Interesting article here on the question of the extent to which Neanderthals did or did not live in caves. The word is in some circles synonymous with "caveman," and they may have lived in caverns moreso than did early modern humans. But then, a sheltered dwelling like that will preserve remains―human and otherwise―more than the open-air places they might have lived. We do know that their hunting habits required them to be rather nomadic.
But learning more is a challenge for paleoanthropologists. For humans a few centuries is a long time. Civilization as we know it is only a few millennia old. And we're talking about something like 100,000 years ago. There's a lot left to learn, but there will always be a lot to imagine. And that can be good.
2 comments:
That's an interesting thought about how early hominids may have lived. We know Neanderthals played music because a few bone flutes have been found and there have been some questions about some of the European cave art being their work. It's true, however, there are many things we'll never know.
Did you ever see the movie Quest For Fire? For some reason your post reminded me of the film made in the 80s about some early humans who's cave was attacked and their fire doused so a few brave guys were sent out to find another burning branch or something. I don't think they were supposed to be Neanderthals but they could just as well have been.
Some anthropologists have claimed that things like the bone flutes are from modern human camps where things have sunk down through soft ground into the old Neanderthal sites. Which you can see happening once in a while, but as the finds pile up the denials become less credible. What we really don't know is how the world looked to them.
I do know that I've seen Quest for Fire, albeit not recently. Mrs. Starkey, the biology teacher at LaSalle, showed it in class. I think they were supposed to be Cro Magnons, although I'm not positive.
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