Posted on 06/14/2007 5:56:19 PM PDT by blam
Neanderthals 'were ahead of their time'
Last Updated: 2:42am BST 14/06/2007
Big, brutish and stupid - it's a commonly held view that our prehistoric predecessors were as wild and unsophisticated as the animals they hunted.
Neanderthal man was 'as smart as we are'
But Neanderthal man was not as slow-witted as he looked and was in reality as smart as we are, an archaeologist claims.
They were actually innovators who used different forms of tools to adapt to the ecological challenges posed by harsh habitats as they spread through Europe. Although our ancestors have become the butt of jokes about people who are stupid or unenlightened, they were years ahead of their time.
Dr Terry Hopkinson, of Leicester University, said Neanderthals were far from behaviourally static and incorporated different forms of tool construction into a single technique.
He said: "There has been a consensus that the modern human mind turned on like a light switch about 50,000 years ago, only in Africa."
But the modern traits accompanying the change such as abstract art, the use of grindstones and elongated stone blades, and big-game hunting began to accumulate in Africa from 300,000 years ago.
Archaeological finds from across Europe also show the Neanderthals fused two forms of tool-making called the faconnage and the debitage techniques. Neanderthals had previously been thought of as incapable of innovation, said Dr Hopkinson, as it was assumed to be something unique to Homo sapiens.
“Brain size correlates to IQ. Neanderthals had bigger brains the we do.”
If that were true, whales would be the most intelligent creatures on earth.
I’m reminded of Paul Reiser’s joke about Neanderthals in heaven, groaning that the one doofus in the tribe was the one the archeologists dug up: “And guess who they base our whole civilization on! Howie! Remember him, that loser? With the bad teeth, and the stoop, and that huge unibrow? Aw jeez...”
Maybe you're not smart enough to recognize that they are?
Next question,
If “Neanderthals” were stronger and smarter than we, Why are we the survivors?
Necessary to adjust that to apply only to primate brains. Whales are pretty stupid when you get right down to it and their brains are constructed differently.
We have better looking women.
Do you know if they used throwing sticks to enhance the effectiveness of their spears?
Accomplishment correlates better to IQ. Neanderthal flint tools never progressed. They remained extremely crude, while homosapien tools evolved into finer and finer instruments.
“Although our ancestors”
I thought I’d read numerous times from several different sources that Neanderthals share no common DNA with modern Humans...has this changed recently?
We all know what happens when you assume. Anyway, it's only a matter of time before we recognize Neanderthal men as "men".
So, where are they?
Then why didnt he invent the IPOD?
Here's one being interviewed!
So, they really did invent roast duck with mango salsa?
lol
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