Neanderthal skeleton. Neanderthals are ... Details of life

It is no coincidence that the Cro-Magnon man all unanimously also called "modern man." (Bearing in mind, of course, the modern Caucasoid.) The name "Cro-Magnon" is conditional: it is from the place of Cro-Magnon in France, where the first such skeleton was found. There is no biological reason not to call the Cro-Magnon the early Caucasoid — or you and me the late Cro-Magnon. If the question of the direct origin of blacks from Neanderthals is not yet posed very confidently (more confidently about the origin of Australoids from them; we are personally sure of both), then there is no doubt. Each representative of the European peoples and even some other (later) ones can say: Cro-Magnon is my great-great-great-great-grandfather.

This was understood already at the dawn of anthropology. The great German anthropologist Alexander Ecker (1818-1887) in the 60s of the XIX century discovered the skulls of the "northern type" in the graves of Southern Germany and established their identity with the skulls of modern Germans. Skulls of pure “northern type” everywhere in Scandinavia and Northern Germany were also discovered by the largest Swedish anthropologist Anders Retzius (1796-1860). It was on the basis of these numerous craniological series that it was suggested that the modern "northern type" in its structure dates back to the Cro-Magnon type of Paleolithic Europe. The classic of the French anthropological school Arman de Catherine (1810-1892) even called the ancient Cro-Magnon blond in the modern sense of the word. Ideally erect, very tall (average height 187 cm) and large-headed (brain volume from 1600 to 1900 cm?), They, like us, had a straight forehead, a high cranial arch, and a sharply protruding chin. Over time, having discovered the fingerprints of ancient sculptors on clay figures of the Paleolithic era, scientists established their complete racial identity with the modern Caucasoid.

Craniology data is a serious argument, as has already been said a lot. Therefore, they deserve not only trust, but also special attention and reflection on the data of science on the distribution of the Cro-Magnon skull across the globe.

As Eugen Fisher wrote in his work “Race and the emergence of races in humans” (1927): “One of the most justified hypotheses is that the Nordic race originated from the Cro-Magnon race, the builders of megaliths, dolmen burials in Scandinavia, Denmark, etc. According to the mentioned hypothesis , the Nordic race arose as a result of the modification of the Late Paleolithic race in the North as the presently inhabited places were freed from ice. The Nordic race arose here, at the same time it acquired its typical qualities. This is the best explanation of the origin of the Nordic race. ” Let us leave in this passage the question of the place of ethnogenesis of the Cro-Magnon for further discussion (as standing outside the competence of anthropologists) and accept the main thing: the Caucasians settled the North precisely as Cro-Magnon modifiers.

Were they already then divided into racial subtypes? Did subtypes already begin linguistic isolation? There is no doubt that sooner or later this happened. Darwin’s doctrine declares this quite reasonably: the consequence of natural selection is the divergence of signs. This means that one parent species can give rise to several new species. The waves of migrations from North to South, which were carried out by Cro-Magnons periodically throughout the entire foreseeable historical and prehistoric retrospective, are talking about exactly the same thing. Figuratively speaking, the Cro-Magnons up to the twentieth century AD “quanta” were sprayed to the South, East and West from their northern ecological niche as it overflowed.

But of course they did not call themselves Cro-Magnons. What were the names of the expansive "quanta"? They are called different sources in different ways, and we will omit the names of many forgotten today. In the Middle Ages, New and Modern, these, for example, were Germans, Spaniards, English, French, Dutch, Belgians, Russians. In more distant times - Franks, Vikings, Goths, Normans, Lombards. Before them - Germans, Celts, Huns, Scythians, Slavs. Before them are the Etruscans, proto-Hellenes, proto-thalics. The Indo-Aryans are before them, the Proto-Iranians are before them, the Hittites are before them ... They all spoke the languages \u200b\u200bof the Indo-European group, but during the time elapsed from the "quantum" to the "quantum", they managed to mutate to the utter impossibility of understanding.

Always “from top to bottom”, always from North to South, one after another wave of mass migrations (“invasions”), represented by all new descendants of the Cro-Magnon, rolled. At the same time, the late wave often rolled over to the early one; a fratricidal war broke out, all the more terrible because the warriors no longer saw each other as brothers, because time and mestizats with counter races and peoples sometimes unrecognizably changed their appearance and language. Brother did not recognize and did not understand brother. One "quantum" spoke Hittite, the other in Sanskrit, the third in Zend and Avestan languages, the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh in Greek, Latin, Finnish, Slavic ... Language barriers have already become rigid, and racial subtypes are the result of crossbreeding - already developed: how was it to restore kinship? In those days, it had never occurred to anyone to measure skulls to solve this problem!

The skulls were measured in Modern times - and gasped: the descendants of the Cro-Magnon, it turns out (judging by the protonordic skulls in the graves), they reached Central Africa, India, Oceania and Polynesia, not to mention Siberia, the Urals, Altai, Kazakhstan, China, Central Asia, Pamir and the whole Mediterranean, including North Africa and Western Asia. Etc.

Today, these descendants bear a variety of names, speak different languages, do not understand each other and are not considered related. But they all came from the Great Northern Platform, all have a common ancestor - Cro-Magnon.

