1. Origin of the name
1.1 The time and place of the appearance of Homo sapiens have been revised
3. Features of physiology
6. Culture
6.1 Dwellings
6.2 Customs
6.3 Art
6.4 Science (medicine)
7. Settlement of Europe by the Cro-Magnons. The displacement of Neanderthals from the lowlands to the middle and highlands
8. Disappearance
9. The emergence and development of speech. Linguistics
10. Notes
11. Literature
Neanderthal man (lat. Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) is a fossil species of people who lived 300-24 thousand years ago. Due to assimilation with the Cro-Magnons, it is partly the ancestor of modern man.
1. Origin of the name
The name comes from a skull found in 1856 in the Neandertal Gorge near Düsseldorf and Erkrath (West Germany). The gorge was named after Joachim Neander, a German theologian and composer. Two years later (in 1858), Schaaffhausen introduced the term "Neanderthal" into scientific use.
1.1 The time and place of the appearance of Homo sapiens have been revised
An international team of paleontologists has revised the time and place of the origin of Homo sapiens. The corresponding study was published in the journal Nature, briefly reported by Science News.Experts have discovered on the territory of modern Morocco the remains of the oldest representative of Homo sapiens known to science. Homo sapiens lived in northwestern Africa 300,000 years ago.
In total, the authors examined 22 fragments of the skulls, jaws, teeth, legs and arms of five people, including at least one child. From modern representatives of Homo sapiens, the remains found in Morocco are distinguished by an elongated back of the skull and large teeth, which makes them look like Neanderthals.
Previously, samples found on the territory of modern Ethiopia, whose age was estimated at 200 thousand years, were considered the oldest remains of Homo sapiens.
Experts agree that the find will advance the understanding of how and when Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons appeared.
2. The most important fossil finds
Fossil sites of typical Neanderthals
Neanderthals inhabited:
Europe: Neanderthal in Germany, La Chapelle-aux-Seine in France, Kiik-Koba in Crimea, Peloponnese in Greece
Caucasus: Mezmayskaya cave in the Krasnodar Territory
Central Asia (Teshik-Tash) and Altai (Okladnikov cave)
Near and Middle East: Carmel in Israel, Shanidar in Iraqi Kurdistan.
3. Features of physiology
Neanderthals had an average height (about 165 cm), a massive physique and a large head of an unusual shape. In terms of the volume of the skull (1400-1740 cm3), they even surpassed modern people. They were distinguished by powerful superciliary arches, a protruding wide nose and a very small chin. The neck is short and, as if under the weight of the head, is tilted forward, the arms are short and paw-shaped.
Neanderthals were red and fair-skinned. Neanderthals have a mutation in the MC1R receptor gene. The red hair color and white skin color of modern Europeans are also associated with mutations in this gene.
The average life expectancy was 22.9 years. The identity of the FOXP2 gene (associated with speech) in modern humans and Neanderthals, as well as the structure of the vocal apparatus and brain of Neanderthals, allows us to conclude that they could have speech.
The muscle mass of the Neanderthal was 30-40% more than that of the Cro-Magnon, the skeleton is heavier. Also, Neanderthals adapted better to the subarctic climate, since the large nasal cavity warmed up the cold air better, thereby reducing the risk of colds.
Karen Steudel-Numbers of the University of Wisconsin-Madison determined that Neanderthals had a 32% higher energy cost to move around than modern humans due to their dense build and shortened tibia, which shortens the stride. Using the model of Andrew W. Froehle from the University of California at San Diego and Steven E. Churchill from Duke University, it was clarified that the daily food requirement of a Neanderthal compared to a Cro-Magnon living in those the same climatic conditions, it was more by 100-350 kilocalories. And special chemical studies of bone tissue showed that Neanderthals constantly ate meat.
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany) have discovered a gene in Neanderthals that prevents the absorption of milk (lactose) in adulthood. Also, during the research, it turned out that Neanderthals were unfamiliar with many hereditary diseases of modern people - autism, Alzheimer's disease, Down syndrome, schizophrenia.
4. Reconstruction of appearance
Reconstruction of a Neanderthal man and woman, Neanderthal Museum, Mettmann, Germany
How were they different from us?
5. Kinship with modern man
In 2010, Neanderthal genes were found in the genomes of a number of modern peoples. "Those of us who live outside of Africa carry some Neanderthal DNA," Professor Paabo said. “The genetic material inherited from Neanderthals is between 1 and 4%. It's not much, but it's enough to argue that a significant part of the traits are reliably inherited in all of us, except for Africans, ”said Dr. David Reich from Harvard, who also participated in the work. The study compared the Neanderthal genome with the genomes of five of our contemporaries from China, France, Africa and Papua New Guinea.
