the structure of their skulls, cervical vertebrae, teeth and jaws. They had no generic resemblance to the Neanderthals. They were of the same species as us.
The Tasmanians represented only the Neanderthaloid stage of development in the evolution of modern humans. There is no doubt that over the course of many millennia (during which only scattered groups of Neanderthals were human beings in Europe), somewhere in other regions of the planet, modern humans developed in parallel with the Neanderthals.
The level of development, which turned out to be the limit for the Neanderthals, was only a starting point for others, while among the Tasmanians it was preserved in its original, unchanged form. Finding themselves far from those with whom one could compete or from whom one could learn, living in conditions that do not require constant exertion of forces, Tasmanians involuntarily found themselves behind the rest of humanity. But even in these margins of civilization, man did not stop in his development. The Tasmanians of the early 19th century were far less clumsy and undeveloped than their primitive counterparts.
Rhodesian skull
Summer 1921 - a rather interesting find was found in one of the caves in Broken Hill, South Africa. It was a skull without a lower jaw and several bones of a new species of homo (Rhodesian man), intermediate between the Neanderthal and homo sapiens. The skull is only slightly mineralized; apparently its owner lived only a few thousand years ago.
The discovered creature resembled a Neanderthal. But the structure of his body did not have specific Neanderthal characteristics. The skull, neck, teeth and limbs of a Rhodesian man did not differ much from modern ones. We do not know anything about the structure of his palms. But the size of the upper jaw and its surface show that the lower jaw was very massive, and the powerful brow ridges gave their owner an ape-like appearance.
Obviously, it was a human being with a monkey face. It could well last until the time of the appearance of a real person and even exist in parallel with him in South Africa.
In several places in South Africa, the remains of people of the so-called Boscopic type were also found, very ancient, but how much has not yet been reliably established. The skulls of the Boscopic people were more like the skulls of modern Bushmen than the skulls of any other peoples living now. It is possible that these are the most ancient human beings known to us.
Skulls found in Vadiak (Java), shortly before the discovery of the remains of Pithecanthropus, may very likely fill the gap between Rhodesian man and Australoid natives.
Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis is a taxonomic group of hominins that lived from 200 to 35 thousand years ago.
The species was described in 1864 from a skull cover and skeletal bones from the Neander Valley near Düsseldorf in Germany. In a broad sense, it is synonymous with the term "paleanthropes".
The brain volume of paleoanthropes is 1100-1750 cubic centimeters, with its primitive structure, as well as a relatively primitive skull. There is no chin ridge on the lower jaw. Some specialized features are preserved in the structure of the body, but in general, the Neanderthals were like us.
There are differences between Neanderthals depending on their antiquity.
Neanderthals are divided into: early - living earlier 100 thousand years ago, and later - living in the period from 100 to 35 thousand years ago.
African early Neanderthals are known Herto in Ethiopia, with an age of 160 thousand years, from Omo I - 130 thousand years, from Jebel Irhud in Morocco, about 130 thousand years, these are Neanderthals, with strong features of Pithecanthropus, that is, they are the products of the cross-breeding of Neanderthals who came from the Middle East and possibly local African erectus.
Neanderthal from Clazies River in South Africa, about 100 thousand years old, known for the presence of a small chin protrusion. But later African Neanderthals, Afrikanthropes, or the so-called "Rhodesian" Neanderthals, have features that show a stop in development. Their facial features are close to those of Pithecanthropus.
European Neanderthals who lived earlier 100 thousand years ago are Neanderthals from caves: Krapina, Gibraltar I, Sakcopastore I, Sakcopastore II, Eringsdorf IX.
European Neanderthals who lived from 100 to 35 thousand years ago are Neanderthals from caves: Monte Circeo I, Chapelle, Ferrassi I, Spi I, Spi II, Keena V, Neandertal, Shipka, Windizha, Saint-Sezer, Moustier I.
Most of the Neanderthals found in the Middle East are late Neanderthals. There are more graceful ones than the European ones: Skhul, Jebel Qafzekh, Tabun, Amud, Kebara, or the same as the European ones: Amud-1, Amud-7, Kebara.
Amud-1. It is one of the largest Neanderthal skulls. Its volume was 1740 cubic centimeters. The age of the find is 45 thousand years.
Amud-7. Many more remains of a Neanderthal man were found in the Amud cave. The age of the found remains is about 40 thousand years.
The Neanderthal of Kebara is a skeleton that lacks a skull. The age of the find is about 60 thousand years.
Finds of the remains of Neanderthals who lived earlier 100 thousand years ago in the Middle East show that this region was associated with Africa.
The Neanderthals of Anterior and Central Asia are similar to the European Neanderthals: Shanidar, Dederiesh, Teshik-Tash, Obirakhmat. These are also late Neanderthals.
Shanidar-1. In the Shanidar Cave, located in northern Iraq, archaeologists have unearthed many remains of a Neanderthal man.
Dederiesh. In this place, located in the southeast of Syria, almost an entire skeleton of a 2-year-old Neanderthal boy was found. Apparently, the boy suffered from arthritis, the structure of his bones is different from ordinary ones. This find entered the history of archeology as a 2-year old child.
Teshik-Tash. In the Teshik Tash cave, located in the north of Uzbekistan, archaeologists found the boy's skull and limbs. The facial part of the skull and extremities have a completely modern structure, the teeth are somewhat larger than in modern humans, but the supraorbital ridges, a typically Neanderthal character, are underdeveloped.
