#Neanderthals

[cat-appreciator]

There’s a meme that goes “humans are space orcs”, comparing our various abilities (mostly stamina, healing etc) to other species on Earth and extrapolating that compared to aliens we are super-strong war gods. I don’t particularly like it, largely because it smacks of exceptionalism (there’s a strong crossover with the “humans fuck yeah” anthropochauvinist space opera subgenre).

I will grant that, as pursuit predators, our stamina is probably above average (the only other pursuit predators I can think of are wolves, with which humans have a long and productive history (to the point that a human society without dogs is a bizarre anomaly, and the only ones I can think of are in Micronesia for a thousand years or so after the initial settlement of those islands by the Lapita culture)).

So humans are probably remarkable for our stamina and the fact that where you find a human you will also find a dog (which is sometimes extrapolated to “humans are remarkable for our pack bonding in general).

With that introduction out of the way, I think there’s an argument to be made that we are actually space elves, and the real space orcs are sadly extinct:

[tuulikki]

The thing is that the portrayal of Neanderthals as having been inherently grotesque and alien to H. sapiens is something we will never have proof of. But we do have proof that, in different locations and in different populations across time, we all found eachother desirable. We saw eachother and wanted to touch. And the offspring were held by their mothers and raised and had their own offspring in turn.

When you look for the first proof that H. sapiens found Neanderthals repulsive, you have to wait until the Victorian era, when the white masters of empires were busy portraying Neanderthals as stupid, brutish, and (of course) dark-skinned.

In more modern times, we’ve had people arguing that instead of seeing Neanderthals as Benighted Savages, they should instead be seen as Noble Savages, (allegedly) cruelly destroyed and driven from their lands by H. sapiens. Which one of their two you believe says more about your modern political views than it does about ancient H. sapiens.

And, whether we construct Neanderthals as Savage or Noble Savage, the fundamental assumption we project into the unfathomably distant past is still that H. sapiens saw Neanderthals as an Other, with the language we use being almost explicitly that of modern racial dynamics.

But we have no proof of any of that. We have no proof of hostilities. We know we co-existed and we had sex. That’s it.

Humans obviously have sex with some humans and kill others. We also know that, when small groups of humans occupy vast spaces with infrequent contact with others, unique cultures will always form, some more hospitable, some more neophobic/xenophobic. But many cultures of small settlements placed among huge unpeopled landscapes place supreme emphasis on hospitality to strangers. Plus, we fucking love other social animals, as evidenced by how we befriended wolves.

I’m a humourless weirdo and a wet blanket about popular constructions of Neanderthals as “monstrous”, and I freely admit it. But that’s because it’s tied up in legacies of imperialism. Not only that, but it also privileges one culture (yours, mine, modernity’s) as being most human by implicitly assuming we can project it onto people in the past. Since you don’t pretend that all global cultures share exact same values as you do, it doesn’t take more than a few moments’ reflection to realise you can’t do that to the past.

[jaigeye]

early neanderthals & homosapiens

what the caves are trying to tell us by sam kriss and kindred: neanderthal life, love, death and art by rebecca wragg sykes

[archaeologicalnews]

1st known tuberculosis cases in Neanderthals revealed in prehistoric bone anaylsis

Neanderthals living in Central Europe around 35,000 years ago suffered from tuberculosis (TB), a new DNA analysis of their bones reveals. This is the first time this disease has been identified in Neanderthals, raising questions about whether tuberculosis contributed to their extinction.

In two research studies published in the journal Tuberculosis in December 2023, one international team of researchers reanalyzed the skeletal remains of two Neanderthals discovered in a cave in Hungary in 1932 and another tested them for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB.

Subalyuk Cave, located in the Bükk Mountains of northern Hungary, was used for shelter by animals and humans numerous times over the centuries and is considered an extremely important Middle to Late Paleolithic site. Read more.

[mindblowingscience]

The extinction of the Neanderthals is one of the most intriguing mysteries in paleoanthropology, with researchers speculating everything from shifts in the climate to war with modern humans may have escalated their demise. Many have wondered if our lost human cousins simply didn't have enough variety to cope with these changes. A new study backs up the hypothesis that a dramatic decline in the diversity of their genes prior to their extinction is likely to have played a major role.

Continue Reading.

[facts-i-just-made-up]

Can you tell me some facts about Neanderthals, please?

All I could write was random and disconnected stuff and I wouldn't want to give you a meandering neanderthal post.

[talekinesis]

Maybe it's just my period, as I'm infamous in my friend group for getting sad about a random things each month (I keep a list now), but I'm sad about the Neanderthals

They were humans, they were people. We used to have kids with them, which meant at some point, we loved them, right? And they loved us in return?

It's easy to look at the pictures and think "Oh they were just cavemen," but they were humans who took care of each other, who looked after their old, sick, and injured. They were sentimental and care about connection and family, just like we do

And now they're gone

And I can't help but wonder what life would be like if they and the Denisovans were still around? What would our world look like of we all shared a space and existed together?

I've been so fixated on the Neanderthals for a couple weeks now

What kinds of books would they have written? What kinds of songs would they have sang? What kind of art would they have made? What kinds of stories would they have told?

At least part of them still lives on, I suppose. Some people today still have traces of Neanderthal DNA in them, and I find that incredibly fascinating

Man I'm getting emotional about people who died thousands of years ago. I feel like I miss them but I never met them, and it's such an odd feeling. I blame my period

[melonlthawne]

Would you let them in your home

[bjekkergauken]

Ice age (2002): a switcheroo

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Quest for Fire (1981)

[mutiny-huyutiny]

nyanderthal au

snake used to make obsidian spear tips in his ex-clan. his arms were covered by small shards of obisidan, stucked under the skin.

[hemogoblin-art]

Some of the many faces of the modern day Neanderthals in C!LAWSverse

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question 55: Medievalish and Earlier

If you could travel through time, but only to see something for Research or for Fun, not to change anything, what would you pick? Yes, you may have a Babel Fish in your ear to translate.

These Questions are the result of suggestions a the previous iteration. This category may include suggestions made too late to fall into the correct earlier time grouping. In some cases a culture lasted a really long time and I grouped them by whether it was likely the later or earlier grouping made the most sense with the information I had.

Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration. All cultures and time periods welcome.

[mindblowingscience]

An international team has unearthed the oldest spear tip ever found in Europe and notes that it was fashioned by Neanderthals. In their paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, the group describes how and where the spear tip was found, its condition and what they have learned about it through extensive study. The spear tip was found back in 2003 in a sediment layer in a cave in the North Caucasus, Russia, along with a host of bones from a variety of animals, and also the remnants of a campfire. It was only recently that the spear tip was fully examined.

Continue Reading.

[semponant]

Absolutely love this guys channel, here are the videos I recommend if you are interested in evolution by any chance