PS
Just a joke
The son of a learned linguist, tearing himself away from a textbook, where it is indicated: they say that language is a separate module in the brain - a virtual, or something, a textbook of this language into which this person is born, ”asks his father:
- My younger brother babbles and babbles, but nothing is clear. Was he not born Russian?
Neanderthals are an extinct, dead-end lineage of humans named after a valley near Düsseldorf, Germany, where they were found in 1856. They lived on Earth about 200 thousand years ago.
What did Neanderthals look like?
Their appearance to modern people seems unusual and even ugly. Medium height, shorter than modern adults. Broad-boned, with protruding powerful cheekbones, limbs shorter than those of Homo sapies, sloping cheekbones and chin, overhanging brow ridges. Weighed an average of about 90 kilograms. But the volume of the brain and skull was greater than the indicators of modern Homo sapiens. They were able to speak, although their speech was different from ordinary human.
Where did they live?
Neanderthals lived in the pre-glacial zone of the Earth. Their remains were found in Africa, Eurasia, Central Asia, southern Siberia, and also in the Far East. They conquered the highlands and the Tropics. But the Neanderthals did not move far to the North, presumably, this is due to changing climatic conditions.
What did the Neanderthals do
Neanderthals hunted large animals: deer, mammoths, rhinos. They learned how to make fire to heat their homes and cook food. They knew how to keep the fire going. There were some rites of culture and the beginnings of art. They were collecting. They knew how to take care of their fellow tribesmen. Unlike more ancient people, Neanderthals have a belief about the afterlife and a ritual of burial of the dead. The established tradition of seeing off those who have gone to another world lives on to this day.
Biological features of the existence of Neanderthals
High mortality, short lifespan left Neanderthals little time to pass on experience to the next generations. They waged a strong struggle with nature for existence. Those people who managed to survive were distinguished by a stronger physique, a progression in the development of the brain and limbs. There was a kind of natural selection.
Almost like people, but not yet a person
Neanderthals mastered fire, they had religious rites, they could create weapons and tools, but outwardly they differ from HomoSapies. There is an assumption that the Neanderthals did not die out and were not exterminated, but went high into the mountains and got lost in the rainforests. The meeting of contemporaries with the so-called Bigfoot is a meeting with a Neanderthal or a flathead. And it is too early to put the final point in the relationship of the Neanderthal with the man.
General information
Neanderthal, Neanderthal man(lat. Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis; in Soviet literature was also called paleoanthropist) is an extinct species from the genus People (lat. Homo). The first people with the features of Neanderthals (proto-Neanderthals) appeared in Europe about 600 thousand years ago. Classical Neanderthals formed about 100-130 thousand years ago. The latest remains date back to 28-33 thousand years ago.
In 2006, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences announced that the Neanderthal genome would be sequenced over the next few years. In May 2010, preliminary results of this work were published. Research has shown that Neanderthals and modern humans could have interbred, and every living person (except Africans) carries between 1 and 4 percent of the H. neanderthalensis genes. The sequencing of the complete Neanderthal genome was completed in 2013 and published in Nature on December 18, 2013.
Discovery of Neanderthal Man
For the first time, the remains of H. neanderthalensis were discovered in 1829 by Philippe-Charles Schmerling in the caves of Enzhi (modern Belgium), it was the skull of a child. In 1848, the skull of an adult Neanderthal was found in Gibraltar (Gibraltar 1). Naturally, neither find at that time was considered as evidence of the existence of an extinct species of people, and they were classified as the remains of Neanderthals much later.
The type specimen (holotype) of the species (Neanderthal 1) was found only in August 1856 in a limestone quarry in the Neandertal valley near Düsseldorf (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). It consists of a cranial vault, two femurs, three bones from the right hand and two from the left, part of the pelvis, fragments of the scapula and ribs. The local gymnasium teacher Johann Karl Fulroth was interested in geology and paleontology. Having received the remains from the workers who found them, he drew attention to their complete fossilization and geological position, and came to the conclusion about their considerable age and important scientific significance. Fulroth then handed them over to professor of anatomy at the University of Bonn, Hermann Schaaffhausen. In June 1857, the discovery was announced, this happened 2 years before the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. In 1864, at the suggestion of the Anglo-Irish geologist William King, a new species was named after the place of its discovery. In 1867, Ernst Haeckel proposed the name Homo stupidus (i.e., the man is stupid), but in accordance with the rules of nomenclature, King's name remained the priority.