WHERE did the Neanderthals go

As everyone knows, Neanderthals once inhabited all of Europe except Scandinavia and northern Russia: their remains are found in England, Germany, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, southern Russia (in Scythian barrows), etc. These are autochthons, old-timers of Europe. They were found in Central and Southeast Asia, and in Southern Siberia, in China, in the Crimea, in Palestine, in Africa (up to distant Rhodesia) and on the island of Java. We will not touch on the question of how they got there or where they came from. Different experts date the age of a Neanderthal in different ways: according to one source, it is 50-100 thousand years old, according to others, it is less reliable - as much as 200, 250 and even 300 thousand years. For now, it’s enough for us to take note of the thesis: “Anthropologists ascertain the presence of three variants of fossil humans in Europe during the mentioned period of anthropogenesis: 1) Neanderthals; 2) people of the modern type; 3) intermediate forms ”, specifying that by modern man we mean a Cro-Magnon man, and by intermediate forms a hybrid of the first two, and by no means a“ transitional link ”.

The first Neanderthal man was found near Düsseldorf in 1856. In 1997, researchers from the University of Munich analyzed the DNA of the remains of this very first Neanderthal man. The age of the find was determined to be 50 thousand years. A study of 328 identified nucleotide chains led the paleontologist S. Paabo to the conclusion: the differences in genes between Neanderthals and modern man are too large to be considered their relatives. This idea was confirmed by the research of M. Ponce de Leon and K. Zollikofer (University of Zurich), who compared the skulls of a two-year-old Neanderthal man and a little Cro-Magnon corresponding to the age. The conclusion was unequivocal: these skulls formed completely differently.

In the appearance of Neanderthals there were features very different from the Cro-Magnon, but still characteristic of the Negroid and Australoid race: the chin pressed back, large superciliary arches, very massive jaws. The Neanderthal man had a larger brain than the Cro-Magnon, but with a different configuration. The imperfection and small size of the frontal lobes of the brain was brightened by the presence of convolutions, indicating a certain development of mental abilities. In the interspecific struggle, such a brain did not become an advantage over the Cro-Magnon, but there is hardly any reason to oppose the Neanderthals to the homo sapiens as a whole, since they undoubtedly had a mind. And the structure of their palate, lower jaw, lower left frontal lobe of the brain (the speech zone of modern man) is such that it allowed Neanderthals to master the speech, although not too rich phonetically, due to the lack of a chin protrusion. The average height of men was 1.65 m, women were 10 cm lower. At the same time, men weighed about 90 kg due to very strongly developed muscles and heavy, strong bones.

The whole corpses of Neanderthals (like the corpses of mammoths) did not survive, because they were not found in permafrost soils. There are only skeletons. Therefore, for sure we cannot judge the color of their skin today. In popular pictures and school books, Neanderthals are usually painted as white-skinned erect creatures covered with rare wool. But this coloring is not based on anything. A number of scientists today put forward a much more plausible hypothesis that Neanderthals were black. This is evidenced by the geographical localization of the Neanderthals closest to us in time, who lived mainly in Central and South Africa and Java, and the color of those modern races that are reasonably considered descendants of the Neanderthal: Negroids, Australoids, Dravids, etc. Enough " repaint ”the Neanderthal from the school table to black - and before us with all the conviction there will be a creature that is extremely similar in appearance to the named races. Not only the skin and appearance, but also much more, for example, the structure of the tibia and ankle bones (whose articular planes indicate a habit of squatting for a long time, which is not typical for Caucasians) makes the Neanderthal related to modern residents of the South of the Earth. It is very characteristic that among the remains of the Cro-Magnons found in the grottoes of Grimaldi (Italy), the so-called "Grimaldis", there are two skeletons characterized by some scientists as black, and others as Neanderthal.

Neanderthals, like Cro-Magnons, were people, they were radically different from the animal world. Although people are biologically completely different, much inferior to Cro-Magnon man. Nevertheless, Neanderthals created their own culture, called Mousterian (Selsky and Acheulean): stone and bone chopped, scrapers, pointed, although not in such a wide assortment as Cro-Magnons, who created a dozen of two stone and bone "devices". Neanderthals also knew fire, already 40 thousand years ago they buried their dead with honor in a primitive rite, honored the afterlife, practiced hunting magic. At the same time, they appeared primitive jewelry: pendants made of animal teeth. Scientists believe, however, that they could adopt the custom of decorating themselves from Cro-Magnons. In any case, this is no longer characteristic of anyone in the animal kingdom. But Neanderthals, unlike Cro-Magnons, did not leave works of art (rock paintings, sculptures made of bones and burnt clay).

The relationship between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons was not idyllic. On the sites of Neanderthals, carefully fragmented and gnawed bones of not only big game, but also precisely processed bones of Cro-Magnons, that is, the ancestors of modern people, are found. And vice versa: in the sites of the Cro-Magnons, the fragmented bones of Neanderthals were found. The two proto-straits fought an irreconcilable war between themselves, a war of annihilation, of "destruction", as the Bible would put it. What war was accompanied, as fossil skeletons irrefutably testify, by racial confusion, most likely violent.

For about ten thousand years, a fierce confrontation of two protoras lasted on the same territory; but by the end of this period (about 40 thousand years ago), the Cro-Magnons ousted Neanderthals from Europe almost completely. Thirty thousand years ago, their remains still lived in the area of \u200b\u200bGibraltar, in the Pyrenees and mountains of Dalmatia. But in general, the "race of the vanquished" rolled further south into Western Asia and the Mediterranean, where the confrontation continued for many millennia.