The possible age of the find is more than 100 thousand years.
A boy's skull was found in the Obirakhmat cave in the Uzbek Republic, combining both Neanderthal features and features of modern humans.
In the Chagyrskaya cave in Altai, numerous fragments of Neanderthal bones were found.
In the Denisova cave in Altai lived "Altai man" ("Denisovite") - a species different from the Neanderthal and "Homo sapiens". But a Neanderthal and Denisovan mestizo was also found there. In China, in one of the caves, among the Lion Rocks in Guangdong Province (Mapa, Maba), a single Neanderthal skull was discovered, its age is 130 thousand years, the skull is similar to the skulls of European Neanderthals.
A fragment of a Neanderthal thigh from the time of the Riss glaciation was found in Syatsaovan - in the south of China. In Denisva Cave, points were found, as well as objects of art - pendants, a bone tube with an ornament, a bone needle. The finds are dated to the same layer (about 50 thousand years ago) as the remains of the "Altai man".
At the same time, people belonging to the species homo sapiens lived in Altai simultaneously with the "Denisovans" and "Chagyrs".
IN . The oldest age for the Neanderthals is 385 thousand years ...
In Japan, a skeleton of a classic Neanderthal man was found, dating back to the time of the Riss glaciation.
In Southeast Asia, bone remains of people with features of Pithecanthropus and Neanderthals were found in the Mindel-Ris deposits of Java as part of the terrace of the Ngandong Formation on the Solo River. This indicates the crossbreeding of the Neanderthals who came here with Pithecanthropus. Later, when Java lost contact with the mainland, they degraded, and later, 50 thousand years ago, were destroyed by modern humans.
CULTURE OF NEANDERTHALS.
Neanderthal cuisine.
The fact that the Neanderthals were hunters and fishermen is undeniable, but they also, which is not at all surprising, ate plant foods.
Information on the plant nutrition of the Neanderthals was provided, for example, by the archaeological group Marie-Helene Monsel of the French Institute of Paleoanthropology. During excavations, Monsel and her colleagues discovered a cave in the Rhone valley, which 250-125 thousand years ago served as the home of the Neanderthals. In addition to tools and bones of cattle (as well as horses, deer, rhinos and elephants) typical for Neanderthals, archaeologists have found microscopic remains of fish scales, bird feathers and starchy plants at an ancient site. Scientists have not yet been able to determine which species of fish and birds preferred the Neanderthals. We can only say with certainty that their menu included parsnips and carrots.
Amanda Henry's research team at the Center for the Study of Hominid Paleobiology in Washington has obtained evidence that Neanderthals ate wild grains. After examining the dental deposits of two Neanderthal fossils from a Belgian cave and another from Shanidar Cave in Iraq, scientists found starch grains and fossilized plant remains there.
The starch grains on the teeth of the Iranian Neanderthal were mainly from the wild relatives of wheat, rye, and barley. The Iranian Neanderthal ate the fruits of legumes, presumably peas, chickpeas, lentils, and vetchs. European Neanderthals, judging by their dental deposits, mainly ate the rhizomes of aquatic plants: white water lilies and yellow pods, as well as cereals, relatives of modern sorghum.
More than 40 percent of starch grains had the characteristic chemical damage that occurs when exposed to high water temperatures. That is, the Neanderthals did not just eat vegetables and grains, but cooked porridge.
Abstract culture of the Neanderthals.
The earliest objects showing the development of aesthetic senses in humans were created by paleoanthropes, and they date back more than 200 millennium BC. It is possible to note another non-objective direction of human activity associated with aesthetics. Attention is drawn to the undoubted and continuous improvement of the facial part of the human skull in the direction of moving away from coarse animal-like signs towards signs inherent in a child. This improvement had no practical application, but it went on throughout the entire time of human development, starting with Pithecanthropus. This means that people, in order to procreate, although unconsciously, made the choice of partners, focusing on aesthetic values.
By the time of the appearance on Earth of paleoanthropes, their predecessors, the archanthropes, had mastered the use of fire and invented several different forms of cutting tools made of stone, as well as animal skins in the form of clothing. Paleoanthropes made many improvements to cutting tools and clothing, their inventions being huts and graves.
Some famous examples of cultural elements created by paleoanthropes can be listed ...
A stone tool discovered in the Crimea with the "signature" of a Neanderthal master made it possible to conclude that the Neanderthals had abstract thinking. This was reported by PLoS One magazine. “The 3D images of these scratches on the chopper surface show that they weren't accidental, but were made by a skilled craftsman using two different tools. It was rather difficult to do this, given the small size of this item. This speaks in favor of the fact that this drawing was the identification mark of this master, ”noted one of the researchers Vadim Stepanchuk (Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kiev).
Numerous finds of Neanderthals in the Cova Bolomor cave in eastern Spain (dated from 350 to 120 thousand years ago): bones of various (including aquatic) birds with traces of stone tools and human teeth were found here.
In the Fumane Cave (Italy), the remains of medium and large birds of prey prevail (red-footed falcon, golden eagle, bearded eagle, vulture ...). Moreover, all marks from the tools are on the bones of the wings and legs. The study of this site suggests that the Neanderthals decorated themselves with feathers.
Combe-Grenal is a large Middle Paleolithic monument in southwestern France.
