Posted on 10/05/2012 5:25:53 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The Lozoya River Valley, in the Madrid mountain range of Guadarrama, could easily be called "Neanderthal Valley," says the paleontologist Juan Luis Arsuaga.
"It is protected by two strings of mountains, it is rich in fauna, it is a privileged spot from an environmental viewpoint, and it is ideal for the Neanderthal, given that it provided the[m] with good hunting grounds."
...
"There are around 15 sites in Spain: in the Cantabrian mountain range, along the eastern Mediterranean coast and in Andalusia, but none on the plateau, where there are no limestone formations and no adequate caves to preserve human remains for thousands of years," adds Arsuaga. But Pinilla del Valle is an exception to the rule. "There is limestone here. It was like a cap made of stone under which the Neanderthal presumably took refuge to prepare for the hunt, to craft their tools, to eat... It's not that they lived inside in the sense of a home; they wandered in the fields, and this was probably more like a base camp to take refuge when they needed to."
...
It was on the floor of Des-Cubierta that the Neanderthal must have placed the dead body of a small child aged two-and-a-half to three years old. They placed two slabs of stone and an aurochs horn on top, and set the body on fire... "Complete burials, with a clear structure that allows [researchers] to reconstruct behaviors, is a very rare thing in any part of the world,"...
"We are convinced that it was an intentional deposition of the girl's body; perhaps there were more burials at Neanderthal sites but they were not recognized as such," ...
The fact is, the Neanderthal took care of their dead... Traces of them have also been found in France and Israel.
(Excerpt) Read more at elpais.com ...
Thal (pronounced tal - silent h) means valley. So, he's saying it's should be called Neander valley valley.
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