As already quite reliably established, Cro-Magnons did not occur and could not come from Neanderthals. But they could mix with them (we emphasize and confirm this once again), “improving the breed”. Moreover, both on his own initiative and in addition to it, depending on the outcome of a particular interracial skirmish. If the men who were captured were in danger of being eaten, the fate of women could be completely different. A study of the Tasmanians, “stuck” in the Stone Age until their disappearance in the 19th century, showed that the tribal relations of the Paleolithic people, in addition to diplomacy, trade and war, certainly include the abduction of women. The breed of Neanderthals during the crossbreeding clearly improved, the breed of Cro-Magnon people equally deteriorated, but in one way or another, the process was so intense, lengthy and mutual in nature that it led, as already mentioned, to the formation of new ethnic groups and even races of the second order.

In his article “The Problem of Detecting Sapient and Neanderthal Lines in the Early Stages of Evolution” (Courier of the Petrovsky Kunstkamera. Issue 8–9, St. Petersburg, 1999), a prominent Russian scholar Yu. D. Benevolenskaya writes: more and more giving way to the idea of \u200b\u200bthe ousting of the former by a person of a modern type, which was accompanied by a crossbreeding between them.

Another outstanding domestic anthropologist A. A. Zubov in his article “Problems of intraspecific taxonomy of the genus homo in connection with modern ideas about the biological differentiation of mankind (Modern anthropology and genetics and the problem of races in humans. M., 1995) also indicates:“ We can talk about The “network-like" nature of the evolution of the genus homo at all stages of its evolution. It is important to note that the “network” could include various evolutionary “floors” that interacted with each other and made their genetic contribution to the common, single fund of the diversity of the evolving genus homo. ”

In other words, representatives of the “higher” human floors entered into sexual intercourse with representatives of the “lower”, Neanderthal, floors, as a result of which they produced mestizos, then numerically isolated to the level of entire peoples and races, which gave rise to the general evolutionary diversity of the genus homo.

The famous American biologist Anthony Barnett in his book “The Human Race” (M., 1968) also testifies that “people of the modern type appeared at about the same time, if not earlier than the Neanderthal man, and developed in parallel. The intermediate types between modern people and Neanderthals could be the result of either crossing, or the early phases of the divergence of Neanderthals from the line that led to modern man. "

In all likelihood, all territories, including Europe, where at one time or another both protorases — Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons lived at the same time — should be considered a mestization zone. Hybrid forms then continued to exist everywhere and give birth to offspring, crossing more and more with the dominant type - in Europe, the Cro-Magnon man became such as already 40 thousand years ago. Moreover, according to Darwin's theory, the signs of mixed forms as not provided for by natural selection (nature) in each generation were increasingly supplanted by the dominant signs of the Caucasoid, perceived over time as atavism. As a result, the Neanderthal traits among white Caucasians, although they are found to this day, are only rare. The closer to the south, the more often they are, and in the zone of Asia Minor and the Mediterranean, they either become dominant, or appear as hybrid ethnoses, which can be considered, for example, Semites, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Maghribines, etc. The mestization is whimsically selective: if Ethiopians have black skin and Caucasoid facial features, while Semites, on the contrary, often have Negroid (Neanderthaloid) facial features with white or olive (“mulatto”) skin, etc.

It is not surprising that entire peoples-hybrids arose in this zone, because it was here that the finale of the Great Neanderthal War was played for at least ten thousand years, and the two proto-races, locked between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlas Mountains, continued to sort things out until until they completely dissolved into each other and broke up into fancifully combined, but moreover, fairly homogeneous secondary races and ethnic groups. (The dominant type in this case disappeared as such and the possibility of returning to it - reversion - was generally excluded, although periodically both of the original types necessarily appear, but only singly and fragmentarily.)

This, in particular, is narrated by the finds of archaeologists D. Garrod and T. McCone, made at the beginning of the 20th century in Palestine on Mount Carmel in the caves of Kozya (Shul) and Pechnaya (Tabun). The remains of ancient people were discovered there, separated in time by about ten thousand years: ancient ash in the Oven Cave - 40 thousand, and in Goat - 30 thousand years. During these ten thousand years, huge changes have taken place with the population inhabiting the area: the purely Neanderthal appearance gradually accumulated an increasing number of characteristic Cro-Magnon features. The closest to us in time, the inhabitants of the Schul cave have the largest number of Cro-Magnon characters (including an average height of 175 cm), while remaining, nevertheless, a hybrid.

Later, the conclusions made in the study of the Shul and Tabun caves were fully confirmed by new findings in the same geographical area and in the same temporary soil layers. Namely: in the 1930s. on Mount Cafeh near Nazareth, the remains of six Neanderthals were found with such characteristic Cro-Magnon differences as a high cranial vault, a rounded occiput, etc. Similar finds were then made in the caves of Yabrud (Syria), Haua Fteah (Libya), Jebel Irhud (Morocco) , Shanidar (Iraq). In 1963, a Japanese expedition found in Israel the skeleton of a whole Neanderthal man, but ... growing from a Cro-Magnon man (170 cm). Etc.

As we already know for sure, the Cro-Magnon man did not descend from the Neanderthal man. He fought with him to death, completely cleansed Europe of him (partly mixing with the enemy, but then squeezing out his residual features from himself for tens of thousands of years), but failed to repeat this feat in the Near East and the Mediterranean. Here, in this region, the first “melting pot” arose in history, in which both the “south-moving” echelons of the Cro-Magnons and those fleeing from them but unable to escape the Neanderthals found their new life.

Does this mean that from the ancient Neanderthals today only hybrid, intermediate or secondary forms remain, that they all completely disappeared into a stronger race of winners or simply died out, giving way to other races?

No, there is no reason for such pessimism.