65 stratigraphic layers here form a sequence with a total thickness of 13 meters. Bird bones with traces of processing were found in layer 52, age 90
thousand years. In addition, in this layer were found tools of the Mousterian culture and remains
numerous animals - horses, deer, roe deer. Since layer 52 is at the bottom of the sequence, and traces of Upper Paleolithic settlements are here
not at all, the likelihood of confusion with later archaeological materials
small.
Only 7 bird bones were found in Combe Grenal, and only for one
finds - terminal phalanx (with a claw) - it was possible to determine to which species of birds
she refers. This is the phalanx of the golden eagle. At the very base of the well-preserved
the claw has two cuts: probably, they wanted to separate the claw from the finger.
In Le Fieux Cave, in southwestern France, two terminal phalanges of a white-tailed eagle have been discovered. There are no exact dates here, however, judging by the accompanying fauna, the finds date back to the period 60-40 thousand years ago. On the phalanxes from Le Fieux, the tracks are located in the same way as on the find from Combes-Grenal.
In 1995, a pipe made by Neanderthals was found in a cave in Slovenia.
In January 2010, a group of European scientists in two caves Cueva de los Aviones and Cueva Anton (50-40 thousand years ago) in the southeast of Spain discovered artificially colored and perforated shells of mollusks 50 thousand years old. Evidence of Potential Decorative Use
Cave in the Czech Republic on the Pasechny Top. Here in 250 millennium BC, a hut was built, and there was a workshop where paleoanthropes rubbed ocher.
A small human head was also found here, made of sandstone, although its outline is very poorly visible.
In the vicinity of Hamburg, in the area of \u200b\u200bWittenberg, in the section of the Elbe, a layer of the "Warta period" was discovered, associated with the Riss glaciation, which began in 200 millennium BC. In the seam, stones were found that represent images of people and animals made using the same stone chipping technique as the hunting tools of paleanthropes. There are reports of finds of similar figurines in other places in Denmark, near the western borders of Germany. There are signs of attempts to color these figures ...
A carefully engraved and polished mammoth tooth was discovered in Hungary. It could not have any practical purpose, but was made specifically for admiration or as some kind of sign. Age 200 millennium BC.
In the Pesch-de-Azile cave in southern France, a bovine bone was found with slices grouped in three. Age 200 - 300 thousand years BC.
In the Basua cave in Italy, a stalagmite was discovered, resembling an animal in its outlines, paleoanthropes of the Achel epoch once threw clods of clay at it.
Cueva de los Avion (southeastern Spain) is the site of artifacts from the Neanderthal Middle Paleolithic of Europe. There were found colored and perforated sea shells, red and yellow dyes and shells containing remnants of complex pigment mixtures. Uranium dating of the stone covering the artifacts of the Cueva de los Aviones shows that the finds made there are between 115,000 and 120,000 years old. Given these findings, it is possible to assume that the roots of artistic culture can be found in the common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans more than half a million years ago.
In the Basque Country, two wooden tools were found, which turned out to be about 90,000 years old and which belonged to the Neanderthals.
Rios-Garaizar et al. / PLOS One
The find was made in the town of Aranbaltza. Through optical dating, experts were able to determine the age of the tools: it turned out that they date from the Middle Paleolithic - the time when Europe was inhabited by Neanderthals. The discovery is briefly reported by the ScienceAlert portal. Although the wooden tools used by the Neanderthals are not well known, they have been discovered before. So, in Germany in 1995, wooden weapons were found, dating back 300,000 years to the present. In addition, a paper was published last year that described wood tools found in Tuscany, Italy. The study was published in the journal PLOS One.
In the Regurudou Cave, France, in boxes of stacked limestone slabs, a paleoanthropus and a bear were buried. In other caves, bones of bears and other animals were also found in the same boxes.
The burial of paleoanthropes, men and women, in the cave of La Ferrassy - 60 thousand years BC, in pairs, they lay on the site of the hearth, on the same line head to head. (This burial suggests that some of the images of the heroes of twin myths were created by paleoanthropes, and they have survived to our time.)
In Europe, in the grotto of Buffia, near the city of La Chapelle, an old Neanderthal man was found lying in a square pit. With him were laid the tools of the Paleolithic era Mouster. Three large stones lay around his head. More than fiftieth millennium BC.
In the vicinity of Rome, in the Grotto Gutari cave, near the village of San Felice Chicero, the complete skull of a paleoanthropus was discovered, surrounded by a frame of stones equal in size to the skull. The age of the burial is no less than fiftieth millennium BC.
Near the Grotto Gutari cave in the Grand Abri cave, a group of children's graves of paleoanthropes was found in a special order. In these graves, skeletons lie in depressions artificially carved into the rocks. Cenotaphs complement the order of burials, collected in groups of three. The skeletons in the graves lay east-west. More than fiftieth millennium BC.
In the Mousterian deposits of the Tsona Cave in the Caucasus, a drawing of a cross was found with exactly right angles between intersecting lines, made on a limestone slab. This symbol, not being a drawing of an animal, a person or any other real object, could reflect either the idea of \u200b\u200bthe four sides of the horizon, or was a sign of sticks for making fire.
In the Crimea, Kiik-Koba cave, one of the two skeletons found, an adult, lay in a hole carved into the rock. Age more than 100 thousand years BC.
In Central Asia, in the Teshik-Tash cave, the skull was surrounded by horns arranged in a circle. More than 100 thousand years BC.
