About 600,000 years ago, humanity split into two. One group stayed in Africa, grew into ours. Others formed in Asia, then in Europe, and went underground Homo neanderthalnsis – Neanderthals. They were not our ancestors, but a sister species, growing in parallel.
Neanderthals fascinate us because of what they tell us about themselves – who we were, and who we became. It is fascinating to see them in the garden, like Adam and Eve, in nature and living peacefully with each other, in beautiful words.
If so, perhaps the diseases of humanity – especially our territoriality, violence, wars – are not congenital, but modern inventions.
Biology and paleontology paint a darker picture. Far from peace, the Neanderthals were probably skilled skilled warriors and dangerous warriors, competing only with modern humans.
Top hunter
Hunting land mammals are territorial, especially P-P-hunters. Such as lions, wolves and Homo sapiens, Neanderthals were cooperative big-game hunters. These predators, sitting at the top of the food chain, have many predators of their own, so more populations on the hunting grounds make the population hostile. Neanderthals faced a similar problem; If other races do not control their numbers, there will be a struggle.
Humans have deep roots in these regions. Ancient conflicts are even more intense among our closest relatives, the chimpanzees. Male chimps regularly gang up on rival bands to attack and kill men, which is a surprising behavior like human warfare.
This suggests that cooperative aggression developed millions of million years ago, in Chimps and his common ancestors. If so, Neanderthals will inherit similar tendencies towards cooperative aggression.
All also human
War is an integral part of being human. War is not a modern invention, but an ancient, original part of our humanity. .Historically, all the people fought. Our oldest writings are full of war stories. Archeology traces ancient forts and battlefields and sites of prehistoric massacres behind Millenia.
Fighting is humane – and Neanderthals were just like us. We are remarkably similar in our skull and skeletal anatomy, and share 99.7 percent of our DNA.
By demeanor, Neanderthals were as surprising as we were. They built fires, buried their dead bodies, built temples made of jewelry, artwork and stone made of Seychelles and animal teeth. If Neanderthals shared many of our creative instincts, they also shared many of our destructive instincts.
Violent life
Archaeological records confirm that Neanderthal life was nothing but peaceful.
Neanderthalnsis Deer, ibex, elk, bison, but also rhinos and mammoths were skilled large game hunters using spears to land. He denies the belief that they would be reluctant to use these weapons if they threatened their families and land. Archeology suggests that such contradictions were common.
Prehistoric warfare leaves signs to tell. An effective way to hit a club on the head – clubs are fast, powerful, precise weapons – so prehistoric Homo sapiens Show frequent skull trauma. So do Neanderthals.
Another sign of war is a peri fracture, a break in the lower arm that prevents blows. Neanderthals also show many broken arms. At least one Niandarthal, from the Shanidar cave in Iraq, was led to the chest by a spear.
Trauma was common, especially in young Neanderthal males, such as death. Some injuries would have been sustained in hunting, but those patterns matched those predicted for those engulfed in international combat-even small-scale intense, protracted conflicts, guerrilla-style raids, and battles influenced by attacks, including rare battles.
Neanderthal resistance
The war in the form of territorial boundaries leaves a subtle mark. The best evidence that Neanderthals not only fought, but excelled in battle, is that they met us and did not immediately advance. Instead, for about 100,000 years, Neanderthals will resist modern human expansion.
Offensive outside of Africa. (Nicholas R. Longrich)
Why else would we take so long to leave Africa? Not only was the environment hostile but Neanderthals were already rich in Europe and Asia.
It is highly unlikely that modern humans met Neanderthals and just decided to live and survive. If nothing else, population growth inevitably forces humans to acquire more land to ensure adequate access to food and fodder for their children.
But an aggressive military strategy is also a good evolutionary strategy.
Instead, for thousands of years, we must test their fighters, and for thousands of years we have been losing. Weapons, strategy, strategy, we matched quite evenly.
Neanderthals probably had strategic and tactical advantages. They will occupy the Middle East for millennia, no doubt gaining intimate knowledge of how to survive from terrain, tuo, native plants and animals.
In battle, their huge, muscular builds must have made them destructive fighters in close quarters combat. Their wide eyes gave Neanderthals a low-light vision, allowing them to maneuver in the dark for ambush and morning raids.
Sepians Victorious
Eventually, the impasse broke, and the tide shifted. We don’t know why. Zero, javelin throwers, throwing clubs – the best range of weapons possible – let’s build a little Homo sapiens Harass the stock key Neanderthals from a distance using hit-and-run tricks.
Or maybe better hunting and collecting techniques Sapiens Feed the larger tribes, create numerical superiority in battle.
Even after primitive Homo sapiens Cracked from Africa 200,000 years ago, it took 150,000 years to conquer Neanderthal land. In Israel and Greece, ancient Homo sapiens Before the final invasion by the modern, Neanderthals took the field back against the counteroffenses. Homo sapiens, Starting 125,000 years ago, removed them.
This was no blitzkrieg, as one would expect if the Neanderthals were either pacifists or secondary fighters, but a long war of despair. In the end, we won. But this was not because they were less inclined to fight. In the end, we probably got better at battle than just them.
Nicholas R. Longrich, Senior Lecturer at Evolutionary Biology and Paleontology, University of Bath.
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