Neanderthal: Neanderthal Man and the Story of Human OriginsNeanderthal man has a legendary status. His stocky, hairy, human-like figure, with heavy brow and receding chin, lumbers clumsily around in our collective imagination. But do we know who Neanderthal man really is? Was he our direct ancestor, or was he perhaps a more alien figure, not in the line of modern human descent at all, genetically very distinct - the victim rather than the driving force of the spread of humankind across the globe? The original Neanderthal bones were unearthed to great scholarly excitement in the Neander valley in Germany in the mid-19th century. This work brings together all the research into Homo sapiens neanderthalensis; into his world, his technology, his way of life (and death, even his beliefs), his origins and his relationship with us. |
Contents
The Discovery of Neanderthal Man | 1 |
Neanderthal Man Abroad | 15 |
Neanderthal Man in the Twentieth Century | 28 |
Copyright | |
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Acheulian Africa Amud ancestors animal bones anthropologists apes archaeological Aurignacian Australopithecines bear bipedalism blade brain brow-ridges capacity cave Chatelperronian chimpanzees chimps Crô-Magnon culture discovery East ergaster ergaster/erectus Europe European evidence evolved females Ferrassie finds flakes fossil found in association fragments fully modern genetic Gibraltar Glaciation grave habilis hand-axes hominid Homo erectus Homo heidelbergensis Homo sapiens sapiens human evolution hunting ice age interstadials Java Klasies River Mouth Krapina la Ferrassie last ice age later le Moustier Levant Levantine living look Lower Palaeolithic male mammoth material meat Middle Palaeolithic modern Homo sapiens modern human Mousterian Mousterian sites Mousterian tools Moustier mtDNA Neanderthal Neanderthal burials Neanderthal type neanderthalensis Neanderthalers numbers Oldowan perhaps populations possible primates probably Qafzeh reindeer scavenging seen skeleton Skhul skull social sort of human species specimens Stone Age stone tools suggest teeth toolmaking traits Upper Palaeolithic