A family grave of paleanthropes was discovered in Iran, and traces of pollen of different colors were found in the burial. Age more than 100 thousand years BC.
Beads found in limestone caves of Eastern Morocco (20 kilometers from the city of Berkan in the Pigeon Grotto of Taforalt - Grotte des Pigeons, Taforalt). The corresponding article (82,000-year-old shell beads from North Africa and implications for the origins of modern human behavior) is published in the June issue of the American scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Twelve discovered shells of marine gastropods of the genus Nassarius (Nassarius gibbosulus, they live in warm seas among the coral reefs of America, Asia and the Pacific Ocean) have the same holes (made, probably, with a silicon tool), which means that they once hung on one thread. Some abrasion of the beads suggests that they were most likely worn around the neck or were attached to clothes (men were known as fashionistas in those days). In addition, traces of red ocher were found on these shells - as well as on other ancient African beads, which have not yet been dated as reliably (well, these beads have been dated in four different ways).
Stones painted in the encaustic technique were found near Minusinsk. The age in terms of radioactive carbon more than forty millennium BC, more precisely was not determined. (Perhaps this is the work of the Cro-Magnons.)
A stone bracelet made about 50 thousand years ago was found in the Denisova cave in Altai. (Perhaps this is the work of the Cro-Magnons.)
In 1962, it was reported that in the upper reaches of the Ganges near Khapur, in the sediments overlapping a series of "boulder conglomerates", bone tools were found painted with primitive drawings. More than 100 thousand years BC. (Perhaps these are Cro-Magnon drawings.)
Ocher is widely found on European sites of the Middle Paleolithic, and it is also found in Africa. 60 thousand years ago, Neanderthals who lived in the Blombos Cave, South Africa, wore shell beads, and also, possibly, painted their bodies with ocher (this is indicated, for example, by stone and bone tools for making paints).
1. Trinilian shell
trinilian shell.
500,000 years
A zigzag engraving on a shell found in Trinil, East Java may be the oldest example of art in the world. This engraving dates back half a million years and is believed to have been the work of Homo Erectus, the ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans. In 1890, Eugene Dubois found this freshwater mussel shell next to the remains of a skeleton. More than 100 years later, analysis showed that the design was intentional and carved with a sharp object such as a shark's tooth.
2. Necklace from shells
shell necklace.
50,000 years
Researchers in Spain have discovered a real treasure, which they believe is Neanderthal jewelry. The finds include shells and bones with signs of hand-crafted work. The most amazing thing is that they are 10,000 years older than the moment when modern people appeared in Europe. Many of the shells have been perforated, suggesting wearing them as necklaces.
3. Eagle Claws Speck
eagle claws specks.
130,000 years
Eagle claws, found in Krapina, Croatia, show that Neanderthals had a good sense of style long before modern humans came to Europe. Experts believe that these white-tailed eagle claws were worn as jewelry - like a bracelet or necklace. The claws were polished and various marks were carved on them. The age of the claws means that the Neanderthals used abstract thinking to make jewelry.
4. Elephant bone in Bilzingsleben
elephant bone in Bilzingsleben.
400,000 years
In 1969, during excavations in Bilzingsleben, Germany, archaeologists discovered the first evidence that art was significantly older than Homo sapiens. The engraving on the tibia of an extinct elephant has been dated to 400,000 years ago, thousands of centuries before the advent of modern human art. Experts believe that it will be done by Gomo Erectus. The tibia fragment contains two groups of parallel lines made with one tool.
5. The grave of a child in La Ferrassi
grave of a child in La Ferrassi.
60,000 years
In 1933 in the Neanderthal cave complex of La Ferrasi. in southwestern France, experts have discovered the oldest rock art in Europe. At cemetery no. 6, they found a limestone slab covering the child's grave. The lower part of the burial slab was marked by a primitive form of fine art originating in the Mousterian era, namely two large depressions and eight pairs of small depressions.
6. Red pigment Maastricht Belvedere
red pigment Maastricht Belvedere.
250,000 years
In the 1980s, when anthropologists were exploring a cave in the Netherlands, Maastricht Belvedere, they discovered a red substance in the soil. Analysis showed it to be hematite, an iron oxide that was used as a pigment for ancient populations. Scientists have come to the conclusion that the red substance got into the soil in liquid form, by droplets. This is evidence that Neanderthals used red pigments 250,000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought.
The source of hematite was located more than 40 kilometers from the cave, i.e. the pigment is purposefully brought into it. It is believed by many that these pigments were used for murals and body decoration. This practice is still used today among hunter-gatherers. However, more skeptical scientists suggest that hematite may have been used as a preservative, medicine, or insect repellent.
7. Funame Cave Feathers
the feathers of the Funame cave.
44,000 years
At Funame Cave near Verona in northern Italy, anthropologists made a discovery that changed the modern perception of prehuman art. Among the bones of the Neanderthals, they found evidence that feathers were used as adornments. It is not known today whether they were used in everyday clothing or only in rituals, but there is no doubt that Neanderthals cared about their appearance.
A mysterious example of art: the art of the Goram Cave.
40,000 years
In 2012, at the back of Goram Cave (southeastern Gibraltar), archaeologists discovered petroglyphs that they believe were the work of Neanderthals. The designs are 40,000 years old and geometric, like a hash tag. Experiments were carried out to repeat the design of the drawings, after which the experts found that it would take 200-300 strokes to repeat these signs. There is no doubt that they were made on purpose and are the result of abstract thinking.
