Curiosity is a defining feature of human nature. There would be no him, there would be no amazing discoveries and inventions. The habitat of people in the 21st century would be limited to the cave and the surrounding area, used as a hunting ground for animals. Stone knives, axes, scrapers - this is the tool that was able to produce human mind, not burdened with scientific knowledge, but steadily striving for them.

It was this aspiration that made man, in the end, the full-fledged master of the entire planet. He became the one and only perfect crown of nature, completely commanding the lands under his control. It would seem that this course of events is quite natural. It was not muscle mass, not speed and dexterity that prevailed in the struggle for dominance over the endless land, but intelligence, which, in the end, ensured an unconditional victory.

A person unconsciously went to power over the world, sweeping aside all those who stood in his way. However, it was not difficult to deal with opponents, since they were creatures with a lower mental organization. That is, in fact, people on Earth did not have worthy competitors. Wise nature, having created an uncountable number of species and subspecies among animals, for some reason completely missed a person from her zone of attention.

This point of view is fundamentally mistaken: nature never misses anything - everything is calculated, balanced and rational. People who lived in ancient times were not the only intelligent creatures that inhabited the blue planet.... This became known quite recently - just some 150 years ago.

How the remains of a Neanderthal man were found

Such a sensational discovery was preceded by a boring and tedious routine of hard work in the quarries. They were produced in Germany in the Rhine province, in the valley of the Dussel River (a tributary of the Rhine). That valley of Neander was called in honor of the pastor, theologian and composer Joachim Neander (1650-1680). He did a lot of good to people during his lifetime, but in this case, his name has already worked for the benefit of science and education.

On one hot summer day in 1856, digging blocks of granite from a mountainous firmament, workers reached a small ledge of rock. Immediately behind him was a smooth wall, smoothly descending to the river bank. After a couple of blows with a pick, it turned out that it was clay. She easily succumbed to the shovel, and soon a spacious grotto opened. Its bottom was covered with a thick layer of alluvial silt.

The cave was a cozy and cool place where the workers of picks and shovels settled down to dine. The company was located at the very entrance, having built a small fire and put a cauldron of stew on it. One of the workers accidentally stirred up the silt under their feet, and a long bone that turned yellow with age appeared, followed by several more.

The man took a shovel in his hands, removed a layer of silt from the rocky bottom of the cave and pulled out a human skull from the depression. It already smelled like a crime, so the police were called. The same one found it difficult to decide on the remains, although it was immediately obvious that they were of ancient origin.

Fortunately, in the nearest town he lived a very educated person Johann Karl Fuchlrott... He arrived at the scene at the urgent request of representatives of the law. As a school teacher, the above-named gentleman taught natural sciences. It was not difficult for him, after a thorough examination, to declare that the found skull and bones were more than one hundred years old.

This conclusion was sincerely delighted by the police, and they hurried to retreat, leaving the archaeological find to the teacher. He, in turn, drew attention to the strange shape of the skull. It seemed to be human as well, but at the same time it had a number of features that were unusual for Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens).

The volume of the skull, in size, exceeded the usual one. The frontal bones had a sloping, strongly sloping backward configuration. The eye sockets looked large; a bone protrusion in the form of an arc loomed over them. The massive lower jaw did not protrude forward, but had a streamlined flowing shape and very little resembled a human.

Only a few of the remaining teeth completely matched their appearance with the usual teeth of people. This suggested that it was still a skull of a Homo sapiens, and not some animal that had died in a cave many millennia ago.

Mr. Fuhlrott showed such an unusual item to specialists. The accidental find from the grotto caused a sensation in scientific circles. It really differed in many ways from the human skull, but at the same time it had a number of similar features. The conclusion involuntarily suggested itself: a distant ancestor of living people has been found.

Already in 1858, this hypothetical progenitor received the name Neanderthal(by analogy with the Neander Valley) and fit perfectly into the theory of Darwin, which took possession of scientific minds in the last decades of the 19th century.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) created a rather slender and convincing concept that man descended from ape by biological evolution... It was the Neanderthals who became the transitional species between ape-like ancestors and humans. Darwinists endowed them with primitive intelligence, the ability to create tools from stone and live organized communities.