The Atlas Mountains stopped the weary pursuers who found their cherished ideal, bequeathed by genes and tribal traditions, in the blessed climate of the Mediterranean: they had nowhere and no reason to strive further. But the persecuted who saved their lives seeped through the mountain barrier and gradually populated all of Africa and not only it. As a result, each protorace was entrenched in its range: the Cro-Magnons, who became Caucasians, were hosted, mainly in Europe; Neanderthals who became Negroids and Australoids, mostly in Africa, then in southern India (where the Cro-Magnon descendants of the so-called “Andronovites” - future “Indo-Arians” forced them out in the II millennium BC), in Australia, Tasmania etc.; and the world's first mixed race - at home, in Asia and the Mediterranean. This happened about 30 thousand years ago.

NEANDERTALS

About 300 thousand years ago, ancient people appeared on the territory of the Old World. They are called Neanderthals, since for the first time the remains of people of this type were found in Germany in the Neanderthal valley near Dusseldorf.

FEATURES OF A NEANDERTALIAN

The first finds of Neanderthals date back to the middle of the XIX century. and for a long time did not attract the attention of scientists. They were remembered only after the publication of the book by C. Darwin, “The Origin of Species.” Opponents of the natural origin of man refused to see in these finds the remains of fossil people, more primitive than modern man. So, the famous scientist R. Virkhov believed that the bone remains from the Neanderthal valley belong to a modern person suffering from rickets and arthritis. Supporters of C. Darwin argued that these were fossil people of great antiquity. Further development of science confirmed their correctness.

Currently, over 100 finds of ancient people are known in Europe, Africa, South and East Asia. Bone remains of Neanderthals were found in the Crimea, in the Kyik-Koba cave and in Southern Uzbekistan, in the Teshik-Tash cave.

The physical type of Neanderthal was not uniform, frozen and combined in itself both the features of previous forms and the prerequisites for further development. Currently, several groups of ancient people are distinguished. Until the 30s of our century, the late West European, or classical, Neanderthals were well studied (Fig. 1). They are characterized by a low sloping forehead, a powerful infraorbital cushion, a strongly protruding face, an absence of a chin protrusion, and large teeth. Their growth reached 156-165 cm, the muscles were unusually developed, as indicated by the massive skeleton bones; a large head is drawn into shoulders. Classical Neanderthals lived 60-50 thousand years ago. There is a hypothesis that classical Neanderthals as a whole were a side branch of evolution that had no direct relation to the emergence of a modern type of person.

To date, rich information has accumulated about other groups of ancient people. It became known that early Western European Neanderthals lived from 300 to 700 thousand years ago, having morphological features that were more progressive than classical Neanderthals: a relatively high arch of the skull, a less sloping forehead, a face protruding less forward, etc. From them, probably the so-called progressive Neanderthals, whose age is about 50 thousand years. Judging by the fossil bone remains found in Palestine, Iran, ancient people of this type were morphologically close to modern humans. Progressive Neanderthals had a high cranial vault, a high forehead, and a chin protrusion on the lower jaw. The volume of their brain was almost inferior to the brain of modern man. Casts of the internal cavity of the skull indicate that. that they experienced further growth of certain human-specific zones of the cerebral cortex, namely those associated with articulate speech and subtle movements. This allows us to make an assumption about the complication of this type of speech and thinking in people.

All these facts give reason to consider Neanderthals as a transitional form between the most ancient people of the Homo erectus type and people of the modern physical type (Fig. 50). The other group, apparently, were lateral, extinct branches of evolution. Progressive Neanderthals were probably the immediate ancestors of Homo sapiens.

  TYPES OF ACTIVITIES OF NON-MANDALERS

Even more so than bone remains, traces of their activity testify to the genetic connection of Neanderthals with modern people.

As the number of Neanderthals increased, they spread beyond the areas where their predecessor lived - upright man, often colder and harsher in the region. The ability to withstand the Great Glaciation speaks of the significant progress of Neanderthals in comparison with ancient people.

The stone tools of the Neanderthals were more diverse in purpose: pointed, scraper and chopped. However, with the help of such tools, the Neanderthal man could not provide himself with enough meat food, and deep snow and long winters deprived him of edible plants and berries. Therefore, the main source of livelihood of the ancient people was a collective roundabout hunt. Neanderthals hunted more systematically and purposefully and in larger groups than their immediate predecessors. Among the fossilized bones found in the remains of Neanderthal bonfires, there are bones of reindeer, horses, elephants, bears, bison, and such extinct giants as woolly rhinos, tours, mammoths.

Ancient people knew how not only to support, but also to make fire. In a warm climate, they settled on the banks of rivers, under canopies of rocks, in a cold climate - in caves, which they often had to conquer from cave bears, lions, hyenas.

Neanderthals laid the foundation for other types of activities that are considered to be exclusively human (Table 15). They have an abstract concept of the afterlife. They cared for the elderly and crippled, buried their dead.

With great hope for life after death, they gave birth to the tradition that lives today, to see off their loved ones to the last journey with flowers and branches of conifers. It is possible that they took the first timid steps in the field of art and symbolic designations.

However, the fact that Neanderthals found a place for old people and cripples in their society does not mean that they were an ideal of kindness and selflessly loved their neighbors. Excavations of their sites bring a lot of data that indicate that they not only killed, but also ate each other (charred human bones, skulls fragmented at the base were found). But no matter how evidence of savagery cannibalism seems now, it probably did not pursue a purely utilitarian goal - Famine led to cannibalism very rarely. His reasons were more of a magical, ritual character. Perhaps there was a belief that, having tasted the flesh of the enemy, a person gains special strength and courage. Or maybe the skulls were stored as trophies or as revered relics left from the dead.