10. Brunickel cave stone rings
In 1990, two mysterious stone rings were discovered in the French Brunickel Cave, which were built 176,000 years ago and are the oldest structures in the world. The rings were built 45,000 years before the arrival of modern man in Europe, i.e. they were created by the Neanderthals. They consist of hundreds of stalagmites that have been chipped off, cut to the same length and arranged in concentric oval patterns. Given the depth of the cave, experts suggest that this structure has ritual significance.
Curiosity is a defining feature of human nature. There would be no him, there would be no amazing discoveries and inventions. The habitat of people in the 21st century would be limited to the cave and the surrounding area, used as a training ground for hunting animals. Stone knives, axes, scrapers - this is the tool that the human mind was able to produce, not burdened with scientific knowledge, but steadily striving for it.
It was this aspiration that made man, in the end, a full-fledged master of the entire planet. He became the one and only perfect crown of nature, reigning supreme in the lands subject to him. It would seem that this course of events is quite natural. It was not muscle mass, not speed and dexterity that prevailed in the struggle for dominance over endless land, but intelligence, which, in the end, ensured an unconditional victory.
A man unconsciously went to power over the world, sweeping aside all those who stood in his way. However, it was not difficult to deal with opponents, since they were creatures with a lower mental organization. That is, in fact, people on Earth did not have worthy competitors. Wise nature, having created an uncountable number of species and subspecies among animals, for some reason completely missed a person from her zone of attention.
This point of view is fundamentally mistaken: nature never misses anything - everything is calculated, balanced and rational. People who lived in ancient times were not the only intelligent creatures that inhabited the blue planet.... This became known quite recently - only some 150 years ago.
How the remains of a Neanderthal man were found
Such a sensational discovery was preceded by a boring and tedious routine of hard work in the quarries. They were produced in Germany in the Rhine province, in the valley of the Dussel River (a tributary of the Rhine). That valley of Neander was named in honor of the pastor, theologian and composer Joachim Neander (1650-1680). He did a lot of good to people during his lifetime, in this case his name has already worked for the benefit of science and education.
On one hot summer day in 1856, digging granite blocks from a mountainous firmament, workers reached a small ledge of rock. Immediately behind him was a smooth wall, smoothly descending to the river bank. After a couple of blows with a pick, it turned out that it was clay. She easily succumbed to the shovel, and soon a spacious grotto opened. Its bottom was covered with a thick layer of silt.
The cave was a cozy and cool place where the workers of picks and shovels settled down to dine. The company was located at the very entrance, building a small fire and putting a cauldron of stew on it. One of the workers accidentally stirred up the silt under their feet, and a long bone that turned yellow with age appeared, followed by several more.
The man took a shovel in his hands, removed a layer of silt from the rocky bottom of the cave and pulled out a human skull from the depression. It already smelled like a crime, so the police were called. The same one found it difficult to decide on the remains, although it was immediately obvious that they were of ancient origin.
Fortunately, a very educated person lived in the nearest town. Johann Karl Fuchlrott... He arrived at the scene at the urgent request of representatives of the law. As a school teacher, the above-named gentleman taught natural sciences. It was not difficult for him, after careful examination, to declare that the found skull and bones were more than one hundred years old.
Such a conclusion was sincerely pleased with the police, and they hurried to retreat, leaving the archaeological find to the teacher. He, in turn, drew attention to the strange shape of the skull. She seemed to be human, but at the same time had a number of features that were unusual for Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens).
The volume of the skull, in size, exceeded the usual one. The frontal bones had a sloping, strongly sloping backward configuration. The eye sockets looked large; an arc-shaped bone protrusion hung over them. The massive lower jaw did not protrude forward, but had a streamlined, flowing shape and very little resembled a human.
Only a few of the remaining teeth completely matched their appearance with the usual teeth of people. This suggested that it was still a skull of a Homo sapiens, and not some animal that died in a cave many millennia ago.
Mr. Fuhlrott showed such an unusual item to specialists. The accidental find from the grotto caused a furor in scientific circles. It really differed in many ways from the human skull, but at the same time it had a number of similar features. The conclusion involuntarily suggested itself: a distant ancestor of living people was found.
Already in 1858, this hypothetical progenitor was named neanderthal (by analogy with the Neander Valley) and fit perfectly into the theory of Darwin, which took possession of scientific minds in the last decades of the 19th century.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) created a rather coherent and convincing concept that man descended from ape through biological evolution. It was the Neanderthals who became the transitional species between ape-like ancestors and humans. Darwinists endowed them with primitive intelligence, the ability to create tools from stone and live organized communities.
Human evolution according to Darwin
Over time, it turned out that this theory has many flaws, and the ancestors of modern people are cro-Magnons... The latter existed at the same time as the Neanderthals, had the same level of intellectual development, but they were more fortunate. They survived, and the Neanderthals sank into oblivion, leaving behind only skeletons and primitive tools.
Why are Neanderthals extinct?
Why did the Neanderthals die out, what was the reason? The answer to this question has not yet been found, although there are a great many different hypotheses and assumptions. In order to somehow get closer to the solution, it is necessary, first, to get to know these ancient intelligent beings better. Having a general idea of \u200b\u200btheir appearance, lifestyle, social structure and habitat, it is much easier to find an explanation for the mysterious disappearance of a whole humanoid species from the earth's surface.