Human evolution according to Darwin

Over time, it turned out that this theory has many flaws, and the ancestors of modern people are Cro-Magnons... The latter existed at the same time as the Neanderthals, had the same level intellectual development, but they were more fortunate. They survived, and the Neanderthals sank into oblivion, leaving behind only skeletons and primitive tools.

Why are Neanderthals extinct?

Why did the Neanderthals die out, what was the reason? The answer to this question has not yet been found, although there are a great many different hypotheses and assumptions. In order to somehow get closer to the solution, it is necessary, first, to get to know these ancient intelligent creatures better. Having general idea about their appearance, lifestyle, social structure and habitat, it is much easier to find an explanation for the mysterious disappearance of a whole humanoid species from the earth's surface.

Reconstructing the appearance of a Neanderthal from his skull

Neanderthals were by no means weak creatures unable to stand up for themselves. The height of an adult man did not exceed 165 cm, which is quite a lot (the average height of a modern person is equal to the same figure). A wide chest, strong long arms, short thick legs, a large head on a powerful neck - this is what a typical Neanderthal looked like during its existence on Earth.

The arms did not reach the knees, the feet were wide and long. The brain volume was 1400-1600 cubic meters. cm, which is superior to the human (1200-1300 cc). The facial features did not differ in the correct proportions, but they looked rude and courageous. A wide nose, thick lips, a small chin, powerful brow ridges, under which small but intelligent eyes were hidden. You don't even have to stutter about a high forehead. It had a sloping shape and smoothly passed into the back of the head.

On the left is the skull of a Cro-Magnon man, on the right is a Neanderthal man

Here is the creation of the hands of nature, which generously endowed its intelligent children with all possible virtues. The Neanderthals adapted to the harsh world as much as possible, in which they lived safely for many, many thousands of years. According to the most conservative estimates, they appeared on Earth 300 thousand years ago. They disappeared 27 thousand years ago.

The period of existence is enormous. More than a million generations have changed. It would seem that nothing foreshadowed a tragic end - and suddenly, for no apparent reason, it came. Degradation, degeneration of the species? Why, then, did the Cro-Magnons not die out? They lived the same time on earth, but crossed the fatal line and became people, filling the entire planet.

Biological characteristics of the Neanderthal organism and lifestyle

Maybe the answer lies in the biological characteristics of the Neanderthal organism? The maximum life span of an individual did not reach 50 years. By this time he was turning into a decrepit old man. The heyday of life fell on the period from 12 to 35-38 years. It was at the age of 12 that the Neanderthal turned into a full-fledged man, capable of childbearing, hunting and performing other social functions.

Only a few reached old age. Almost half of the Neanderthals died before they reached 20 years old. Approximately 40% left the mortal world in the period from 20 to 30 years. The lucky ones lived mostly until 40-45. Death has always gone hand in hand with paleoanthropes and was a common and common thing.

Numerous diseases; death while hunting or in skirmishes with other tribes; sharp teeth and claws of predatory beasts - these representatives of the hominid family were mowed down by the thousands. Women gave birth every year and by the age of 25-30 they turned into old women. In their physical development, they were inferior to men, possessing a flimsy constitution and shorter stature, but they had no equal in endurance, which once again emphasizes the rationalism and sanity of nature.

Neanderthals lived in small groups of 30-40 people... It is a person, since, according to the generally accepted classification, they belong to the genus of people, and their appearance is a Neanderthal person.

Each group had a leader - a leader. He took it upon himself to take care of the members of his small community. His word was law, failure to comply with an order was a crime. Only the leader had the right to divide the game caught in the hunt. He took the best pieces for himself, gave a little worse to the young hunters. The mature and the weak, as well as the women and children, were affected by everything else.

Strength was respected in this public education, but the weak were not oppressed, but supported in every possible way and given work to their strength. This indicates certain moral principles, high consciousness and the beginnings of humanism.

The dead were buried in shallow graves. The human corpse was laid on its side, the knees were pulled up to the chin. A stone knife, some kind of food, ornaments made of multi-colored pebbles or teeth of predatory animals were left nearby. The burial places were not marked in any way, or maybe something was done, but the merciless time destroyed and destroyed everything.

