Neanderthal men

Main article: History of mankind. Main dates

Number

As of 2016, the number of Neanderthals has never exceeded 70 thousand people.

Physiology

Permanent teeth

In homo sapiens, permanent teeth appear at 10 years old, in Neanderthals - at 6 years old.

Neanderthals in Russia

Main article: Paleolithic in Russia

Speech

Did Neanderthals have a speech? In 2024, Doctor of Philology Svetlana Burlak answered this question:

"The language of the Neanderthals probably had - at least for sure there was a articulate sounding speech, because it appeared in our ancestor, Heidelberg, in common with the Neanderthals.

And studies of the available Neanderthal hyoid bone suggest that it experienced the same loads as the hyoid bone of modern sapiens who talk. And then - the question of what you are ready to count for the "language": what properties should the communicative system have in order for you to recognize it as the "language"? Or "primitive language"? If articulate speech is enough for you, then Neanderthals had language. If you need something else, then you need to look for the appropriate data that could shed some light on this particular aspect. "

Account

"The sacred ratio of Neanderthals to such quantities (numbers) as 3, 4 is also revealed. 5, 8, 10. So, the skull of a Mousterian boy from the burial of the Teshik Tash cave on Tien Shan surrounded a hedge of five pairs of goat horns. Therefore, in this case, a later traditional, chthonic symbolism was used: numbers - 5 and 10 (as well as circumference (here as the emblem of the lon), and the choice of horns (the goat later - the emblem of the fire of the underworld god-father); i.e. relatives (Neanderthals), burying the child, prayerfully called both to the mother goddess and to the father god for the speedy revival of the deceased by them). Operation with numbers 5 and 10, perhaps, certifies the use of Neanderthals when counting the fingers of both hands (and legs) ^[1]

Violence

• Armed violence in the Paleolithic L. B. Vishnyatsky, 2014, PDF

Outlook

2023: Collection of 35 horned skulls found in Neanderthal cave in Spain

In January 2023, it became known that during excavations in the Cueva Des Cubiert cave (Central Spain), archaeologists found 35 skulls of large horned mammals: bison, bison, deer and rhinos. The fact that the collection of skulls was collected by Neanderthals living in this cave is confirmed by other finds - stone tools and animal teeth.

Experts suggested that it was possible that Neanderthals collected animal skulls for ritual purposes. This means that representatives of this extinct branch of the genus Homo could have a complex spiritual world.

So far, many Neanderthal caves have been excavated, but the one found by scientists in the Cueva Des Cubiert cave has not been observed in any of them. The strange thing is that the cave contains only skulls and not other parts of animal skeletons of much greater food interest.

For example, modern hunter-gatherers never bring the heads of their prey home, because they are very heavy and have little meat.

All this allows us to conclude that Neanderthals, collecting bison and bison heads decorated with horns in their cave, did not do this for the sake of survival. The skulls were brought to the cave deliberately, systematically and purposefully, since, most likely, they had symbolic significance and were used for ritual purposes, scientists say.

Nevertheless, it remains unclear why only this group of Neanderthals was engaged in collecting skulls, because nothing like this has been found in their other habitats before. Moreover, it seems that Neanderthals from Cueva Des Cubiert maintained such a tradition for several generations - the remains of skulls are found at the entire depth of the layer of sedimentary rocks on the floor of the cave, which took many years to form.

History

44 thousand hp: Displacement from the Mandrin cave in France

Among the 12 archaeological layers explored in the Mandrin Cave in France are successively Mousterian, created by the late Neanderthals, then the layer of the non-Ronese culture Homo Sapiens. On top of it is again the Mousterian culture and, finally, the layer of the Aurignacian culture belonging to people of the modern type.

Comparison of teeth and tools found in different cultural layers of Mandren Cave. Found in layer E (53,000-55,000 years ago), the human milk root tooth and tools are sharply different from teeth and tools from other layers belonging to Neanderthals. Image: Ludovic Slimak et al.

All this suggests that Neanderthals and modern humans alternately lived in the same territory, replacing each other.

Scientists have suggested that the first Homo Sapiens inhabited Mandren Cave for a relatively short period of about 2000 years, after which they were again replaced by Neanderthals. And only 44,000 years ago, the latter were finally supplanted.

It was previously believed that the resettlement of people to Europe led to a fairly rapid disappearance of Neanderthals, but, apparently, the interaction between them was much more complicated. For more details see History of France

43,000 hp: The last Neanderthals on the Iberian Peninsula

Main article: History of Spain

The most important Neanderthal sites on the Iberian Peninsula as of 2016

55 thousand hp: Old man from La Chapelle-au-Seine

The old man from La Chapelle-au-Seine is one of the most famous Neanderthal skeletons. On August 3, 1908, he was found by Catholic priests brothers Amedi and Jean Buissoni, climbing into the Buffia de Bonneval cave in the French commune of La Chapelle-au-Seine.

The skeleton, which belonged to a toothless old man, lay on his back, head west, with his right hand bent and his legs raised to his body. The discoverers considered that the burial of the Neanderthal was intentional, in a well specially dug for this purpose. In the 21st century, a new study of the cave confirmed the assumption of the Buissoni brothers. The age of the find, according to modern estimates, is 50-60 thousand years.

It was this skeleton that became the reference skeleton, serving as the basis for numerous subsequent studies and comparisons.

The appearance of the old man from La Chapelle-au-Seine was repeatedly reconstructed. A version by forensic anthropologist Elizabeth Dines.

The old man limped and suffered from pain in his hip due to dislocation, a few weeks before his death he broke his hip, suffered from osteoarthritis. Most of the teeth are missing, and the alveoli are overgrown. This means that after losing his teeth, this person lived for a significant time, although it was difficult for him to chew. This means that it is likely that in the last years of his life, the old man was supported by fellow tribesmen.

In 2021, scientists added brucellosis to the list of diseases from which an elderly Neanderthal suffered: in their opinion, some pathological changes in bones are caused by this infectious disease, which could be caused by eating poorly fried or raw meat infected with bacteria.

65 thousand hp: Neanderthals in Cueva de Ardales

Main article: Cueva de Ardales

Movies

• Disappeared People (2016)

Notes