In 1880, the jaw of a child of H. neanderthalensis was found in the Czech Republic, along with tools from the Mousterian period and bones of extinct animals. In 1886, excellently preserved skeletons of a man and a woman were found in Belgium at a depth of about 5 m, also along with numerous Mousterian tools. Subsequently, the remains of Neanderthals were found in other places on the territory of modern Russia, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Iran, Uzbekistan, Israel and other countries. To date, the remains of more than 400 Neanderthals have been found.
The status of the Neanderthal as a previously unknown variety of ancient man was not established immediately. Many prominent scientists of that time did not recognize him as such. Thus, the outstanding German scientist Rudolf Virchow rejected the thesis of a “primitive man” and considered the Neanderthal skull to be just a pathologically altered skull of modern man. And the doctor and anatomist Franz Mayer, having studied the structure of the pelvis and lower limbs, put forward a hypothesis that the remains belonged to a person who spent a significant part of his life on horseback. He suggested that it could be a Russian Cossack from the era of the Napoleonic wars.
The name "Neanderthal" comes from a skull found in 1856 in the Neandertal Gorge near Düsseldorf and Erkrath (West Germany). The gorge was named after Joachim Neander, a German theologian and composer. Two years later (in 1858) G. Schaafhausen introduced the term "Neanderthal" into scientific use.
Origin and classification of Neanderthal Man
Hypothetical evolutionary tree of the genus Homo. Neanderthal man - left branch.
Almost since the discovery, scientists have been debating the status of Neanderthals. Some of them are of the opinion that the Neanderthal is not an independent species, but only a subspecies of modern man (lat. Homo sapiens neanderthalensis). This is largely due to the lack of a clear definition of the species. One of the hallmarks of the species is reproductive isolation, and genetic studies suggest that Neanderthals and modern humans interbred. On the one hand, this supports the point of view about the status of Neanderthals as a subspecies of modern man. But on the other hand, there are documented examples of interspecific crossing, as a result of which fertile offspring appeared, so this feature cannot be considered decisive. At the same time, DNA and morphological studies show that Neanderthals are still an independent species.
Comparison of the DNA of modern humans and H. neanderthalensis shows that they originated from a common ancestor, dividing according to various estimates from 350-400 to 500 and even 800 thousand years ago. The probable ancestor of both these species is the Heidelberg man. Moreover, Neanderthals originated from the European population of H. heidelbergensis, and modern man - from the African and much later.
For many thousands of years, two kinds of people coexisted in the European part. In particular, at the sites of both Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, gnawed bones of a different species were found. Jean-Jacques Hublen, a professor at the University of Bordeaux, believes that the two types of people were mostly at enmity.
However, there is also evidence of admixture between Neanderthals and modern humans. In 2009, Professor Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig reported at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science of the successful reading of the Neanderthal nuclear genome. Initially, no signs of hybridization of Cro-Magnons with Neanderthals could be found. However, by May 2010, Neanderthal genes were found in the genomes of a number of modern peoples. "Those of us who live outside of Africa carry some Neanderthal DNA," Professor Paabo said. “The genetic material inherited from Neanderthals is between 1 and 4%. It's not much, but it's enough to argue that a significant part of the traits are reliably inherited in all of us, except for Africans, ”said Dr. David Reich from Harvard, who also participated in the work. The study compared the Neanderthal genome with the genomes of five of our contemporaries from China, France, Africa and Papua New Guinea. Crossing was recorded and probably took place shortly after the migration of the ancestors of modern man from Africa, that is, in the Middle East, since three people from different regions of the world, with the exception of Africa, have approximately the same proportion of Neanderthal genes. Reverse genetic drift, from modern humans to Neanderthals, has not been found. This is due to the interaction of a small group of African colonists with a large population of Neanderthal natives who inhabited the Middle East at that time. At the same time, the authors of the study cannot completely discard the alternative explanation for the presence of Neanderthal genes in modern humans, according to which a small group, from which the entire population of Eurasia, America and Australia originated, was initially genetically different from the rest of the African population and was closer to Neanderthals, than the rest. Crossing is only the most likely version. In Riparo di Mezzena (northern Italy), the remains of a hybrid of Neanderthal and Homo sapiens, who lived approx. 30-40 thousand years ago. In Staroselye (Crimea), a burial of a child of the species Homo sapiens with separate Neanderthaloid features was found.
Appearance of Neanderthal Man
Men of this species had an average height of 164-168 cm, weight about 78 kg, women - 152-156 cm and 66 kg, respectively. The volume of the brain is 1500-1900 cm 3, which exceeds the average brain volume of a modern person.
The vault of the skull is low, but long, the face is flat with massive superciliary arches, the forehead is low and strongly inclined back. The jaws are long and wide with large teeth, protruding forward, but without a chin protrusion. Judging by tooth wear, Neanderthals were right-handed.
