The Neandertals :: essays research papers

The NeandertalsStaring into the gloom, I imagine the caves ancient inhabitants,wrapped in bear skins, huddled near a fire. The haunches of areindeer roast in the fire. A mother nurses her infant. Childrenplayfully throw pieces of bone into the flames. An old woman tendsthe wounds of a hunter with an herbal ointment. The strong smellsof smoke, unwashed bodies, and rotting carcasses thicken the air.Until recently, nobody would curb assumed that the above passage (RickGore, pp.6) was about how the Neandertals lived. However, recent studies haveshown that Neandertals be smarter than we first thought.The geography of the Neandertals domain was quite odd. 230,000 yearsago Europe was filled with caves, marshes, and grasslands. It was a very harshand cold wilderness. The Neandertals were in conception right in the middle ofthe Ice Age, and although occasional warm periods would create subtropicalconditions as far north as England for thousands of years, the glaciers would endlessly retu rn and the Neandertals would always be forced south again. TheNeandertals could be found as far north as England and as far south as Spain,from Gibralter to Uzbekistan.Neandertal mug up have been found in the Neander Valley and DusseldorfGermany, in Altamura, Italy and Vindija, Croatia. These are major sites for theEuropean caves the Neandertals lived in. Although the Neandertals went to thesouthern tip of Italy, they never crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Africa. Theymigrated from aboriginal Europe to central Asia to the Middle East and always cameback. Their main mode of moving around was on their feet, and they usuallytravelled in bands of no more than 30 people.The Neandertals had broad noses, and scientists think this was to warmthe cold air. They also had thick browridges, receding chins, high foreheads,and their skulls sloped back over their brains. They learned to hunt in groupsin order to kill the bigger game. The Neandertals lived with modern humans for10,000 years, but they didnt change, and eventually it is believed the modernhumans conquered them with their more advanced technology.Although not much is cognise about the Neandertals culture,anthropologists have some ideas of how they lived their life.It is believed by many that the Neandertals practiced cannibalism for adeath ritual. There is evidence of this on the skulls and big bones ofNeandertals. There are cut marks and some bones have been broken open and arewithout marrow. Why would they do this? Maybe they liked the way theirneighbors tasted, or possibly it was a ritual for a religion of theirs.