Recreation of the appearance of a Neanderthal from his skull
Neanderthals were by no means weak creaturesunable to stand up for themselves. The height of an adult man did not exceed 165 cm, which is quite a lot (the average height of a modern person is equal to the same figure). A wide chest, strong long arms, short thick legs, a large head on a powerful neck - this is how a typical Neanderthal looked during its existence on Earth.
The arms did not reach the knees, the feet were wide and long. The brain volume was 1400-1600 cubic meters. cm, which is superior to the human (1200-1300 cc). The facial features did not differ in the correct proportions, but they looked rude and masculine. A wide nose, thick lips, a small chin, powerful brow ridges, under which small but intelligent eyes were hidden. You don't even have to stutter about a high forehead. It had a sloping shape and smoothly passed into the back of the head.
On the left is the Cro-Magnon skull, on the right is the Neanderthal
Here is the creation of the hands of nature, which generously endowed its intelligent children with all possible virtues. The Neanderthals adapted to the harsh world as much as possible, in which they lived safely for many, many thousands of years. According to the most conservative estimates, they appeared on Earth 300 thousand years ago. Disappeared 27 thousand years ago.
The period of existence is enormous. More than a million generations have changed. It seemed that nothing foreshadowed a tragic end - and suddenly, for no apparent reason, it came. Degradation, degeneration of the species? Why then did the Cro-Magnons not die out? They lived the same time on earth, but crossed the fatal line and became people, filling the entire planet.
Biological characteristics of the Neanderthal organism and lifestyle
Maybe the answer lies in the biological characteristics of the Neanderthal organism? The maximum life span of an individual did not reach 50 years. By this time he was turning into a decrepit old man. The heyday of life fell on the period from 12 to 35-38 years. It was at the age of 12 that the Neanderthal turned into a full-fledged man, capable of procreation, hunting and performing other social functions.
Only a few reached old age. Almost half of the Neanderthals died before they reached 20 years old. Approximately 40% left the mortal world in the period from 20 to 30 years. The lucky ones lived mainly until 40-45. Death has always gone hand in hand with paleoanthropes and was a common and common thing.
Numerous diseases; death during hunting or in skirmishes with other tribes; sharp teeth and claws of predatory animals - these representatives of the hominid family were mowed down by the thousands. Women gave birth every year and by the age of 25-30 they turned into old women. In their physical development, they were inferior to men, possessing a flimsy constitution and shorter stature, but they had no equal in endurance, which once again emphasizes the rationalism and sanity of nature.
Neanderthals lived in small groups of 30-40 people... It is a man, since according to the generally accepted classification they belong to the genus of people, and their appearance is a Neanderthal man.
Each group had a leader - a leader. He took it upon himself to take care of the members of his small community. His word was law, failure to comply with an order was a crime. Only the leader had the right to divide the game caught in the hunt. He took the best pieces for himself, gave a little worse to the young hunters. The mature and the weak, as well as the women and children, got all the rest.
Strength was respected in this public education, but the weak were not oppressed, but supported in every possible way and given work to their strength. This indicates certain moral principles, high consciousness and the beginnings of humanism.
The dead were buried in shallow graves. The human corpse was laid on its side, the knees were pulled up to the chin. A stone knife, some kind of food, ornaments made of multi-colored pebbles or teeth of predatory animals were left nearby. The burial places were not marked in any way, or maybe something was done, but the merciless time destroyed and destroyed everything.
This is how the Neanderthals were buried
The diet of the Neanderthals was not very diverse. These members of the human race preferred meat to all other foods. Mammoths, buffaloes, cave bears - this is a list of those animals that adults and strong representatives of the community hunted with great skill and skill. The weaker and younger ones caught small animals, but they did not favor birds, giving priority to rodents and wild goats.
Neanderthals did not like fish. They ate it only in difficult times, since hunger is not an aunt, but in the absence of fish, as you know, cancer is a fish. However, it should be noted here that they did not disdain human flesh either. In the ancient sites of these people, the bones of not only mammoths and buffaloes, but also Cro-Magnons are often found.
For the sake of information, it should be noted that the latter are also far from angels. Cro-Magnons also ate Neanderthals, apparently considering such gluttony to be common.
For a complete acquaintance with the representatives of this species, it is necessary to touch upon their habitat. Neanderthals lived mainly in Europe... Their favorite place is the Iberian Peninsula. In second place, perhaps, is the southern part of France. In Germany, there were much fewer Neanderthals, but they happily settled in the Crimea and the Caucasus.
The Middle East also did not escape the attention of these ancient people. They also inhabited Altai; their settlements are also found in Central Asia. But the main concentration was in the Pyrenees. Two-thirds of all Neanderthals lived here. These were their lands, on which the foot of the Cro-Magnon did not dare to set foot.
The latter made up for such a loss with other territories, making the Apennine Peninsula their original fiefdom. In the rest of Europe, Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons lived interspersed. It cannot be said that it was a friendly neighborhood. Numerous bloody clashes between members of the same biological genus were common.
Weapons for the Neanderthals were a club and a stone knife sharpened on both sides. They handled these simple objects very deftly. And on the hunt, and in skirmishes with enemies, the same club was a reliable means of both defense and attack.
A group of short, powerful strong men was a formidable military formation, capable not only of defending itself, but also of attacking, turning the same Cro-Magnons into a shameful flight. The latter were much taller than the Neanderthals: their height reached 185 cm, but such an achievement did not help much. The ancestors of modern man had long legs, arms, a muscular body, but all this did not differ in massive forms.