Their physique was more massive than that of a modern person. The chest is barrel-shaped, the torso is long, and the legs are relatively short. Presumably, the dense physique of Neanderthals is an adaptation to a cold climate, because. in connection with a decrease in the ratio of body surface to its volume, heat loss through the skin decreases. The bones are very strong, this is due to the highly developed muscles. The average Neanderthal was much stronger than modern man.
Analysis of the bone structure shows that Neanderthal children looked like small adults and probably reached puberty as early as 8-10 years old. The average life expectancy was 22.9 years.
The muscle mass of the Neanderthal was 30-40% more than that of the Cro-Magnon, the skeleton is heavier. Also, Neanderthals adapted better to the subarctic climate, since the large nasal cavity warmed up the cold air better, thereby reducing the risk of colds.
Karen Steudel-Numbers of the University of Wisconsin-Madison determined that Neanderthals had a 32% higher energy cost to move around than modern humans due to their dense build and shortened tibia, which shortens the stride. Using the model of Andrew W. Froehle from the University of California at San Diego and Steven E. Churchill from Duke University, it was clarified that the daily food requirement of a Neanderthal compared to a Cro-Magnon living in those the same climatic conditions, it was more by 100-350 kilocalories. Despite the fact that Neanderthals constantly ate meat, as evidenced by special chemical studies of bone tissue, the study of their feces showed that the diet also included berries, nuts and tubers.
Scientists from the Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology of the Max Planck Society in Leipzig (Germany) have discovered a gene in Neanderthals that prevents the absorption of milk (lactose) in adulthood. Also, during the research, it turned out that Neanderthals were unfamiliar with many hereditary diseases of modern people - autism, Alzheimer's disease, Down syndrome, schizophrenia.
Habitat of Neanderthal Man
Fossil remains of Neanderthals have been found on a large territory of Eurasia, which includes such modern countries as Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Czech Republic, Israel, Iran, Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan. The easternmost find is the remains found in the Altai Mountains (Southern Siberia).
However, it should be noted that a significant part of the period of existence of this species fell on the last glaciation, which could destroy evidence of the habitation of Neanderthals in more northern latitudes.
In Africa, traces of H. neanderthalensis have not yet been found. This is probably due to the adaptation to the cold climate of both themselves and the animals that formed the basis of their diet.
sociology
Archaeological evidence shows that Neanderthals spent most of their lives in small groups of 5-50 people. There were almost no old people among them, because. most did not live to be 35 years old, but some individuals lived up to 50. There is a lot of evidence of Neanderthals caring for each other. Among those studied there are skeletons with traces of cured injuries and diseases, therefore, during the cure, the tribesmen fed and protected the wounded and sick. There is evidence that the dead were buried, and funeral offerings are sometimes found in the graves.
It is believed that Neanderthals rarely met strangers in their small territory or left it themselves. Although there are occasional finds of high-quality stone products from sources more than 100 km away, they are not enough to conclude that there was trade or even regular contact with other groups.
H. neanderthalensis made extensive use of various stone tools. However, over hundreds of thousands of years, the technology of their manufacture has changed very little. In addition to the obvious assumption that Neanderthals, despite their large brains, were not very smart, there is an alternative hypothesis. It lies in the fact that due to the small number of Neanderthals (and their number never exceeded 100 thousand individuals), the likelihood of innovation was low. Most Neanderthal stone tools belong to the Mousterian culture. Some of them are very sharp. There is evidence of the use of wooden tools, but they themselves have practically not survived to this day.
Neanderthals used a variety of weapons, including spears. But most likely they were used only in close combat, and not for throwing. Indirectly, this is also confirmed by a large number of skeletons with traces of injuries inflicted by large animals, which Neanderthals hunted and which made up the bulk of their diet.
Previously it was thought that H. neanderthalensis fed exclusively on the meat of large land mammals such as mammoths, aurochs, deer, etc. However, later finds have shown that small animals and some plants also served as food. And in the south of Spain, traces of the fact that Neanderthals ate marine mammals, fish and shellfish were also found. However, despite the variety of food sources, getting enough of it was often a problem. Skeletons with signs of diseases caused by malnutrition serve as proof of this.
Dwellings
Paola Villa refers to the Neanderthal period a hut with a fire pit found on the territory of Nice (Terra Amata), while the discoverer of the monument Henri de Lumle believes that the hut was built by an earlier Heidelberg man.