So, Neanderthals developed a variety of methods of labor and hunting, which allowed a person to survive in the era of the Great Glaciation. To the full status of modern man, the Neanderthal is missing quite a bit. Systematists attribute it to the species Homo sapiens, i.e., to the same species as modern humans, but adding the definition of the subspecies - neanderthalensis - Neanderthal man. The name of the subspecies indicates some differences from a completely modern person, now called Homo sapiens sapiens - a rational intelligent person.

INFLUENCE OF BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL FACTORS ON THE EVOLUTION OF NONANDERTALS

The struggle for existence and natural selection played a prominent role in the evolution of Neanderthals. This is evidenced by the low average life expectancy of ancient people. According to the data of the French anthropologist A. Valois and the Soviet anthropologist V.P. Alekseev, of the 39 Neanderthals whose skulls have come down to us and have been studied, 38.5% died before the age of 11, 10.3% died between the ages of 12-20 years, 15.4% - aged 21-30 years, 25.6% - aged 31-40 years, 7.7% - aged 41-50 years, and only one person — 2.5% —died at age 51-60 years old. These figures reflect the enormous mortality of people of the ancient Stone Age. The average generation duration only slightly exceeded 20 years, i.e., ancient people died, barely having time to leave offspring. The mortality rate of women was especially high, which is probably due to pregnancy and childbirth, as well as a much longer stay in unsanitary dwellings (crowding, drafts, rotting garbage).

Characteristically, Neanderthals suffered traumatic injuries, rickets, and rheumatism. But those of the ancient people who managed to survive in an extremely harsh struggle were distinguished by a strong physique, progressive development of the brain, arm, and many other morphological characters.

Although, as a result of high mortality and short life expectancy, the period of transferring accumulated experience from one generation to another was very short, the influence of social factors on the development of Neanderthals became stronger. Collective actions already in the primitive herd of ancient people played a decisive role. The struggle for existence was won by those groups that hunted successfully and better provided themselves with food, cared for each other, had lower mortality of children and adults, better overcome difficult living conditions.

Cohesion of groups that emerged from the animal state was facilitated by thinking and speech. The development of thinking and speech was directly related to labor. In the process of labor practice, a person more and more mastered the surrounding nature, became better aware of the world around him.

DISAPPEARANCE OF THE NIANDERTALIAN

Some researchers suggested that the Neanderthals, these relics of the ice age, managed to hold out in the heart of Asia, in their usual harsh climate, and now represent the legendary snowmen. Despite the fascination of the hypothesis, it cannot be taken seriously. Tales of huge footprints in the snow. left ostensibly by a snowman, or giant figures hiding behind a rock, can not be considered as weighty evidence.

Neanderthals have not been on Earth for a very long time. They disappeared about 40 thousand years ago, replaced by people of a new type.

Some anthropologists explain the disappearance of Neanderthals by the universal regular transformation of them into people of a modern physical type under the influence of not only biological, but also social factors that can give this process an unprecedented acceleration in nature. According to another point of view, which we already mentioned, the descendants of modern people were progressive Neanderthals who lived in the middle of the then inhabited world (in Palestine and Iran), at the crossroads of all information flows of that time. Palestinian Neanderthals were closer to modern man in physical appearance. Iranian Neanderthals, the so-called "flower people", from the Shanidar cave, not being physically as progressive as the Palestinian ones, were distinguished from them by a higher level of spiritual culture, human humanism.

Thanks to marriages between neighboring groups of ancient people, there was an exchange of physical and behavioral traits. Since the system of such marriages by this time, apparently, had already been established, an evolutionary shift in one place sooner or later manifested itself in the whole community and a huge fragmented mass of mankind rose to the present as a whole. About 30 thousand years ago, the changes basically ended and people of the modern physical type were already inhabiting the world.

Thus, many groups of Neanderthals became extinct, not giving offspring as a result of competition with a person of a modern physical type, evolutionarily more advanced and socially more progressive. The Soviet anthropologist Ya. Y. Roginsky suggested that a modern type of person formed in some area of \u200b\u200bthe Old World, and then spread to the periphery of its original range, mixed with local forms of other people.

The mystery of the disappearance of Neanderthals  For many decades, historians have been worried. According to historical finds, Neanderthals are not the ancestors of people, but a separate branch of the human race. The first Neanderthals, or "Neanderthal man", according to estimates, appeared 600-650 thousand years ago. Settled Europe about 300 thousand years ago. Judging by the excavations, the last of the Neanderthals walked the earth 25-35 thousand years ago. Neanderthals, being strong and formed representatives of the human race, disappeared unexpectedly. Nothing foreshadowed their departure, but the fact remains - all Neanderthals disappeared from the face of the earth in a rather short time.

Scientists put forward various theories that include species reductions up to complete extinction, and epidemics that completely cut the entire Homo neanderthalensis species, and climatic changes (glaciation, volcanic eruption), but the most likely reason for the disappearance of Neanderthals is the confrontation with the ancestors of modern people - Cro-Magnons. Almost all researchers who begin to study the history of Neanderthals who existed at the same time with the Cro-Magnons came to this conclusion. Interspecific competition turned out to be deplorable for representatives of this species of people. They were completely exterminated.

