The stereotypes that surround ancient humans were that they were not intellectually developed people, hunting animals using crude means and living life wearing leaves. However, the research shows that not all cavemen were primitive.
Man has evolved a long way since he parted company from his jungle cousins, the apes. Apes share ancestors with humans, and like us are also considered primates. Some primates learned to walk on two legs, which is where the evolutionary path to humanity started. Evolution is is the process of change that turned our ancient ancestors into homo sapiens, and it continues on today.
Early primates evolved into the genus homo about 2 million years ago. In the modern day world, the animal that is closest to humans genetically is the chimpanzee, which shares 98.4% of its DNA with humans.
Somewhere in the middle of this evolutionary journey, the Neanderthals came into picture. The Neanderthal was a species of the Homo genus which inhabited Europe and parts of western and central Asia.
Neanderthals had many adaptations to a cold climate: short, robust builds, and rather large noses - traits selected by nature in cold climates. Their cranial capacity was larger than modern humans, indicating that their brains may have been larger. Compared to modern humans, Neanderthals were similar in height but with more robust bodies, and had distinct features of shape, especially of the skull.
The skulls gradually accumulated more unusual traits, particularly in certain relatively isolated geographic regions. Evidence suggests that they were much stronger than modern humans. Their relatively robust stature is thought to be an adaptation to the cold climate of Europe. It is commonly believed that Neanderthals were not able to speak complex language.
However, the discovery a bone similar to that in the modern human's mouth suggests that technically, Neanderthals had the power of speech. It is a common assumption that these were very primitive creatures who did not know how to perform the basic tasks such as hunting and farming. However, this has been proven wrong by research carried out recently in England.
Dozens of tools thought to have belonged to Neanderthals have been dug up at an archaeological site called Beedings in West Sussex. Neanderthals are thought to have used tools of the Mousterian class, which were often produced using soft hammer percussion, with hammers made of materials like bones, antlers, and wood, rather than hard hammer percussion, using stone hammers. A result of this is that their bone industry was relatively simple.
There is evidence that they routinely constructed a variety of stone implements. Neanderthal tools most often consisted of sophisticated stone-flakes, task-specific hand axes, and spears. Many of these tools were very sharp. There is also good evidence that they used a lot of wood, objects which are unlikely to have been preserved until today.
Neanderthals hunted large animals, such as the mammoth. Stone-tipped wooden spears were used for hunting and stone knives were used for butchering the animals. They are also believed to have gathered wild plants like their ancestors, Homo erectus.
Neanderthals also performed many sophisticated tasks which are normally associated only with humans, such as controlling fire, constructing complex shelters, and skinning animals. This study has silenced many people who doubted the technological advancement of the Neanderthals.
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