This is how the Neanderthals were buried

The diet of the Neanderthals was not very diverse. These members of the human race preferred meat to all other foods. Mammoths, buffaloes, cave bears - this is a list of those animals that adults and strong representatives of the community hunted with great skill and skill. The weaker and younger ones caught small animals, but they did not favor birds, giving priority to rodents and wild goats.

Neanderthals did not like fish. They ate it only in difficult times, since hunger is not an aunt, but in the absence of fish, as you know, cancer is a fish. However, here it should be noted that they did not disdain human flesh either. In the ancient sites of these people, the bones of not only mammoths and buffaloes, but also Cro-Magnons are often found.

For the sake of information, it should be noted that the latter are also far from angels. Cro-Magnons also ate Neanderthals, apparently considering such gluttony as common.

For a complete acquaintance with the representatives of this species, it is necessary to touch upon their habitat. Neanderthals lived mainly in Europe... Their favorite place is the Iberian Peninsula. The second place is probably occupied by the southern part of France. In Germany, there were much fewer Neanderthals, but they happily settled in the Crimea and the Caucasus.

The Middle East also did not escape the attention of these ancient people. They also inhabited Altai; their settlements are found in Central Asia... But the main concentration was in the Pyrenees. Two thirds of all Neanderthals lived here. These were their lands, on which the foot of the Cro-Magnon did not dare to set foot.

The latter made up for such a loss by other territories by making Apennine peninsula their ancestral domain. In the rest of Europe, Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons lived interspersed. It cannot be said that it was a friendly neighborhood. Numerous bloody clashes between members of the same biological genus were common.

Weapons for the Neanderthals were a club and a stone knife sharpened on both sides. They handled these simple objects very deftly. And on the hunt, and in skirmishes with enemies, the same club was a reliable means of both defense and attack.

A group of short, powerful, strong men was a formidable military formation, capable not only of defending itself, but also of attacking, turning the same Cro-Magnons into a shameful flight. The latter were much taller than the Neanderthals: their height reached 185 cm, but this achievement did not help much. The ancestors of modern man had long legs, arms, a muscular body, but all this did not differ in massive forms.

Cro-Magnons lost in their physical development to Neanderthals. In terms of dexterity, speed of reaction and mental development, they were equal. As a result, strength prevailed. The distant ancestors of modern man either retreated or died, and the mighty shorties celebrated victory by eating the bodies of their slain enemies. At the same time, they communicated through short phrases or separate words.

The Neanderthals' speech really did not differ in eloquence, and the sentences consisted of two or three words... This by no means meant that ancient people gravitated towards silent contemplation of the world around them and had a great gift - the ability to listen to others.

Everything rested on the structure of the nasopharynx and larynx. It is in the larynx that the vocal apparatus is located, thanks to which you can talk about absolutely different things for a long time and eloquently, striking those present with your extensive knowledge and original way of thinking.

The arrangement of these most important organs did not allow the mighty stalwarts to pronounce long ornate phrases. Nature deprived them of such opportunities from birth, which cannot be said about the Cro-Magnons. For those with speech, everything was in perfect order. However, this can be easily seen by looking at others.

Can underdeveloped speech cause extinction? huge amount of people? Unlikely. The same monkeys feel great in the harsh and dangerous world, not possessing the proper art of long-winded communication. And the Neanderthals themselves lived for almost 300 thousand years, transmitting information through individual words or short phrases. All this time they coexisted quite comfortably and understood each other perfectly.

The relationship between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons

If you compose an approximate chronology of events so ancient period, then the following picture becomes clear. The first Neanderthals appeared on the Iberian Peninsula 300 thousand years ago. Around the same time, the first Cro-Magnons appeared in Southeast Africa. These two human species did not intersect in any way, existing on different continents for 200 thousand years.

The first ancestors of modern man moved to the Middle East about 90 thousand years ago. Neanderthals already lived in these lands. Apparently there were few of them, and the newcomers did not compete with them in the hunt. The world abounded in a variety of animals, but the Cro-Magnons, in addition to meat, used with great pleasure and vegetable food, as well as fish and birds.

Over time, they penetrated into Europe, but, settling on these lands, again did not interfere with the Neanderthals. Those, mainly, clustered in the Pyrenees and the south of France. The ancestors of modern man chose the Apennine Peninsula and began to actively settle in the Balkan Peninsula. This peaceful coexistence lasted for 50 thousand years. An enormous period, considering that modern civilization is no more than seven thousand years old.