It is worth noting that, despite the fact that a rational person surpassed the Neanderthal in terms of development, intelligence and cultural superiority, Neanderthals can not be called primitive, therefore, most likely, tens of thousands of years ago, not just destruction, but real war over territory. The found remains of Neanderthals tell about their appearance and features quite eloquently. Neanderthals had an average height, an average of 165 cm, a massive physique, strong bones. The volume of the cranium in Neanderthals was greater than in modern people (1400-1740 cm³). Neanderthals had prominent superciliary arches, a large wide nose and a small chin, a short neck, short and paw-shaped hands. According to some assumptions, Neanderthals could have fair skin and red hair. Life expectancy is 22.9 years. A study of genes, the vocal apparatus, and the brain of Neanderthals allowed scientists to conclude that Neanderthals possessed speech.

Neanderthals used tools and weapons, knew how to make fire, built houses and entire settlements, sewed clothes, created jewelry. Neanderthals attributed the invention of the earliest musical instrument - a bone flute with 4 holes. Judging by the graves and artifacts found in the parking lots, Neanderthals had their own religious beliefs. However, despite the high level of development, the confrontation with the Cro-Magnons, who came to Europe about 40-50 thousand years ago, they lost. Recent studies by scientists suggest that the decisive factor in this battle was not even the Cro-Magnon’s mental abilities, but their superior numbers and domesticated wolves (dogs), which, coupled with the aggressiveness and belligerent disposition of Cro-Magnons who came to Europe from Asia and Africa, were able to give great advantage in the fight against the indigenous abode of these places. Also destructive for Neanderthals was a small number. According to some assumptions, the number of representatives of this population barely reached 10 thousand individuals, which is extremely small, while the Cro-Magnons had a much larger population, so it was a matter of time to conquer all of Europe.

You must not be silent about cannibalism Cro-Magnonif eating Cro-Magnon representatives of another species can be called cannibalism. However, the fact remains. The finds that were made at the sites of the Cro-Magnon camps indicate that they not only hunted and killed the Neanderthals, but also ate them for food. In several sites of the Cro-Magnons, gnawed bones of Neanderthals were found, with teeth marks, characteristic scratches and fractures on the bones. Cro-Magnon necklaces, which consist of Neanderthal teeth, were also found. Apparently, such a necklace could be not just a decoration, but a trophy, something like the military merit of a warrior who wore the teeth of dead enemies, just like in later times, hunters wore the claws of dead bears. And during excavations near Vladimir, where the Cro-Magnon burial complex is located, the tibia of a Neanderthal was found, which the Cro-Magnons used as a casket. Inside such a “box” was found ocher powder.

It is also worth noting that excavations and scientific studies do not prove 100% of the version that all Neanderthals were destroyed by the ancestors of people - Cro-Magnons. Many scholars are inclined to believe that the Neanderthals did not disappear, but simply assimilated with the Cro-Magnons. For example, there is evidence that Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals had mixed marriages, resulting in mixed or hybrid offspring. Research scientists have revealed the fact that up to 4% of the genes of modern people are of Neanderthal origin, and such genes exist only in the inhabitants of Europe, China, New Guinea. In Africa, where there were no Neanderthals, no such genes were found.

In one of the following articles, we will consider the version that Neanderthals were not completely destroyed, and for a long time populated various regions of the planet, as evidenced by various myths and legends.

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Neanderthals are an extinct, dead-end branch of people named after the name of a valley near Düsseldorf (Germany), where they were found in the year eight hundred and fifty-six. They lived on Earth about 200 thousand years ago.

What did Neanderthals look like?

Their appearance to modern people seems unusual and even ugly. Of medium height, below modern adults. Broad-boned, with prominent powerful cheekbones, shorter limbs than Homo sapies, sloping cheekbones and chin, overhanging superciliary arches. Weighed an average of about 90 kilograms. But the volume of the brain and skull was more than the indicators of a modern intelligent person. They knew how to speak, although their speech was different from ordinary human.

Where did you live?

Neanderthals lived in the preglacial zone of the Earth. Their remains were found in Africa, Eurasia, Central Asia, southern Siberia, as well as in the Far East. They conquered the highlands and the Tropics. But Neanderthals did not advance far to the North, presumably this is due to a change in climatic conditions.

What did Neanderthals do

Neanderthals hunted large animals: deer, mammoths, rhinos. We learned how to carve fire for heating homes and cooking. They knew how to maintain fire. There were some rites of culture and the beginnings of art. They were engaged in gathering. They knew how to take care of their fellow tribesmen. Unlike older people, Neanderthals have a belief about the afterlife and a ritual of burial of the dead. The established tradition of wires departing to another world lives on to this day.

Biological features of the existence of Neanderthals

High mortality and a short life span left Neanderthals little time to pass on experience to future 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 human yet

Neanderthals fired, they had religious rites, they could create weapons and tools, but outwardly they are different from HomoSapies. There is an assumption that Neanderthals did not die out and were not destroyed, but went high into the mountains and lost in the rainforests. The meeting of contemporaries with the so-called Bigfoot is a meeting of a Neanderthal or flat-headed. And it is too early to put the final point in the relationship of a Neanderthal with a person.

Curiosity is the defining feature of a human being. There would not be him, there would be no surprising discoveries and inventions. The habitat of people in the 21st century would be limited to a cave and the nearby territory, used as a landfill for hunting animals. Stone knives, axes, scrapers - this is the tool that the human mind was able to bring to light, not burdened by scientific knowledge, but steadily striving for them.

It was this desire that made man, in the end, the full owner of the entire planet. He became the one and only perfect crown of nature, reigning supreme on lands subject to him. It would seem that such a course of events is quite natural. Not muscle mass, not speed and dexterity prevailed in the struggle for dominance over the vast land, but intelligence, which, in the end, ensured an unconditional victory.