According to studies of the Balzi Rossi caves in Italy by Julien Riel-Salvatore of the University of Colorado and his colleagues, the Neanderthal dwelling was divided into three "zones". In the first of them, in the upper part of the dwelling, there was a “kitchen”, as evidenced by the remains of animals found in this zone and traces of ocher, which was used for dressing skins, as glue and as an antiseptic. In the second zone, which was the most spacious, there was a hearth and there was a sleeping place. The third zone was a "workshop" where stone tools were made, as it had the most sunlight and the least risk of anyone interfering with the work.
customs
Based on the results of the analysis of the remains of twelve Neanderthals who died under the collapse of the El Sidron cave in the north of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain), it turned out that three men, one woman, two teenagers and a child of 8-9 years old had a common mitochondrial haplotype, conventionally designated by researchers as "A" (which indicates a close relationship). The other two found adult women had mitochondrial haplotypes conventionally designated as "B" and "C", different from the main one in the group. Also common with one of these women haplotype "C" was in a teenager and children aged 2-3 and 5-6 years. This analysis testifies to the patrilocality of the Neanderthals, that is, that the young men who reached puberty remained in the group, and the girls moved into the husband's family, as well as closely related marriages within the group. The minimum interval between births in Neanderthal women (judging by the age of children with haplotype "C") is comparable to that in the tribes of modern hunter-gatherers, in which it averages 3.4 years.
Art
The earliest known musical instrument, the 4-hole bone flute, is attributed to Neanderthals. However, the analysis of the edges of the holes showed that the holes could also be hyena teeth marks, so the “flute” could also have a natural origin.
Neanderthals knew how to use homemade tools and weapons, but, apparently, they did not have any throwing weapons - they killed their prey with a blow of short spears, as evidenced by traces of developed muscles on the bones of the right hand.
On the banks of the Loire in the town of La Roche-Cotard (fr. La Roche-Cotard) was found a stone about 10 cm high, which has a striking resemblance to a human face. The stone is dated 35 thousand years ago. This is evidence that the Neanderthals had an idea about art. However, similar "masks" have not yet been found at other sites, which does not allow us to make an unambiguous conclusion about the existence of this kind of art.
Parallel scratches on bones (Arcy-sur-Cure, Bachokiro, Molodova), pits on a stone slab (La Ferrassi) are associated with Neanderthals. Quite rare are finds of ornaments in the form of drilled teeth of animals dated about 30-34 thousand years ago. Samples of these drawings are the image of a leopard scratched on a bison bone from the Pronyatyn site (Podolia, Ukraine) dated about 30-40 thousand years ago, and a not very clear figure of a deer or elk on a mammoth shoulder blade from the Molodovo I site (Bukovyna, Ukraine) . There are also perforated and painted shells belonging to Neanderthals, which apparently served as decoration.
During the excavation of the Neanderthal site near Verona, scientists from the University of Ferrara discovered the remains of 22 species of birds whose feathers were cut off. Bearded vulture, red-footed vulture, Eurasian black vulture, golden eagle, wood pigeon and alpine jackdaw have been identified. The color of these birds varies from black and gray to blue and orange, and the feathers are quite long. It is assumed that Neanderthals decorated themselves with feathers, varying the color ornament.
Religion
Neanderthals were carriers of the Mousterian culture. In the grotto of La Chapelle-aux-Seine in France, a shallow burial was discovered with a skeleton in the fetal position. Flowers, eggs and meat were left near the body, which may indicate a belief in an afterlife and the presence of religious and magical practices.
Some burial customs of Neanderthals and modern humans are close. For example, in Iraq, a burial of a 40-year-old man was discovered, on which his fellow tribesmen laid flowers - there was a lot of pollen around the skeleton. Other customs vary. So, Neanderthals, who lived in the harsh conditions of the Ice Age, often ate their dead relatives - out of 300 skeletons found, only 12 were well preserved. The rest have traces of meat separation, the bones contain tiny fragments of flint tools.
The religious practice of European Neanderthals is also represented by the "cult of bear skulls", which suggests the existence of rites of hunting magic. At the Ilskaya site, there was a cult of bison skulls.
The culture of the Neanderthals (the so-called "Mousterian", or, what is the same, the Middle Paleolithic culture) is primarily double-edged axes, sharpened better than similar tools of H. erectus, as well as various flakes used for butchering carcasses. The Neanderthals also had wooden spears with stone tips for close combat. At a later time, already during contacts with sapiens (see below), the beginnings of art appeared among Neanderthals (a necklace of bear claws, something like “flutes” - bones with drilled holes, which, however, could serve to make fire, and not for musical practice.
The medicine
In all human civilizations there is an analogue of the profession of a chiropractor - a person who is professionally engaged in the restoration of broken limbs of people and animals, and also restores joints in case of dislocations. Thus, in the analysis of 36 Neanderthal skeletons with fractures, only 11 fracture treatment results were found to be unsatisfactory. This shows that already at this level of development, the effectiveness of medical care for fractures exceeded 70%, primitive people knew about fractures and knew how to treat them.