Cro-Magnons lost in their physical development to Neanderthals. In terms of dexterity, speed of reaction and mental development, they were equal. As a result, strength prevailed. The distant ancestors of modern man either retreated or perished, and the mighty short ones celebrated victory by eating the bodies of their slain enemies. At the same time, they communicated through short phrases or separate words.
The Neanderthals really didn’t speak well, and the sentences consisted of two or three words.... This did not mean at all that the ancient people gravitated towards silent contemplation of the world around them and had a great gift - the ability to listen to others.
Everything rested on the structure of the nasopharynx and larynx. It is in the larynx that the vocal apparatus is located, thanks to which you can talk about absolutely different things for a long time and eloquently, astonishing those present with your extensive knowledge and original way of thinking.
The arrangement of these most important organs did not allow the mighty stalwarts to pronounce long ornate phrases. Nature deprived them of such opportunities from birth, which cannot be said about the Cro-Magnons. For those with speech, everything was in perfect order. However, this can be easily seen by looking at others.
Could underdeveloped speech cause the extinction of a huge number of people? Hardly. The same monkeys feel great in a harsh and dangerous world, not possessing the proper art of wordy communication. And the Neanderthals themselves lived for almost 300 thousand years, transmitting information through separate words or short phrases. All this time, they coexisted quite comfortably and perfectly understood each other.
The relationship between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons
If we compose an approximate chronology of events of such an ancient period, the following picture becomes clear. The first Neanderthals appeared on the Iberian Peninsula 300 thousand years ago. Around the same time, the first Cro-Magnons appeared in Southeast Africa. These two human species did not intersect in any way, existing on different continents for 200 thousand years.
The first ancestors of modern man moved to the Middle East about 90 thousand years ago. Neanderthals already lived in these lands. Apparently there were few of them, and the newcomers did not compete with them in hunting. The world around them abounded with a variety of animals, but the Cro-Magnons, in addition to meat, ate plant foods with great pleasure, as well as fish and birds.
Over time, they penetrated into Europe, but, settling on these lands, again did not interfere with the Neanderthals. Those, mainly, clustered in the Pyrenees and the south of France. The ancestors of modern man took a fancy to the Apennine Peninsula and began to actively settle in the Balkan Peninsula. This peaceful coexistence lasted 50 thousand years. An enormous period, considering that modern civilization is no more than seven thousand years old.
Problems and clashes between these paleoanthropes began about 45 thousand years ago. What contributed to this - the advance of ice from the north? They crawled to 50 degrees c. sh. and significantly influenced the flora and fauna of the surrounding world. It got colder in the Pyrenees and the Apennines. Sub-zero temperatures have become common in winter. True, the snow cover was small and made it possible for herbivores to eat without problems.
Where there are many well-fed animals, there people have no problems with food. Therefore, more than one thousand years passed before the Neanderthals disappeared forever from the surface of the blue planet. They could not be influenced by the ice age, and mammoths - the main source of food - died out only 10 thousand years ago.
Then there may be a natural process of mixing two subspecies of people. Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals gradually united into single communities, they had children from joint marriages, and, in the end, a single species turned out, which became the progenitor of modern man.
On such an assumption, back in the 90s, science said a categorical "no". Scientists examined the mitochondrial DNA of modern humans and a similar molecule taken from the remains of a Neanderthal. There was nothing in common between them.
Mitochondrial DNA transmitted only from the mother and practically does not change over the millennia. It follows from this that all of humanity descended from one progenitor (mitochondrial Eve). The short stalwarts turned out to have a completely different foremother, who gave life to the first of them many, many thousands of years ago.
Decades flashed, centuries passed, slowly crept away into the eternity of millennia. Neanderthals lived, multiplied, hunted. They managed to withstand the hard times of the ice ages, of which there were as many as three on their account. They did not waste their identity and strength during the fertile times of the interglacial periods. And suddenly all perished as one, leaving no trace of themselves as a reminder.
First, this human species disappeared in the lands of Germany, then France and the Middle East. Cro-Magnons firmly settled in the above-mentioned areas. They not only did not become extinct, but on the contrary - they actively began to multiply, gradually moving further and further to the East.
The settlements of the Neanderthals remained, only in the Pyrenees. This was their original place. It was from here that they began their journey, gradually settling in Europe and nearby regions of Asia. Their separate communities even reached Altai and Central Asia.
The last stronghold served the mighty stalwarts as reliable protection. They held out on their native peninsula for another thousand years. True, the remaining five centuries before its disappearance, the lands dear to the heart had to be shared with the shameless Cro-Magnons. They very quickly settled in the Pyrenees and began to crowd out the original owners.
The path of evolution of the Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals
Living together was characterized by outbreaks of hostility, then by long periods of peace. The end was fatal for some and successful for others. The last Neanderthals disappeared 27 thousand years ago... Cro-Magnons, however, having slightly changed in appearance, are still prospering. They are actively multiplying - their number has already exceeded 6 billion.
The mystery of the disappearance of the Neanderthals
So what is this killing program that has started in a certain period of time? It should be noted right away that the Neanderthals were far from alone in their tragedy. Many representatives of the animal world have sunk into eternity just 30-10 thousand years ago. As an example, we can cite the same mammoths that disappeared without a trace from the planet for unknown reasons.