A man unconsciously walked toward power over the world, sweeping away all those who stood in his way. However, it was not difficult to deal with opponents, as they were creatures with a lower mental organization. That is, in fact, there were no worthy competitors for people on Earth. Wise nature, having created an uncountable number of species and subspecies among animals, for some reason completely missed a person from his area of \u200b\u200battention.

This point of view is fundamentally wrong: 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 recently - just some 150 years ago.

How to find the remains of a Neanderthal man

Such a sensational discovery was preceded by a boring and tedious routine, consisting in hard work in quarries. They were produced in Germany in the Rhine province, in the Düssel river valley (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 for people during his life, in this case, his name already worked for the benefit of science and enlightenment.

On one of the hot summer days of 1856, tearing granite blocks from a mountainous firmament, the workers reached a small ledge of rock. Immediately behind it was a flat wall, smoothly descending to the riverbank. After a couple of strokes with a pickaxe, it turned out that it was clay. She easily succumbed to a shovel, and soon a spacious grotto opened. Its bottom was covered with a thick layer of silt.

The cave was a cozy and cool place where the pickaxe and shovel workers settled down for lunch. The company was located at the very entrance, having built a small bonfire and put a boiler with stew on it. One of the workers accidentally stirred silt underfoot, and a long, yellowed bone from time to time came to God's light, followed by several more.

The man picked up a shovel, removed a layer of silt from the rocky bottom of the cave and pulled out a human skull from the recess. It already smelled of crime, so they called the police. The same one found it difficult to determine the remains, although it was immediately evident that they were of ancient origin.

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

This conclusion sincerely pleased the police, and they hastened to retire, leaving an archaeological find to the teacher. The same, in turn, drew attention to the strange shape of the skull. It seemed to be human, but at the same time it had a number of signs unusual for Homo sapiens (intelligent man).

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

Only a few remaining teeth completely coincided in appearance with the usual teeth of people. This led to the idea that this is still the skull of a rational person, and not some animal who died in a cave many millennia ago.

Mr. Fuchlrott showed such an unusual subject to specialists. An accidental find from the grotto caused a stir in scientific circles. It really was very different from the human skull, but at the same time it had a number of similar features. Involuntarily a conclusion was drawn: a distant ancestor of living people was found.

Already in 1858, this hypothetical ancestor was named neanderthal  (by analogy with the valley of Neander) and fits perfectly into Darwin's theory, which has mastered scientific minds in the last decades of the XIX century.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) created a rather slender and convincing concept, claiming that man descended from a monkey through biological evolution. It was the Neanderthals who became the transitional species between the ape-like ancestors and people. Proponents of Darwinism endowed them with a primitive mind, the ability to create stone tools and live in organized communities.

Darwin Human Evolution

Over time, it turned out that this theory sins with 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 of intellectual development, but they were more fortunate. They survived, and Neanderthals sunk into oblivion, leaving behind only skeletons and primitive tools.

Why did Neanderthals die out?

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. To at least get closer to the solution, it is necessary, for a start, to get to know better these ancient sentient beings. Having a general idea of \u200b\u200btheir appearance, lifestyle, social structure and environment, it is much easier to find an explanation for the mysterious disappearance of an entire human-like species from the earth's surface.

Recreating the appearance of a Neanderthal on his skull

Neanderthals were by no means weak creaturesunable to fend for themselves. The height of an adult male 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 man looked like during his existence on Earth.

The hands did not reach the knees, the feet were wide and long. The brain volume was 1400-1600 cubic meters. cm, which is superior to 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 superciliary arches, under which small but smart eyes were hidden. About a high forehead you can not even stutter. It had a sloping shape and smoothly passed into the occipital part.

Left skull Cro-Magnon, right Neanderthal

Here is the creation of the hands of nature, generously endowing its intelligent children with all possible virtues. Neanderthals maximally adapted to the harsh world in which they lived safely and lived 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 life span is huge. Over a million generations have passed. It would seem that nothing foreshadowed the tragic end - and suddenly, for no reason, he came. Degradation, degeneration of a species? Why then did the Cro-Magnons not die out? They lived as much on earth, but crossed the fateful line and became people, capturing the entire planet.

Biological characteristics of the Neanderthal organism and lifestyle

Maybe the answer lies in the biological characteristics of the body of Neanderthals? 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 was in 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.

Units reached the senile age. Almost half of the Neanderthals died before they reached the age of 20. About 40% left the mortal world in the period from 20 to 30 years. The lucky ones lived mainly until 40-45. Death always went hand in hand with paleoanthropes and was a familiar and ordinary affair.

Numerous diseases; death on the hunt or in clashes with other tribes; sharp teeth and claws of predatory animals mowed these representatives of the hominid family by the thousands. Women gave birth every year, and by the age of 25-30 they were turning into old women. In their physical development, they were inferior to men, possessing a more flimsy constitution and shorter growth, 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 species is a Neanderthal man.

Each group had a leader - a leader. He took upon himself all the care of the members of his small community. His word was law, failure to follow orders was a crime. Only the leader had the right to share the game caught in the hunt. He took the best pieces for himself, gave a little worse to young hunters. To the mature and weak, as well as women and children, everything else fell.

Strength was respected in this public education, but the weak were not oppressed, but in every way supported and gave strength to the work. 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, its knees pulled to the chin. A stone knife, some food, jewelry made of multi-colored pebbles or teeth of predatory animals were left nearby. The burial places were not designated in any way, or maybe something was being done, but ruthless times destroyed and destroyed everything.

