Newly analyzed remains suggest that a modern human killed a Neanderthal man in what is now Iraq between 50,000 and 75,000 years ago.
The finding is scant but tantalizing evidence for a theory that modern humans helped to kill off the Neanderthals.
The title of this article is: “Prehistoric Murder: Wound Shows Human Killed Neanderthal”.
OK, so here’s the deal. What they have is a neanderthal skeleton with a cut on one rib which is “consistent with” a projectile weapon. It is currently believed that Neanderthal’s did not use projectile weapons, so the conclusion is that the neanderthal was killed by a human being.
But it’s not nearly exciting enough to say “killed” so the article describes the act as a “murder.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m dead sick and tired of the editorializing that goes on in “science” these days, and this is just one example of a flood of “scientific” articles and papers which essentially accuse humans of genocide in the extinction of Neanderthals.
To me this smacks of the typical liberal self-hatred that infuses modern “science” as revealed in almost every discipline, from climatology (Global Warming) to anthropology.
In fact this is so prevalent that it appears to me that the default assumption whenever something bad happens is that humans were at fault.
Let’s assume that humans did, in fact, kill off the Neanderthal. Does that mean that humans are the “bad guys”? Is it not just as possible that Neanderthal’s were trying to kill off humans too and that humans were just better at it? Based on gorilla, chimpanzee and other primate studies, it appears pretty clear to me that organized violence is not limited to homo sapiens. There is every reason to assume that Neanderthals were AT LEAST as violent and prone to organized violence as humans were. And yet these stories repeatedly paint some sort of pastoral fantasy life for Neanderthals, implying that human beings unilaterally decided to exterminate Neanderthals simply due to human aggression and evil tendencies.
I actually suspect that human beings did play a role in the extinction of Neanderthals. But I also suspect that Neanderthals were at least as likely to hunt and kill humans as vice versa. They were clearly two competing species at the top of the food chain, and presumably both were able to organize violent activities to protect their own turf.
I dunno about you, but if that is what happened, I for one am quite happy that homo sapiens came out on top.
2 users commented in " Ancient “murder” investigation "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackAs one who is 99% unconvinced about the veracity of the reconstruction of crimes by forensic scientists today…I’m 100% unconvinced that forensic anthropologists can tell me what happened tens of thousands of years ago based on the examination of a single set of bones.
Utter hogwash.
(I remember quite well two cases in which my father successfully proved that two “murders” were proven to be suicides. In one case, all it took was a magnifying glass, two sets of pictures, and a thinking brain. In the other case, all it took was calling the nation’s foremost expert on handguns who happened to live within throwing distance.)
Forensic science is an art. As with any art, there are very few in the field who can be called “artists.”
There are so many holes in this theory that it beggars the imagination:
1) The cut itself. According to this “scientist’s” theory, it had to be made by a thrown weapon since thrusting weapons would cause more damage. This is just silly. A thrusting weapon has the POTENTIAL to do more damage than a thrown weapon (depending on many factors) BUT any thrusting weapon CAN cause ANY wound which a thrown weapon is capable of causing. The greater ALWAYS includes the lesser.
2) Neanderthals didn’t use thrown weapons. Again. Silly. Utter silliness. MONKEYS use thrown weapons. They may not have had the ability to CREATE spears which homo sapiens could make (maybe…if they’re right…) but they sure as heck could USE them. Further, they sure could throw a pointed stick. (And Neanderthals used spears, even according to this “scientist.” They NEVER threw spears? NEVER? MONKEYS throw weapons, yet Neanderthals who hunted great game NEVER threw spears? They KNOW this?)
3) Somehow, without any evidence, this “scientist” is able to divine not only method but MOTIVE and concludes “murder.” It couldn’t be a homo sapiens protecting himself from a tribe of Neanderthals — it HAS to be a homo sapiens murdering a Neanderthal.
Utter silliness.
I suspect that there was a whole lot of cannibalism and other stuff going on in the good ol’ days when our carbon footprint was low.
Why would a random H. Sapiens feel any more fellowship with another ape-like critter than he would with other H. Sapiens in The Evil Tribe from Across the Water, who killed and ate a couple of their number the last time they raided.
Leave A Reply