Turns out we know a whole lot less about Neanderthals than we thought, because our cave-painting, tool-wielding, fire-conquering cousins were sophisticated enough to build complex subterranean structures as far back as 176,500 years ago, according to new archaeological evidence.
Deep inside a dark, underground cave 50 km from the city of Toulouse, France, researchers have uncovered the remains of six ancient structures crafted from stalagmites. The find forces us to rethink our assumptions about these archaic humans, because what they appear to have built is far beyond anything we thought they were capable of.
"Neanderthals were inventive, creative, subtle and complex," one of the team, Jacques Jaubert from France's Bordeaux University, told AFP. "They were not mere brutes focused on chipping away at flint tools or killing bison for food."
The ring-shaped structures were found 300 metres deep inside Bruniquel Cave in southwest France, and one is thought to have stood almost 7 metres wide. The twisted corridors of this cave are pitch black this far from the entrance, so the Neanderthals would have had to construct everything by firelight.
There have also been recent reports that Neanderthal flint-knapping was much more sophisticated than previously thought.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snotnose on Friday May 27 2016, @02:32AM
Their ship crashed, they needed a controlled environment to survive. Boinking the native life was a relief valve, they never thought it would lead to us looking at their sex lives long after their crashed ship eroded into iron and uranium deposits.
jeez people, is this stuff really that hard to figure out?
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday May 27 2016, @03:22AM
The rings were obviously stargates.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Informative) by anubi on Friday May 27 2016, @03:39AM
This meme is the centerpiece of the work "Chariots of the Gods".
This went around when I was a kid. I read it. I found it quite interesting. It has since been a subject of much debate.
The movie is even on YouTube. About an hour and a half long.
I have given you the key phrase so you can research if you want, and come to your own conclusion.
I don't know enough about it to give a decent rant one way or the other, but I considered his conjecture more plausible than most I have seen.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @02:40AM
Obviously they were working on their dodges - they were pieces of shit even back then.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gravis on Friday May 27 2016, @03:01AM
Knapping is the shaping of flint, chert, obsidian or other conchoidal fracturing stone through the process of lithic reduction to manufacture stone tools, strikers for flintlock firearms, or to produce flat-faced stones for building or facing walls, and flushwork decoration.
knapping and napping are as different as day and knight. ;)
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday May 27 2016, @07:39AM
Well, that's the problem with English: Some letters are simply knot spoken.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Friday May 27 2016, @09:06AM
My uncle used to joke that the key to pronouncing 'ptarmigan' correctly was that the 'p' was silent, like in swimming.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Friday May 27 2016, @03:05AM
maybe they needed hiding spots from the Aliens...
The Flintstones Meet The Great Gazoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-VnIwvY47c [youtube.com]
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2) by quintessence on Friday May 27 2016, @03:41AM
When Gehry puts out one of his designs, no one really questions why it's put together in that particular fashion. It's more intuitive: you get it or you don't.
Likewise when Ed Roth or thousands of other square pegs make their monuments- it's cool. No other explanation necessary.
Why would it be so hard to conceive that Neanderthals operated in a similar fashion? Pure functionality makes Jack a dull boy. We have a tendency towards creativity. Not all of it needs to serve some "purpose".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @09:29AM
If they were consuming significant amounts of alcohol by that time well that makes it even more likely ;).
Heck just look at the stuff many other animals do for fun. I've seen a video of a crow doing some roof "sledding" using a bottle cap.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Friday May 27 2016, @04:01AM
Reminds of the dark elves.. of in this case dark humanoids?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @05:34AM
Reminds of the dark elves.. of in this case dark humanoids?
Poor choice of words. From TFA:
Neanderthals and homo sapiens interbred, leaving a small contribution of less than 2 per cent to the DNA of all modern humans except for Africans, as the Neanderthals never lived on the continent.
Posting as AC because I don't want to be ignorantly accused of racism; this topic is hella taboo, even as a passing joke.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @07:22AM
why would you be accused of racism? I've read about this dozens of times on the BBC website, and they're generally not considered racists as far as I know.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday May 27 2016, @09:13AM
It's also ironic that the race most racists esteem the least is actually the purer variety of modern human.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @11:00AM
What does that say about humanity?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @09:42AM
No...they're obviously leftover Rallosian Ogres, stuck here after their Teir'Dal masters got bored and went off to torture Gnomes somewhere else.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @04:35AM
if the stupids hadn't polluted their gene pool.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday May 27 2016, @05:57AM
This meme has been documented in the Bible [biblehub.com] as well.
If any were the race we call Neanderthal is not exactly clear to me.
If anything, I believe we are uncovering evidence the world has been populated with people - intelligent people - a lot longer than some have led us to believe.
I commented earlier about von Däniken's book earlier. Unfortunately, a lot of his credibility is tarnished with exaggeration and undemonstrable documentation.
Still holding out hopes we would have found evidence on the moon that we've been there before, or at least someone had.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by deadstick on Friday May 27 2016, @04:15PM
I commented earlier about von Däniken's book earlier. Unfortunately, a lot of his credibility is tarnished with exaggeration and undemonstrable documentation.
It's been a long time since I read it, but one statement in it stands out. He says "Without reviewing Genesis, I seem to remember..." and then describes something that isn't there.
So much for honest scholarship.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday May 28 2016, @04:24AM
Doing stuff like this [tripod.com] in my mind has really hurt his credibility.
I just found this when I was watching his movie, and he remarked about Minnesota students building a replica of the ark that acted as a capacitor and developed lethal voltages and had to be destroyed. As an electrical engineer, I just had to find out what they did, and this time Google will help me get to the bottom if it.
Google found many people who were inspired by the work, only to find disappointing theater instead of fact.
I still consider the meme likely, but wonder how many other misleading accounts are in the text.
Just because its in a book, on the web, or spoken through a microphone - does not mean its true. I actually find it more likely when someone is trying to convince me of something using these methods, the converse is more likely to be true, and almost universally if money is involved in any way.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Touché) by bob_super on Friday May 27 2016, @05:26PM
Douglas Adams didn't expect he was writing a history book.
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Friday May 27 2016, @08:15AM
A ring-shaped underground structure? Seems we've found the Neanderthal CERN!
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Friday May 27 2016, @08:55AM
The secret is to bang the rocks together, guys.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday May 27 2016, @09:09AM
My god...so the real reason for the invention of the sling was that they realized they needed to bang the rocks together faster? You just blew my mind. Neanderthal particle physicists, accelerating rocks in circles underground.
Washington DC delenda est.