So buried Neanderthals

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

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

For reference, it should be noted that the latter are also far from angels. Cro-Magnons also ate Neanderthals, apparently considering such gluttony a common occurrence.

For completeness of acquaintance with representatives of this species, it is necessary to touch on their environment. Neanderthals lived mainly in Europe. Their favorite place is the Iberian Peninsula. In second place is perhaps the southern part of France. In Germany, there were much fewer Neanderthals, but they gladly 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 also 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 Cro-Magnon’s leg did not dare to step.

The latter made up for such a loss with other territories, making the Apennine Peninsula their original patrimony. In the rest of Europe, Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons lived mixed. This is not to say that it was a friendly neighborhood. Numerous bloody skirmishes between members of the same biological genus were common.

Weapons and a stone knife sharpened on both sides served as Neanderthals' weapons. They handled these plain objects very deftly. And on the hunt, and in clashes with enemies, the same club was a reliable means of both defense and attack.

A group of small powerful fortified men was a formidable combat formation, capable of not only defending itself, but also attacking, turning the same Cro-Magnons to shameful flight. The latter were much taller than Neanderthals: their growth reached 185 cm, but such an achievement did little to help. The ancestors of modern man had long legs, arms, a muscular body, but all this was not distinguished by massive forms.

Cro-Magnons lost in their physical development to Neanderthals. By dexterity, speed of reaction and mental development, they were equal. As a result, power prevailed. The distant ancestors of modern man either retreated or perished, and the mighty little men celebrated victory by eating the bodies of dead enemies. At the same time, they communicated through short phrases or single words.

Neanderthals didn’t really speak eloquently, and sentences consisted of two or three words. This did not mean at all that the ancient people gravitated towards the 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 one can talk for a long time and speech about completely different things, amazing those present with their vast knowledge and original way of thinking.

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

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

Relations between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons

If we make an approximate chronology of events of such an ancient period, 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 new arrivals did not compete with them in the hunt. The world around was replete with a variety of animals, but the Cro-Magnons, in addition to meat, ate with great pleasure and plant food, as well as fish and birds.

Over time, they entered Europe, but, settling on these lands, again did not prevent the Neanderthals. Those were mainly grouped in the Pyrenees and the south of France. The ancestors of modern man chose the Apennine Peninsula and began to actively settle on the Balkan Peninsula. Such peaceful coexistence lasted 50 thousand years. A huge period, given that modern civilization is not more than seven thousand years.

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

Where there are many well-fed animals - there people have no problems with food. Therefore, more than one thousand years passed before the Neanderthals permanently disappeared from the surface of the blue planet. The ice age could not affect them, and mammoths - the main source of food - became extinct only 10 thousand years ago.

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

On this assumption, back in the 90s, a categorical "no" said science. Scientists investigated the mitochondrial DNA of modern man 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 unchanged for millennia. It follows that all of humanity came from one progenitor (mitochondrial Eve). The low strongholds had a completely different foremother, who gave birth to the first of them many, many thousands of years ago.

Decades flickered, centuries passed, slowly crawled away into the eternity of the millennium. Neanderthals lived, multiplied, hunted. They managed to survive in difficult times of the ice ages, of which there were three. They did not waste their originality and strength during the fertile times of the interglacial periods. And suddenly they all died as one, leaving no trace in their reminder of themselves.

At first, this human species disappeared on the lands of Germany, then France and the Middle East. In the above areas, the Cro-Magnons firmly established themselves. They not only did not become extinct, but vice versa - they began to actively multiply, gradually moving further and further to the East.

Neanderthal settlements remained only in the Pyrenees. It was their original place. It was from here that they began their journey, gradually populating Europe and the surrounding regions of Asia. Their individual communities reached even Altai and Central Asia.

The last stronghold served powerful fortresses as reliable protection. They lasted on their native peninsula for a whole millennium. True, the remaining five centuries before their disappearance, the earths sweetheart had to be shared with the brazen Cro-Magnons. They very quickly settled in the Pyrenees and began to squeeze the original owners.

The evolutionary path of Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals

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

The mystery of the disappearance of Neanderthals

So what is this extermination program included in a certain period of time? It should be noted right away that in their tragedy the Neanderthals were far from alone. Too many representatives of the animal world sank 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, in our day, 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 whole spectrum of contradictions and focusing it in a single and coherent system based on absolute and unmistakable evidence.

The process of extinction of Neanderthals took more than one thousand years. Their population was either increasing or decreasing. In the end, people disappeared, unconditionally giving way to the sun more successful and adapted to harsh and rational reality.

The mystery of the extinction of this human species may also lie in areas far from official science. Maybe Neanderthals found entry into other worlds, into other dimensions. Having left the existing reality, they are now thriving in a different reality: they are developing, improving, and even surpassing modern people in terms of scientific and technological progress.

Inhabited in the sublunary world, mighty strong men, like slender Cro-Magnons, dreamed, loved and fought daily for their survival on planet Earth. They have sunk into oblivion, but, in any case, had a definite effect on the ancestors of modern man. Who knows, there may be some positive or negative character traits inherent in the now living, are derived from the psychological type, which was a Neanderthal.

All this is just speculation and speculation. The essence of the problem is such that indestructible human curiosity, in the end, will play a positive role in this matter. The secret will become apparent, and current generations, or maybe their immediate descendants, will finally learn the whole truth about their distant relatives.

Article written by ridar-shakin

Based on materials from foreign publications