Problems and clashes between these paleoanthropes began about 45 thousand years ago. What contributed to this - the advance of ice from the north? They crawled to 50 degrees c. NS. and significantly influenced the flora and fauna of the surrounding world. It got colder in both the Pyrenees and the Apennines. Sub-zero temperatures have become common in winter period... True, the snow cover was small and made it possible for herbivores to eat without problems.

Where there are a lot of well-fed animals, there people have no problems with food. Therefore, more than one thousand years passed before the Neanderthals disappeared forever from the surface of the blue planet. Couldn't influence them glacial period, and mammoths - the main source of food - became extinct only 10 thousand years ago.

Then there may be a natural process of mixing two subspecies of people. Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals gradually united into single communities, they had children from joint marriages, and, in the end, a single species turned out, which became the progenitor of modern man.

On such an assumption, back in the 90s, science said a categorical "no". Scientists examined the mitochondrial DNA of modern humans and a similar molecule taken from the remains of a Neanderthal man. There was nothing in common between them.

Mitochondrial DNA transmitted only from the mother and practically does not change over the millennia. It follows that all of humanity descended from one progenitor (mitochondrial Eve). The short stalwarts turned out to have a completely different foremother, who gave life to the first of them many, many thousands of years ago.

Decades flashed, centuries passed, slowly crept away into the eternity of millennia. Neanderthals lived, reproduced, hunted. They managed to withstand the hard times of the ice ages, of which there were as many as three on their account. They did not waste their identity and strength in the fertile times of the interglacial periods. And all of a sudden they perished as one, leaving no trace of themselves as a reminder.

First, this human species disappeared in the lands of Germany, then France and the Middle East. Cro-Magnons firmly settled in the above-mentioned areas. They not only did not become extinct, but on the contrary - they actively began to multiply, gradually moving further and further to the East.

The settlements of the Neanderthals remained, only, in the Pyrenees. This was their original place. It was from here that they began their journey, gradually settling in Europe and neighboring regions of Asia. Their separate communities even reached Altai and Central Asia.

The last stronghold served the mighty stalwarts as reliable protection. They held out on their native peninsula for another thousand years. True, the remaining five centuries before its disappearance, the lands dear to the heart had to be shared with the shameless Cro-Magnons. They very quickly settled in the Pyrenees and began to crowd out the original owners.

The path of evolution of the Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals

Living together was characterized by outbreaks of hostility, then by long periods of peace. The end was fatal for some and happy for others. The last Neanderthals disappeared 27 thousand years ago... Cro-Magnons, however, having slightly changed in appearance, are still prospering. They are actively multiplying - their number has already surpassed the figure of 6 billion.

The mystery of the disappearance of the Neanderthals

So what is this killing program that has started in a certain period of time? It should be noted right away that the Neanderthals were far from alone in their tragedy. Many representatives of the animal world have sunk into eternity just 30-10 thousand years ago. As an example, we can cite the same mammoths that disappeared without a trace from the planet for unknown reasons.

Science today cannot explain this phenomenon. There are a number of concepts that claim to be absolute truth, but there is no single theory capable of objectively reflecting the entire spectrum of contradictions and focusing it in a single and coherent system based on absolute and error-free evidence.

The process of extinction of the Neanderthals took more than one thousand years. Their population increased and decreased. In the end, people disappeared, unconditionally giving way under the sun to the more successful and adapted to the harsh and rational reality.

The mystery of the disappearance of this human species may also lie in areas far from official science. Maybe the Neanderthals have found an entrance to other worlds, to other dimensions. Having left the existing reality, they now thrive in a different reality: they develop, improve, and even surpass modern people in the level of scientific and technological progress.

Living in the sublunary world, the mighty stalwarts, like the slender Cro-Magnons, dreamed, loved and fought daily for their survival on planet Earth. They have sunk into oblivion, but, in any case, they had a certain impact on the ancestors of modern man. Who knows, there may be some positive either negative traits character inherent in the currently living, are derived from psychological type what the Neanderthal was.

All these are just guesses and assumptions. The essence of the problem is such that ineradicable human curiosity, in the end, will play a positive role in this matter as well. The secret will become clear, and the current generations, and maybe their closest descendants, will finally learn the whole truth about their distant relatives.

