The burial of Neanderthals makes them much more human than we previously believed
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Neanderthals — extinct members of the genus Homo Sapiens, whose species has completely disappeared under unknown circumstances about 40 thousand years ago. Despite the fact that Neanderthals went on his own path of development 500 thousand years ago, completely separated from his one with the CRO-magnon ancestor, the discovery of an ancient Neanderthal burial in the cave of Shanidar in Iraqi Kurdistan proves that the “wild” was not quite alien to human qualities.
What was the nature of the Neanderthals?
Iraqi cave Shanidar known that it had discovered the so-called “burial of flowers”. Among the 10 is a fragmentary skeletons of Neanderthals found there in the 1950-ies and 1960-ies, one was found with lumps of pollen, mixed with the surrounding dirt. A report about the discovery of an ancient crypt was first published in the magazine . The bones belonging to the man in age from 30 to 45 years old, were buried with flowers, as is done in some modern funeral rites. Such behavior is so contrary to our previous understanding of Neanderthals as uncivilized and half-civilized animals. In this case, could the Neanderthals to be much smarter than we think?
The Answer to this question may become one of the latest researches in the cave of Shanidar, during which was the discovery of another partial skeleton. Skull and rib bone , who died more than 70 thousand years ago indicate intentional burial, during which a middle aged man was lying on his back with his hand, resting over her head as if the body was asleep. This position is very different from the “floral” the burial of the skeleton, which was buried in the fetal position.
Cave Shanidar, which could be used by Neanderthals for repeated remembrance of the dead
The Bones that are now in the University of Cambridge in the future will be carefully stored and scanned in 3D for a more detailed analysis. The initial scan showed that the stone part of the temporal bone found in the cave is still intact. It is known that this bone is the most rigid in the human body, keeping the DNA can be extracted in order to know more about the appearance of Neanderthals or of their possible interbreeding with other homininae.
Whatever it was, the Iraqi excavations in the cave are still ongoing. Researchers are looking for traces of charcoal, indicating the cooking, and pollen, which could help to shed light on the mysterious burial of flowers. The researchers argue that in recent years, humanity has managed to discover more and more evidence that Neanderthals were much more resourceful than previously thought. So, in earlier articles we wrote about the children of Neanderthals during the Ice age and ancient people . The case of cave Shanidar can directly indicate the presence of Neanderthal funerary traditions in the form of remembrance of their dead in specially designated areas. If further research can confirm this hypothesis, the Neanderthals will be able to indirectly prove that they have cultural difficulties of a high order nearly 40,000 years after his disappearance from the face of the planet.
the Ancient Neanderthals could be more human than previously thought.
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