A 50,000-year-old find in the Shanidar Cave (Iraq) showed that Neanderthals cared for wounded tribesmen. A collapse in the grotto killed two cripples, who apparently were alone there while the rest of the group hunted or did other things. One of them had fresh wounds on the ribs, the other had a healing fracture of the skull.
Ability to speak
It is assumed that Neanderthals already had a great deal of speech. Indirectly, this is evidenced by the production of complex tools and the hunting of large animals, requiring communication for learning and interaction. In addition, there is anatomical and genetic evidence: the structure of the hyoid and occipital bones, the hypoglossal nerve, the presence of a gene responsible for speech in a modern person.
FOXP gene identity 2 (associated with speech) in modern humans and Neanderthals, as well as the structure of the vocal apparatus and the brain of Neanderthals, allow us to conclude that they could have speech. According to academician V.V. Ivanov, the Neanderthal "could have had a language of consonants with a small number of vowels, which is also found in human languages."
Hypotheses of the extinction of the Neanderthals
There are several hypotheses explaining the disappearance of this species, which can be divided into 2 groups: those related to the emergence and spread of modern man and other reasons.
According to modern ideas, modern man, having appeared in Africa, gradually began to spread to the north, where by that time the Neanderthal was widespread. Both of these species coexisted for many millennia, but eventually the Neanderthal was completely replaced by modern man.
There is also a hypothesis linking the disappearance of the Neanderthals with climate change caused by the eruption of a large volcano about 40 thousand years ago. This change led to a decrease in the amount of vegetation and the number of large herbivorous animals that fed on vegetation and, in turn, were the food of the Neanderthals. Accordingly, the lack of food led to the extinction of H. neanderthalensis themselves.
It is unlikely that there will be a person who will take the liberty of making an unambiguous conclusion about whether the Neanderthals died out or were assimilated into subsequent species and generations of representatives of the human race. The name of this subspecies was determined by the Neandertal Gorge in West Germany, where an ancient skull was found. At first, the people working in this place suspected the criminal overtones of the find, and therefore got scared and called the police. But the event turned out to be more significant for history.
Period the rise of Neanderthal man(Fig. 1), who lived in Europe and Western Asia (starting from the Middle East - and ending with South Siberia), is considered a period of time, 130-28 thousand years, going back centuries. Despite the many signs of body and head construction, as well as the behavioral features that make Homo neanderthalensis similar to modern man, the most difficult living conditions left a peculiar imprint in the form of a massive skeleton and skull. But this fellow countryman from the past, specialized in a predatory way of life, could already be proud of the volume of the brain, which in its value exceeds the average indicators characteristic of even many of our contemporaries.
Rice. 1 - Neanderthal
The find at first did not make a proper sensation. The significance of this discovery was realized much later. It so happened that it was this type of fossil people that was given the greatest amount of work and time of scientists. As it turned out, even among the representatives of the human race of non-African origin living in our time, 2.5% of the genes are Neanderthal.
External features of the Neanderthal
Upright, but stooped and stocky representatives of this subspecies of Homo sapiens, who knew all the hardships of existence during the period of total glaciation, had a height of: 1.6-1.7 meters - in men; 1.5-1.6 - in women. The severity of the skeleton and solid muscle mass were combined with a volume of the cranium of 1400-1740 cm³ and a brain of 1200-1600 cm³. There was a feeling that a short neck was leaning forward under the weight of a large head, and a low forehead seemed to be running back. Despite the size of the skull and brain, which is almost the same as that of all of us, the inhabitants of the 21st century, the Neanderthal is distinguished by some flatness, a large width and flatness of the frontal lobes. The largest part of the brain is the occipital lobe, sharply leaning back.
Rice. 2 - Neanderthal skull
Forced to eat rough food, these people could boast of very strong teeth. Their cheekbones would surprise us with their width, and their jaw muscles with their power. But for all the size of the jaws, they do not protrude forward. But there is no point in talking about the beauty of the face by our standards, since the unpleasant impression of heavy brow ridges and a small chin is enhanced by the appearance of a huge nose. But such an organ is simply necessary to warm the cold air during inhalation and protect the upper and lower respiratory tract.
There is an assumption that Neanderthals had pale skin and red hair, while men did not grow beards and mustaches. The structure of their vocal apparatus is such that there is every reason to draw a conclusion regarding conversational capabilities. But their speech was partly like singing.