Article by ridar-shakin

Based on materials from foreign publications

About 30 thousand years ago, the Neanderthals disappeared. Before that, they lived safely on Earth for a quarter of a million years. Where did they go? Contemporary research allow you to open the veil of secrecy over this issue.

Cousins

The name "Neanderthal" (Homo neandertalensis) comes from the name of the Neanderthal Gorge in West Germany, where a skull was found in 1856, later recognized as a Neanderthal skull. This name itself came into use in 1858. Interestingly, the mentioned skull was already the third in the time of detection. The first Neanderthal skull was discovered back in 1829 in Belgium.

Today it has already been proven that Neanderthals are not the direct ancestors of humans. Rather, cousins.

For a long period of time (at least 5000 years), Homo neandertalensis and Homo Sapiens coexisted together.

Recent studies by the German professor Svante Paabo and Dr. David Reich have shown that Neanderthal genes are present in most people, with the exception of Africans. True, in a small amount - from 1 to 4%. Scientists believe that in the conditions of migration to the Middle East, Cro-Magnons came across Neanderthals and involuntarily mingled with them. The human and Neanderthal genomes are approximately 99.5% identical, but this does not mean that we are descended from Neanderthals.

Rituals

Contrary to popular belief, Neanderthals were not underdeveloped semi-animals. This ignorant stereotype is refuted by numerous findings.

The burial found in the La Chapelle-aux-Seine grotto in France proves that it was the Neanderthals who were the first to put flowers, food, and toys to the deceased. Probably, it was the Neanderthals who played the first melody on Earth. In 1995, a bone flute with four holes was found in a cave in Slovenia, which could play three notes: "do", "re", "mi". Rock carvings of Neanderthals from the Chauvet cave in France are already about 37 thousand years old. As you can understand, the Neanderthals were a fairly highly developed branch of the human race. Where have they disappeared?

glacial period

One of the main versions of the disappearance of the Neanderthals is the version that they could not withstand the last glaciation and became extinct due to the cold. Both due to lack of nutrition, and for other reasons. The original version of the reasons for the death of the Neanderthals was proposed by the anthropologist Ian Gillian and his colleagues from the Australian state university... They believe that the Neanderthals became extinct due to the fact that they did not master the skills of sewing warm clothes in time. They were initially better adapted to the cold, and this played a cruel joke with them. When the temperature dropped sharply by 10 degrees, the Neanderthals were not ready for this.

Assimilation + cold

A scientific group led by Professor Tjord van Andel from Cambridge in 2004 carried out large-scale research and gave such a picture of the disappearance of Neanderthals. 70,000 years ago began global cooling... With the advance of glaciers, both Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals began to retreat to southern Europe. Judging by the archaeological finds, it was during this period that ancient man made attempts at interspecific crossing, but such offspring were doomed. The last Neanderthal was found in the Pyrenees, 29,000 years old. Physical data: height - about 180 cm, weight - under 100 kg.

Genocide

According to another version, the reason for the disappearance of the Neanderthals could be the first genocide in history, for example, anthropologist Stephen Churchill from Duke University (USA) adheres to.

The genocide was committed by the Cro-Magnons - the ancestors of modern people. Early Homo Sapiens came to Europe about 40-50 thousand years ago, and after 28-30 thousand years, the Neanderthals completely died out. These 20 thousand years of coexistence of the two species were a period of intense competition for food and other resources, in which the Cro-Magnons won. Perhaps the decisive factor was the ability of the Cro-Magnons to handle weapons.

In 1856, a mysterious skeleton was discovered in a cave in the Neandertal Valley (Germany). For almost 2 centuries, scientists have been arguing who this is - our ancestor or just a dead-end branch of evolution. One of the main secrets of the Stone Age is the mystery of the disappearance of the Neanderthals. Why 30 thousand years ago these strong masters of the Middle Paleolithic disappeared from the face of the Earth, making way for the representatives of the species Homo sapiens? Some are convinced that the ancient species lives next to us and the stories about the "Bigfoot" are stories about the Neanderthals.

In 1848, a skull was found on the territory of the Gibraltar fortress during construction work. The workers gave the skull to one of the officers of the garrison, and he handed the find to the scientists, but they did not attach much importance to this.