Science today cannot explain this phenomenon. There are a number of concepts that claim to be absolute truth, but there is no single theory capable of objectively reflecting the entire spectrum of contradictions and focusing it in a single and coherent system based on absolute and error-free evidence.
The extinction process of the Neanderthals took more than one thousand years. Their population increased and decreased. In the end, people disappeared, unconditionally giving way under the sun to the more successful and adapted to the harsh and rational reality.
The mystery of the disappearance of this human species may also lie in areas far from official science. Maybe the Neanderthals have found an entrance to other worlds, to other dimensions. Having left the existing reality, they are now thriving in a different reality: they are developing, improving, and in terms of scientific and technological progress they even surpass modern people.
Living in the sublunary world, the mighty stalwarts, like the slender Cro-Magnons, dreamed, loved and fought daily for their survival on planet Earth. They have sunk into oblivion, but, in any case, they had a certain impact on the ancestors of modern man. Who knows, maybe some positive or negative character traits inherent in the current one are a derivative of the psychological type that the Neanderthal was.
All these are just guesses and assumptions. The essence of the problem is such that ineradicable human curiosity, in the end, will play a positive role in this matter as well. The secret will become clear, and the current generations, and maybe their closest descendants, will finally find out the whole truth about their distant relatives.
Article by ridar-shakin
Based on materials from foreign publications
Judging by the studies of human evolution, the Neanderthal could have descended from one of the subspecies of Homo erectus -. Heidelberg man, was one of several species and was not an ancestor of man, although he had the ability to make tools and use fire. The Neanderthal became his descendant and the last in this evolutionary line.
The very name "Neanderthal" refers to the discovery of the skull of a representative of this species. The skull was found in 1856 in West Germany in the Neandertal Gorge. The gorge itself, in turn, was named after the famous theologian and composer Joachim Neander. It should be noted that this was not the first find. The remains of a Neanderthal were first found in 1829 in Belgium. The second find was discovered in 1848 in Gibraltar. Many remains of the Neanderthals were subsequently found. Initially, they were attributed to the direct ancestors of man, and it was even suggested that human evolution could look like this - Australopithecus-Pithecanthropus-Neanderthal-modern man. However, then this point of view was rejected. As it turned out, neither the Neanderthal nor the Neanderthal have anything to do with the ancestors of humans and are parallel branches of evolution, completely extinct.
After examining the remains of the Neanderthals, it became clear that they were almost as evolved as the Cro-Magnons. Moreover, there are suggestions that a Neanderthal could be even smarter than a Cro-Magnon, since the volume of his cranium was even larger than that of a modern man and amounted to 1400-1740 cm³. The Neanderthals were about 165 cm tall. They also had a massive physique. In appearance, they differed from modern people and our ancestors, who existed at the same time, the Cro-Magnons. Distinctive features of their face were powerful brow ridges, a wide protruding nose and a small chin. The short neck is tilted forward. The hands of the Neanderthal were short, paw-like. According to some assumptions, the skin of the Neanderthals was light, and the hair was red. The structure of the brain and vocal apparatus of the Neanderthal indicates that they possessed speech.
The Neanderthal was clearly ahead of the Cro-Magnon in strength. He had 30-40% more muscle mass and a heavier skeleton. Apparently, having met one on one, the Neanderthal could easily defeat the Cro-Magnon. However, despite this, the Cro-Magnon was the winner in the interspecific battle. Archaeologists find Neanderthal bones at Cro-Magnon sites, which have traces characteristic of eating. Also found were necklaces made from Neanderthal teeth - apparently belonging to warriors and worn as a trophy showing military merit. Another curious find is a Neanderthal tibia, which Cro-Magnons used as a box containing ocher powder. These and many other findings suggest that Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals could wage war over territories, and Cro-Magnons even ate Neanderthals for food.
Despite the fact that the Neanderthals were more powerful in appearance, the Cro-Magnons were still able to exterminate them. Scientists make assumptions that this outcome of events happened due to the fact that there were much more Cro-Magnons, that the Cro-Magnons had new weapons (throwing, more modern spears, axes), which the Neanderthals did not have. There is also speculation that by that time the ancestors of humans were able to tame the dog / wolf, which made it possible to hunt people of a different species more efficiently. In addition, there are suggestions that the Neanderthals were not completely exterminated, and some of this species were assimilated to the Cro-Magnons.
Neanderthals knew how to create tools for labor and hunting. They could use stone-tipped spears for close combat. Also, the Neanderthals had art. So, for example, an image of a leopard was found on the bone of a bison, ornaments - painted shells with holes. Finds of birds with cut feathers may suggest that Neanderthals adorned themselves with feathers like the American Indians.
It is believed that the Neanderthals could for the first time have the beginnings of the emergence of religious ideas, life after death. This conclusion can be drawn from studies of the burials of Neanderthals. In one of the burials, a Neanderthal rests in the form of an embryo. Researchers attribute this method of burial to the concept of soul rebirth, when the deceased is given the shape of an embryo, believing that this will help him become a newborn again and come into the world in a different body. Flowers, eggs and meat were found near another grave of a Neanderthal, which speaks of the cult representations of the Neanderthals - feeding the spirit or offering to the spirits. However, other researchers doubt the religious beliefs of the Neanderthals, explaining the presence of flowers and postures of the embryo by random factors or later strata.
Cro-Magnons. Archaeological finds and reconstructions:
