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Into the mind of a Neanderthal
New Scientist ^ | Wednesday, January 18, 2012 | Thomas Wynn

Posted on 01/21/2012 5:48:42 AM PST by SunkenCiv

Palaeoanthropologists now know a great deal about these ice-age Europeans who flourished between 200,000 and 30,000 years ago. We know, for example, that Neanderthals shared about 99.84 per cent of their DNA with us, and that we and they evolved separately for several hundred thousand years. We also know Neanderthal brains were a bit larger than ours and were shaped a bit differently. And we know where they lived, what they ate and how they got it.

Skeletal evidence shows that Neanderthal men, women and children led very strenuous lives, preoccupied with hunting large mammals. They often made tactical use of terrain features to gain as much advantage as possible, but administered the coup de grace with thrusting spears. Based on their choice of stone for tools, we know they almost never travelled outside small home territories that were rarely over 1000 square kilometres.

The Neanderthal style of hunting often resulted in injuries, and the victims were often nursed back to health by others. But few would have survived serious lower body injuries, since individuals who could not walk might well have been abandoned. It looks as if Neanderthals had well-developed way-finding and tactical abilities, and empathy for group members, but also that they made pragmatic decisions when necessary.

Looking closely at the choices Neanderthals made when they manufactured and used tools shows that they organised their technical activities much as artisans, such as blacksmiths, organise their production. Like blacksmiths, they relied on "expert" cognition, a form of observational learning and practice acquired through apprenticeship that relies heavily on long-term procedural memory.

(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; neandertal; neandertals; neanderthal; neanderthals
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To: SunkenCiv
It seems strange to me that you are saying that I imagined things when the writer of the article makes up facts and tells us about the sense of humor of an extinct animal. How would any human know the sense of humor of any creature? This is defiantly unscientific. It can not be proved. It can not be repeated. It is unscientific trash. At least I was trying to provide observations of a dental researcher.
41 posted on 01/21/2012 5:29:17 PM PST by mountainlion (I am voting for Sarah after getting screwed again by the DC Thugs.)
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To: sphinx

Triangles and angles...all related to PI. You have to know PI to calculate angles. If you start starring at the sky and and try to navigate by them, everything turns into angles. If you try to build anything, you run into angles everywhere.

In other words EVERYTHING REQUIRES PI! You aren’t much into math are ya?


42 posted on 01/21/2012 5:38:20 PM PST by mamelukesabre
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To: mountainlion

There’s dental evidence that Europeans are descended from Neandertal (posted above). Your statement that Neandertals were not human is nonsense.


43 posted on 01/21/2012 6:22:45 PM PST by SunkenCiv (FReep this FReepathon!)
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bmfl


44 posted on 01/21/2012 6:38:39 PM PST by Titan Magroyne (What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.)
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To: mamelukesabre
In other words EVERYTHING REQUIRES PI!

Just remember that Pi are round...cornbread are square.

45 posted on 01/21/2012 8:57:38 PM PST by oldsalt (There's no such thing as a free lunch.)
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To: sphinx

How old do you think the “science” behind a structure like Stonehenge is?

Examples of henges made of wood have been found not only in Europe but along the east coast of the United States. Is this knowledge of the Sun and Moon only 30,000 years at its oldest, or is it very ancient and even known by the Neanderthal people. The reason I bring it up is that henges are based on a circle, and knowing the degrees along the edge of a circle would be important to determing seasons, moon phases, and lunar/solar eclipses.

Ancient peoples may have had sophisticated mathematics because they were observant of how the natural world around them moved, and wasn’t static.


46 posted on 01/21/2012 9:56:33 PM PST by SatinDoll (NO FOREIGN NATIONALS AS OUR PRESIDENT!)
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To: SunkenCiv

Archaeologists consider any primate that came down out of a tree and walks upright on two legs as human. That takes in a lot of monkeys. Thinking monkeys are human is nonsense to me. Humans to me are Homo Sapien Sapien, the thinking man.


47 posted on 01/22/2012 6:52:29 AM PST by mountainlion (I am voting for Sarah after getting screwed again by the DC Thugs.)
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To: mountainlion

Homo Sapien Sapien? Never heard of that one.


48 posted on 01/22/2012 7:36:40 AM PST by SunkenCiv (FReep this FReepathon!)
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To: SunkenCiv
Homo Sapien Sapien? Never heard of that one.

That is a term for modern man, Humans if you wish.

49 posted on 01/22/2012 7:48:30 AM PST by mountainlion (I am voting for Sarah after getting screwed again by the DC Thugs.)
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To: Deaf Smith

Good one!


50 posted on 01/22/2012 8:09:44 AM PST by 2111USMC (Not a hard man to track. Leaves dead men wherever he goes.)
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To: SunkenCiv
The article fails to mention one or two interesting facts about our cousins: The way their skull was positioned on their spines determined where their larynx was positioned. That position made it very likely that they were all sopranos ... They also may have had flutes.
51 posted on 01/24/2012 8:24:45 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: SunkenCiv
It might also be noted that we have no idea whether we are looking at only Neanderthals who lived in the high country as hunter-gathers, but the bulk of Neanderthal could have lived in cities on the coasts - which are now under hundreds of feet of sea water.

Humans have always preferred living on coasts lines, and if the Neanderthals were similar to us, they lived on coasts as well. Usually the largest human cities are located near salt water.

Did the fish in their diet consist of freshwater fish, salt or both? If saltwater fish were in their diet, then that implies their were Neanderthal settlements on the Ice Age coast lines, which are far out to sea today.

52 posted on 01/24/2012 8:35:18 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: The Sons of Liberty

[ The interesting thing not mentioned here is that Black Africans are the only major group in the world that supposedly does not carry Neanderthal genes. This may sound racist, but since Africa is the most backward continent, contrary to the author’s conclusion, perhaps the Neanderthals bestowed a higher intelligence on us. They did have bigger brains. ]

Or the genes from Neaderthals provided “Hybrid Vigor” as in the genes for brain formation and development.

The Asians as they have found out also seems to have Denesovian Genes in them too besides neaderthal genes.


53 posted on 01/24/2012 3:54:41 PM PST by GraceG
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To: PIF

[ It might also be noted that we have no idea whether we are looking at only Neanderthals who lived in the high country as hunter-gathers, but the bulk of Neanderthal could have lived in cities on the coasts - which are now under hundreds of feet of sea water.
Humans have always preferred living on coasts lines, and if the Neanderthals were similar to us, they lived on coasts as well. Usually the largest human cities are located near salt water.

Did the fish in their diet consist of freshwater fish, salt or both? If saltwater fish were in their diet, then that implies their were Neanderthal settlements on the Ice Age coast lines, which are far out to sea today. ]

Maybe the story about entire peoples perishing during the great flood is a reference to the Neadertals?


54 posted on 01/24/2012 3:56:41 PM PST by GraceG
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To: SunkenCiv

Why did you include that picture of Mel Brooks in your post?


55 posted on 01/24/2012 4:03:36 PM PST by Rocky (REPEAL IT!)
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To: GraceG

Maybe the story about entire peoples perishing during the great flood is a reference to the Neadertals?

Could be, but who knows what that cryptic reference meant?

It is more and more clear that during the period that Ice Age glaciers melted there were huge discharges of water - overnight rises are said to be in the 10s to hundreds of feet worldwide depending on were one lived. Eventually sea level rose some 400-700 feet.

For a comparison scale, if all the ice in the world melted today, sea level would only rise 40 feet at the most.


56 posted on 01/24/2012 6:17:34 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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