In 1856, workers at a quarry in the Neandertal Valley discovered a complete skeleton and dumped the bones in a dump. There, a German scientist, archaeologist-paleontologist Fulrott stumbled upon them. The find caused the scientific world huge interest, fierce disputes flared up - who it is. The skeleton was named Neanderthal after the area where it was found. But the opinion that he belonged to the ancestor of the inhabitants of these places was disputed. German anthropologist Rudolf von Virchow even stated that the skull belongs to a mentally handicapped person of the modern type. But there were scientists who expressed the opinion that we are talking about the closest ancestor of man. Subsequently, 20 complete skeletons of this creature were found in different countries the world. Further, for many decades to date, fierce disputes about the Neanderthal have not subsided: whether this is our ancestor, or a dead-end branch of evolution. Currently, most are convinced that the Neanderthal is quite independent view Homo sapiens, and our ancestor was a Cro-Magno man. Interestingly, at a certain historical interval, the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon existed side by side. Then, for some unknown reason, 30 thousand years ago, this type of ancient intelligent creatures disappeared from the face of the Earth.

And finally, another discovery - there were significant differences within the Neanderthal species. It is customary to divide Neanderthals into "early" and "classical". It is believed that the time of the "early" or Prana Neanderthal began 200 thousand years ago and ended with the time of the "classical" - 30 thousand years ago. In the last interglacial period, the most dangerous creatures - the early Neanderthals - walked through the forests of the planet. Outwardly, they were strikingly reminiscent of modern humans and had a brain volume (1400-1450 cm3), which practically corresponds to those parameters in our country (1350-1500 cm3). This species had a round nape, a softened supraorbital ridge, a perfect dental system, and a prominent forehead crowned with an elongated face. True, the finds indicate that the features of the Pratoneanderthals were different.

The age of classical Neanderthals is the last glaciation of the Earth (80-35 thousand years). Unlike the early Neanderthal, the classic had to live in a harsh climate. Therefore, he was well adapted to the cold: a strong, massive build (height 155-165 cm) with short lower limbs and a curved femur. Despite the later period of their existence, the classical Neanderthals had more animal features: a strongly developed brow, a wide nose, and a flattened nape with a roller on top. The chin protrusion was either absent or poorly defined. Interestingly, they had a large brain volume (1350-1700 cm3). This indicates a possible good mental ability, a high level of energy. But it does not at all follow from this that the Neanderthal was more intelligent than modern man. Bone remains of the classical Neanderthals also testify to their kinship with the early Neanderthals. It is curious that the early Neanderthal is on the evolutionary ladder closest to modern humans - Homo sapiens sapiens. Representatives of this latter species first appeared only during the last glaciation.

Scientists have found that Neanderthals were not tied to the ground and led an active lifestyle, hunting and gathering. They used tools that were easily held in incredibly powerful and sturdy hands. These prehumans had huge shoulder blades, a curved forearm bone, which helped them deftly throw darts, and do scraping. They received such development over hundreds of thousands of years of labor with the use of stone tools. By the age of 6, children were already able to walk long distances. The skin of the Neanderthals was rather fair. It is quite possible - dirty, bruised and abraded, as they constantly earned their food. It is estimated that a Neanderthal male should have consumed at least 6 pounds of meat per day. 50 thousand years ago, Europe was teeming with game: there were horses, deer, lions, musk oxen. The Neanderthals hunted them with simple, effective spears with stone points bolted to the shaft with deer veins. As a rule, hunting was dangerous, and scientists found many skeletons with injuries in the upper torso. Injuries to the legs could be especially fatal and the only thing that scientists did not see was the healed fractures of the lower extremities. Most likely, tribesmen with such injuries were left to die on the spot.