The resistance of people of this type to cold can be explained not only by the characteristics of their body, but also by hypertrophied proportions of the body. The impressive width in the shoulders, the width of the pelvis, the power of the muscles and the barrel-shaped chest, turned the body into some kind of ball, which worked on the intensity of warming and reducing heat loss. They had not only short arms, more like paws, but also a shortened tibia, which, given the density of the physique, inevitably led to a decrease in step and, accordingly, to an increase in energy consumption for walking (compared to people of our time - up to 32%).
Diet
The increased need to replenish the energy reserve is easily explained by the hardships of life at that time. Based on this, it becomes clear why they could not do without regular meat eating. For millennia, Neanderthals hunted together mammoths, woolly rhinos, bison, cave bears, and other large animals. Another item on the menu was roots mined with digging knives. But they did not eat milk, since German anthropologists managed to discover a gene belonging to the Neanderthal, because of which this product was not absorbed by the body of a mature person.
Dwellings
Of course, the most reliable and safe housing was the caves, where it was possible to single out a kitchen area with the remains of eaten animals, a sleeping place next to a large hearth, and also a workshop. But often they had to build mobile dwellings (Fig. 3) in the form of huts from large mammoth bones and animal skins. Usually Neanderthals settled in groups of 30-40 people, and marriages between close relatives were not uncommon.
Rice. 3 - Neanderthal mobile dwelling
Attitude towards death
During the time of the Neanderthals, the whole family participated in the burial of the dead. The bodies of the dead were sprinkled with ocher, and in order to block access to them for wild animals, large stones and skulls of deer, rhinos, hyenas or bears were piled on the grave, which served as part of some kind of ritual. In addition, food, toys and weapons (spears, darts, clubs) were placed next to the dead relatives. It was the Neanderthals who were the first in the history of mankind to put flowers on the graves. These facts confirm their belief in the afterlife and the beginning of the formation of religious ideas.
Tools for labor and cultural purposes
To collect roots, the Neanderthal skillfully wielded digging knives, and spears and clubs were used to protect themselves and their relatives, as well as for hunting, since they did not have throwing weapons and bows with arrows. And the decoration of various products was carried out with the help of drills. The fact that people, surrounded by a hostile world, lurking in many hardships and dangers, appreciated beauty, is evidenced by a flute of that time with 4 holes. Made of bone, it could give rise to a melody of three notes: “do”, “re”, “mi”. About the ideas of this subspecies of people about art, eloquently speaks of a find made near the town of La Roche-Cotard in 2003, which is a 10-centimeter stone sculpture in the form of a human face. The age of this product dates back to 35 thousand years.
It is not entirely clear how to perceive parallel scratches on the bones found near Arcy-sur-Cure, Bachokiro, in Molodov, as well as pits on a stone slab. And there are no questions about the use of jewelry from drilled animal teeth and painted shells. The fact that Neanderthals decorated themselves with compositions of feathers of different lengths and colors is evidenced by the remains of different types of birds (22 species), in which feathers were cut. Scientists were able to identify the bones of the bearded vulture, red-footed falcon, black Eurasian vulture, golden eagle, wood pigeon and alpine jackdaw. At the Pronyatyn site in Ukraine, an image of a leopard 30-40 thousand years old, scratched on a bone, was found.
Neanderthals, who are considered to be carriers of the Mousterian culture, used disc-shaped and single-area cores in stone processing. Their techniques for making side-scrapers, pointers, drills, and knives were characterized by chipping wide flakes and using padding along the edges. But the processing of bone material has not received proper development. The rudiments of art are confirmed by finds with a hint of ornament (pits, crosses, stripes). The presence of traces of staining with ocher and the discovery of a semblance of a pencil in the form of a piece worn off as a result of use should be put on the same scale.
Questions of medicine and care of relatives
If you carefully examine Neanderthal skeletons(Fig. 4), which left traces of fractures and their treatment, it is impossible not to admit that even at this stage in the development of civilization, the services of a chiropractor were provided. Of the total number of injuries studied, the effectiveness of medical care was 70%. To help people and their animals, this problem had to be dealt with professionally. The concern of fellow tribesmen for their neighbors is confirmed by excavations in Iraq (Shanidar Cave), where the remains of Neanderthals with broken ribs and a broken skull were found under the rubble. Apparently, the wounded were in a safe place, when the rest of the relatives were engaged in labor and hunting.
Rice. 4 - Neanderthal Skeleton
Questions of genetics
Judging by the decoding of the Neanderthal genome from 2006, there is every reason to believe that the divergence between our ancestors and this subspecies dates back 500 thousand years ago, even before the races known to us spread. True, the similarity of the DNA of the Neanderthal and modern humans is 99.5%. Cro-Magnons are considered to be the ancestors of the Caucasoid race, between whom hostile relations developed between them and Neanderthals, which is confirmed by the remains of each other's gnawed bones at the sites. Necklaces made of human teeth, as well as tibias with a cut-off joint, used as caskets, also serve as evidence of the confrontation.
