debido_shodo (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} debido_shodo) wrote,@ 2006-09-15 03:16:00 |
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The Last Stand of the Neanderthals?
Today the Associated Press reported that evidence of the most recent Neanderthals we know of has been found in Gibraltar. Now, paleoanthropology is a dubious field, given how scant the evidence is, but supposing that it actually is true that the Neanderthals died out in Gibraltar, I have to say, it makes a lot of sense. The general belief is that the Neanderthals were pushed West through Europe by, um, US, and there's something quite poignant in the thought that they may have died out there at what is really the end of Europe, as far as they were concerned.
Nobody really knows if we killed off the Neanderthals (that's what I suspect)--or if they died of diseases, perhaps spread by us, or habitat loss, so to speak, etc. But if you look at aboriginals who met up with European invaders, they suffered in all those ways. I know in the America, at least, it was disease that had the greatest impact.
The real news in this AP story is not so much that the evidence was found in Gibraltar as that it appears to date to as recent as 28,000 to 24,000 years ago--not really all that far from recorded history, although far enough.
BTW, if you want to read some terrific books, Jean M. Auels books about Ayla, a modern human orphan, raised by Neanderthals, are very entertaining. But definitely start at the beginning with Clan of the Cave Bear.
My only criticism of the series is that it all gets to be a bit repetitive after a while. One of the recurring patterns is that Ayla discovers some new technology. After a while, you realize she would have to be some sort of cosmic Leonardo Da Vinci to dream up all this stuff in the relatively short span of years--obviously, no more than one lifetime.
Today the Associated Press reported that evidence of the most recent Neanderthals we know of has been found in Gibraltar. Now, paleoanthropology is a dubious field, given how scant the evidence is, but supposing that it actually is true that the Neanderthals died out in Gibraltar, I have to say, it makes a lot of sense. The general belief is that the Neanderthals were pushed West through Europe by, um, US, and there's something quite poignant in the thought that they may have died out there at what is really the end of Europe, as far as they were concerned.
Nobody really knows if we killed off the Neanderthals (that's what I suspect)--or if they died of diseases, perhaps spread by us, or habitat loss, so to speak, etc. But if you look at aboriginals who met up with European invaders, they suffered in all those ways. I know in the America, at least, it was disease that had the greatest impact.
The real news in this AP story is not so much that the evidence was found in Gibraltar as that it appears to date to as recent as 28,000 to 24,000 years ago--not really all that far from recorded history, although far enough.
BTW, if you want to read some terrific books, Jean M. Auels books about Ayla, a modern human orphan, raised by Neanderthals, are very entertaining. But definitely start at the beginning with Clan of the Cave Bear.
My only criticism of the series is that it all gets to be a bit repetitive after a while. One of the recurring patterns is that Ayla discovers some new technology. After a while, you realize she would have to be some sort of cosmic Leonardo Da Vinci to dream up all this stuff in the relatively short span of years--obviously, no more than one lifetime.