In 2008, the remains of Neanderthals were examined in the El Sidrón cave in the province of Asturias. The remains of 12 Neanderthals were found in the cave. This find played a very important role in the study of the species. Most likely, these were members of the same family, torn to pieces by cannibals. The victims' skulls were broken and their jaws were gouged. Apparently, their tongues were ripped out and their brains were eaten. Through DNA analysis, scientists discovered that some Neanderthals had red hair. Based on the skeleton and DNA, experts modeled a red-haired Neanderthal woman named Wilma, who was huge in size. The lady absorbed more than 4 thousand calories per day. At the same time, scientists believe that the Neanderthals, although they were cannibals, took care of their fellow tribesmen. The remains of a 40-year-old man were found in a cave in Iraqi Kurdistan. They named him Nandi. Nandi was a freak: he had an underdeveloped right side of his body, he did not have his right arm up to the elbow, he had traumatic head injuries, an eyesore. It was established that Nandi suffered from arthritis throughout his life. Nevertheless, he lived to be 40 years old and, most likely, died after falling from a cliff 46 thousand years ago. Obviously, the tribesmen did not abandon the freak in trouble, although he was an obvious burden for them. Moreover, the healed hand indicates that the Neanderthals had some medical knowledge and could even perform the simplest surgical operations.

The remains of an eleven-year-old boy, 95 thousand years old, were found in the Skul cave (Israel). Examination of the skull showed that it had traumatic injuries that had been healed several years before the boy's death. These cases indicate that the Neanderthals had companionship towards their fellow tribesmen and cared for them in the same way as modern people do. Most likely, they had close family ties. Moreover, these primitive people took care of their dead. In a cave in southern Uzbekistan, Academician A. P. Okladnikov in 1938 discovered the skeleton of a Neanderthal boy, 10–12 years old. Many bones and horns of goats were found in the burial, which formed a fence. And in Europe, Neanderthal skulls have been found several times, surrounded by stones of the same shape and size. Sometimes there were flint or bone trinkets in the graves. Even the burial of a miscarriage was discovered in France (Dordogne). The most remarkable find is the grave of a man in the Shanidar cave. She is 60 thousand years old. Archaeologists have discovered there ... pollen from flowers. Paleobotanist Arlette Leroy-Gouran concluded that fresh flowers were placed in the grave. Further research showed that six of the seven plants whose pollen was found in the burial have medicinal properties and are used as traditional medicine in Iraq.

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Judging by the studies of human evolution, the Neanderthal could have descended from one of the subspecies of Homo erectus -. Heidelberg man, was one of several species and was not an ancestor of man, although he had the ability to make tools and use fire. The Neanderthal became his descendant and the last in this evolutionary line.

The very name "Neanderthal" refers to the discovery of the skull of a representative of this species. The skull was found in 1856 in West Germany in the Neandertal Gorge. The gorge itself, in turn, was named after the famous theologian and composer Joachim Neander. It should be noted that this was not the first find. The remains of a Neanderthal were first found in 1829 in Belgium. The second find was discovered in 1848 in Gibraltar. Subsequently, many remains of Neanderthals were found. Initially, they were attributed to the direct ancestors of man, and it was even suggested that human evolution could look like this - Australopithecus-Pithecanthropus-Neanderthal-modern man. However, then this point of view was rejected. As it turned out, neither the Neanderthal nor the Neanderthal have anything to do with the ancestors of humans and are parallel branches of evolution, completely extinct.

After examining the remains of the Neanderthals, it became clear that they were almost as evolved as the Cro-Magnons. Moreover, there are suggestions that the Neanderthal could be even smarter than the Cro-Magnon, since the volume of his cranium was even larger than that of a modern man and amounted to 1400-1740 cm³. The growth of the Neanderthals was about 165 cm. They also had a massive physique. In appearance, they differed from modern people and our ancestors, who existed at the same time, the Cro-Magnons. Distinctive features of their face were powerful brow ridges, a wide protruding nose and a small chin. The short neck is tilted forward. The hands of the Neanderthal were short, paw-like. According to some assumptions, the skin of the Neanderthals was light, and the hair was red. The structure of the brain and vocal apparatus of the Neanderthal indicates that they possessed speech.

The Neanderthal was clearly ahead of the Cro-Magnon in strength. He had 30-40% more muscle mass and the skeleton is heavier. Apparently, having met one on one, the Neanderthal could easily defeat the Cro-Magnon. However, despite this, the Cro-Magnon was the winner in the interspecies battle. Archaeologists find the bones of the Neanderthals at the Cro-Magnon sites, on which there are traces characteristic of eating. Also found were necklaces made from Neanderthal teeth - apparently belonging to warriors and worn as a trophy showing military merit. Another curious find is a Neanderthal tibia, which Cro-Magnons used as a box containing ocher powder. These and many other finds suggest that Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals could wage war over territories, and Cro-Magnons even ate Neanderthals for food.