The struggle for territory is evidenced by the periodic transition of caves from Neanderthals to Cro-Magnons - and vice versa. Judging by the equivalence of the technologies of both species, the driving force behind their development could be climate change: with the onset of cold weather, the hardy and strong Neanderthal man gained the upper hand, and with warming, heat-loving Homo sapiens. But there is an assumption about the crossing between them. Moreover, by 2010 Neanderthal genes were found in the genomes of many modern peoples.
As a result of the comparison Neanderthal genome with analogues of our contemporaries from China, France, and Papua New Guinea, the possibility of interbreeding was recognized. How did it happen: did men bring Neanderthals into their tribe, or did women choose Neanderthals, known as good hunters? It suggests itself that the Neanderthals are some kind of alternative branch of human development, which has dissolved over the centuries. Who but them can be considered super native Europeans? It was the Neanderthal who first settled Europe - and for hundreds of millennia he reigned supreme here. In terms of the level of predatory nature, only the Eskimos can be compared with them, whose diet, almost 100% consists of meat dishes.
The fate of the Neanderthals: versions and assumptions
As an answer to the question regarding the extinction of the Neanderthals, any of the modern concepts can be taken into account. One of them is the opinion of Alyosha Khodlichka, an anthropologist and the United States, who considers Neanderthals our ancestors at one of the stages of human development. According to his hypothesis, there is a gradual transition of the Neanderthal to the Cro-Magnon group. Has the right to life and the theory regarding the extermination of one species by another. There is also a version regarding Bigfoot, as the last representative of the extinct subspecies. Or maybe the Neanderthals continued their race in the form of homo sapiens mestizos.
Briefly - Neanderthal, Neanderthal man (lat. Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) is a fossil species of people who lived 300-24 thousand years ago.
Text -Early Neanderthals lived about 150,000 years ago, during the last interglacial period. Their appearance was close to the appearance of a modern person: a vertically elongated face, a round nape, the supraorbital ridge is somewhat softened, the forehead is convex, there are fewer primitive features in the dental system, the brain volume is very significant (1400-1450 cm3) and close to the value characteristic of a modern person ( 1350-1500 cm3). At the same time, numerous finds testify to the great variability of traits in different populations of early Neanderthals.
The age of classical Neanderthals is the last glaciation, i.e. 80-35 thousand years. In contrast to the early Neanderthal, the classical type has a strongly developed superciliary, a wide nose, a flattened nape from above, an angular contour of the occiput, and an occipital ridge. The chin protrusion is either absent altogether, or poorly marked. The size of the brain of a classic Neanderthal ranges from 1350-1700 cm3. There is no doubt that the Neanderthal man had great mental abilities, but it does not at all follow that he was more intelligent than modern man.
They were strong, massively built people, their average height was 155-165 cm. The lower limbs were shorter than those of modern people. A characteristic feature of the classical Neanderthal is the femur, which is strongly curved. This feature is unknown neither in modern man nor in the species Homo erectus, and some experts believe that this is a consequence of unfavorable living conditions: in contrast to the early non-! dertalz, the classic had to live in a harsh climate. Studies have shown that it was well adapted to the cold.
The most curious thing in this whole story is that it is the early Neanderthal that stands on the evolutionary ladder closest to modern man - Homo sapiens sapiens (representatives of this latter species first appeared only during the last glaciation). But at the same time, the bone remains of early Neanderthals also testify to their family ties with classical Neanderthals!
The “Neanderthal Age,” known to archaeologists as the Middle Paleolithic, began about 200,000 years ago and ended about 40,000 years ago. The classic Neanderthal reached its peak during the last glaciation. Scientists determine the maximum number of this species at 1 million individuals. Judging by numerous finds, Neanderthals quite densely populated Europe and western Asia, their habitat extended far to the east - to Uzbekistan. It is likely that some groups of Neanderthals came to America through the “land bridge” across the Bering Strait that existed at that time. Neanderthals came to Europe from the Middle East 45-40 thousand years ago, and this movement was directly related to changing climatic conditions.! Archaeologists and anthropologists have found numerous evidence that between 100 thousand and 50 thousand years. BC. significant climatic fluctuations were observed in the region of the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Average annual temperatures here began to rise, and the cold-loving Neanderthal began to gradually move to Europe.
With the Neanderthal, archaeologists confidently associate the culture of the so-called Mousterian type, which is characterized by a fairly large development.
