Guys, Trace is SUCH a Neanderthal!
No really.
He’s 3% Neanderthal and makes excellent rock art.
I made this.
Hi guys, it’s Natalia for DNews!
Calling someone a Neanderthal has long been an insult- you might as well call them a brutish
half-wit, devoid of smarts & sophistication, however there’s now overwhelming scientific
evidence- from art, to burials, to Neanderthal DNA found in many of our own species- it’s
clear Neanderthals were more intelligent, innovative, & frisky with our ancestors than
previously thought.
Hey, how you doin’?
Nice man bun!
Neanderthals, yes, it’s pronounced with a hard “T”, were discovered in 1856 in
Neander Valley near Dusseldorf, Germany.
They lived during the climatically rough ice age and were traditionally called cave men,
since many sites associated with them have been in or near caves.
They were distributed throughout Europe and the Middle East from roughly 430,000 to 40,000
years ago.
Ever since their discovery, scientists have tried to understand these hominin relatives
and often wondered about their fate.
Some researchers believed humans outcompeted Neanderthals or that they died out from disease,
ultimately being replaced by us humans.
While other paleoanthropologists surmised that Neanderthals and anatomically modern
humans admixed or (ahem) got down.
And once geneticists were able to sequence the Neanderthal genome, we know that this
is true.
In fact, many Europeans have traces of Neanderthal DNA, like Trace.
So we know that humans mated with Neanderthals, but did they possess anything like human culture?
What was Neanderthal life like?
Humans have long held the belief that what makes our species unique was ‘culture’.
Culture is often defined by shared and learned behavior, values, and technology from language,
art, tools, and ideology.
Until recent decades, it was unclear whether Neanderthals possessed ‘culture’.
Research shows that Neanderthals hunted in groups and exploited megafauna successfully,
like mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses.
Neanderthals were not only proficient hunters, according the dental calculus on their teeth,
or tartar, they were also good foragers.
They cooked and ate a diet that included vegetables and grains.
And researchers also found traces of plants with no nutritional value but have medicinal
properties, like yarrow and camomile.
Who knew tartar build up could be so informative!
There is also evidence that Neanderthals cared for their sick and injured and buried their
dead, even leaving them offerings, thus showing investment and care.
Red ochre, a clay containing hematite, was also used by Neanderthals for personal decoration
as far back as 250,000 years ago.
As for technology, Neanderthals are associated with the Mousterian stone ‘tool kit’ and
the more sophisticated Chatelperronian tools.
Which included blades that could double as projectile points.
And new research coming out of a cave in Southwest France asserts that Neanderthals also were
keen on making art!
Bruniquel Cave had been sealed for millennia and was discovered in 1990 by a French archaeologist.
But it wasn’t until twenty-three years later, in 2013, that a team of archaeologists returned
to Bruniquel to conduct a full excavation.
Since the start of its excavation, researchers have found six rock structures in the form
of circles made from cave stalagmites.
The stalagmite are broken in roughly 2 foot- long pieces and all structures show evidence
of fire on the stalagmites.
Interestly, they were found more that 330 meters from the cave’s entrance and thought
to have been moved to this location and then assembled there.
This meant there had to have been forethought before assembling these circles and they used
fire to light their way.
Scientists have dated the structures back 176,000 years.
This predates the presence of modern humans in Europe!
The question of WHY these structures were built is a bit more difficult to answer.
Researchers have some theories, including that these circles had symbolic and ritual
significance, the circles were used to keep bears at bay, or the circles were elaborate
fire pits.
So this may very well be proof of ancient Neanderthal culture!
So now we know about a bit more about Neanderthal culture, here’s a video of Trace discussing
Neanderthal talking!
So do you have any Neanderthal DNA?
And given the chance, would you date a Neanderthal?
Subscribe to DNews and let us know in the comments down below.
and we promise to not judge.
Well, maybe...Thanks for watching!