Despite the fact that the Neanderthals were more powerful in appearance, the Cro-Magnons were still able to exterminate them. Scientists make the assumption that this outcome of events happened due to the fact that there were much more Cro-Magnons, that the Cro-Magnons had new weapons (throwing, more modern spears, axes), which the Neanderthals did not have. There is also speculation that by that time the ancestors of humans were able to tame the dog / wolf, which made it possible to hunt people of a different species more efficiently. In addition, there are suggestions that the Neanderthals were not completely destroyed, and some of this species was assimilated to the Cro-Magnons.

Neanderthals were able to create tools for labor and hunting. They could use stone-tipped spears for close combat. Also, the Neanderthals had art. For example, an image of a leopard was found on the bone of a bison, ornaments were painted shells with holes. Finds of birds with cut feathers may indicate that Neanderthals adorned themselves with feathers, like the American Indians.

It is believed that the Neanderthals could for the first time have the beginnings of the emergence of religious ideas, life after death. This conclusion can be drawn from studies of the burials of Neanderthals. In one of the burials, a Neanderthal rests in the form of an embryo. Researchers attribute this method of burial to the concept of the rebirth of the soul, when the deceased is given the shape of an embryo, believing that this will help him become a newborn again and come into the world in a different body. Flowers, eggs and meat were found near another grave of a Neanderthal, which speaks of the cult representations of the Neanderthals - feeding the spirit or making offerings to the spirits. However, other researchers doubt the religious beliefs of the Neanderthals, explaining the presence of flowers and positions of the embryo by random factors or later strata.

Cro-Magnons. Archaeological finds and reconstructions:

Neanderthal

The first remains of a Neanderthal were found by the British in 1848 during the construction of a fortress in Gibraltar. In 1856, in Germany, near the city of Dusseldorf in the Neander River valley, while clearing a small cave for a quarry, workers stumbled upon the remains of a creature, which they initially took for a cave bear. They found the skull cover and bone fragments of the limbs - all this was taken to the local teacher Johann Fulrott, who determined that the remains belonged ancient man... In 1908, the skeleton of an old Neanderthal man was discovered in a grotto near the village of La Chapelle-aux-Seine in southwestern France, and many stone tools were unearthed nearby in Le Moustier Cave. According to the place of finds, the European type of Neanderthals was named Shapel, and its culture - Mousterian. With its appearance on Earth, the Middle Paleolithic began.

It is believed that the Neanderthals evolved from homo erectus in the period 300-150 thousand years ago. Their remains are found throughout Europe, in the Near and Middle East and in Uzbekistan. Neanderthals living in different areas were different from each other and changed over time. The Neanderthal was stocky, with powerful muscles and a massive skeleton. His growth was small, in men he reached 165 cm. The superbly developed brain of the Neanderthal allowed him to be called a reasonable man. The volume of his brain was equal to the volume of the brain of a modern person.

The main weapon of the Neanderthals, apparently, was the spear. In the Mousterian era, the old tools, known back in Achel, changed quite a lot and new ones were added to them. Previously, massive hand-held axes, the weight of which sometimes reached 2 kg, have now significantly decreased in size, and the technique of their manufacture has become more sophisticated. New tools invented by the Neanderthals are divided into two main types: points and side-scrapers. Perhaps it was Neanderthal man who figured out how to make fire himself. It is not known exactly where and when man first invented this method and what kind of method it is, but the Neanderthals knew it perfectly in various regions of the world.

The Neanderthal did not live, like his ancestors, in a primitive herd; the tribal community is replacing the herd. Unlike an animal, man took care not only of himself and not only of his own children, but also of the entire community. Instead of eating all the prey on the hunting ground, the Neanderthals carried it into a cave, where women, as well as children and the elderly, were busy with housework by the burning fire.

The most important sign of the intelligence of a Neanderthal was the emergence of abstract thinking in him. It found its expression in the emergence of religious ideas, as evidenced by the appearance of the burial ceremony for the dead.

The Neanderthal knew how to talk. However, studies have shown that if the Chapel Neanderthals could not pronounce most of the consonants and vowels, then their fellows living in the Middle East had a fairly coherent speech.