[RightWhale]

Their direct descendants probably live in the nearby village, still tending their gardens in the same spots.

[pepsi_junkie]

The tests showed that the men, women and children buried in the cave were small and strong and ate meat. They rarely lived to be older than 50 and were tormented with bad teeth, rheumatic pains and osteoarthritis.

Heh. British people with bad teeth 10,000 years ago. Guess some things never change. :)

[LibKill]

Heck of a life back then, no dentists.

No, I don't like going to the dentist, but a toothache is a lot worse.

[Pearls Before Swine]

They rarely lived to be older than 50 and were tormented with bad teeth, rheumatic pains and osteoarthritis.

The famous phrase that comes to mind concerning prehistoric life is "nasty, brutish... and short."

[GladesGuru]

One more site supporting Raymond Dart's "Ostio-dento-keratic" hypotheses. For a remarkable read, try Robert Ardrey's "African Genesis". It was on the New York Slimes Best Seller list for many a week - and it is footnoted non-fiction. Now that's a wordsmith!

As to the significance of the finding that the owners of the skeletons ate meat, Dart's hypotheses was that man has evolutionarily selected behavioral predispositions foremost of which are: in group amnity and out group emnity needed to maintain hunting territiories, that man is an armed, social carnivore, and that the weapon was the femor of a mid-sized antelope while the jaw of a smaller antelope was the knife.

The book lists sites where meat was found to be 90% to nearly 100% of the diet. As these sites were some 200 times older than the one in this article, it is interesting that man seemed to prefer a meat diet for so long a time.

Indeed, meat was the prefered diet long before we were Homo sapiens. Dart was working Australopithicine sites.

Dart's hypothesis is a an interesting one, but so loaded politically and philosophically, that only the Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology (published original at the University of Miami, assuming they haven't trashed it by now) dared to publish it.

Interestingly, Ardrey's Territorial Imperitave is widely used in the Grove of the Academe. His far more important African Genesis and his The Hunting Hypotheses are virtually never used by academics.

Wonderous indeed are the ways of the denizens of the Grove of the Academe.

[Cowboy Bob]

Peter Marshall of English Heritage's scientific dating service...

Wow, everyone is getting into the matchmacking business nowadays!

(its a joke!)

[billorites]

"men, women and children buried in the cave were small and strong and ate meat. They rarely lived to be older than 50 and were tormented with bad teeth, rheumatic pains and osteoarthritis"

French Canadian?

[AgThorn]

[wardaddy]

were tormented with bad teeth, rheumatic pains and osteoarthritis

damn....some things never change.

[Fester Chugabrew]

"Peter Marshall of English Heritage's scientific dating service . . ."

Umm, she's got to have more than bones before I'm going there.