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Originally posted by optimus primal
reply to post by GoldenGolem
i wish we still had them around, we're one of the only species on earth with no living near cousins. long long long ago there were around three or four human species surviving in the world at the same time. no longer. i think when the last neanderthal died we lost something precious. maybe someday we'll bring them back.
Originally posted by Kandinsky
reply to post by Aquarius1
They had some form of language, buried their dead with apparent ceremony and had some kind of social structure. None of this is make-believe or romanticism...it's evidence-based.
If we speculate that they had a concept of a 'hereafter,' it raises pretty interesting questions of our own beliefs. Are our own notions of after-life an outcome of society too? Or maybe there is an after-life and it takes a certain amount of advancement before that knowledge can be expressed? Who can say? Maybe it doesn't even matter what the answer is there...just asking makes the difference.
The guys in Spain weren't Neanderthals; they were relations...Heidelbergensis. It's a detail and not that important because there are already questions about whether those guys thought about a hereafter too. In the larger picture, socially, psychologically or spiritually...we have three different strands of intelligent life and they all appear to have the basics of belief-systems hard-wired into their consciousness.
Originally posted by GoldenGolem
reply to post by optimus primal
Thank you for correcting me.
But what do you think of them having slightly larger brains then us? Is that true? I got it from a book on prehistoric mammals.
www.pasthorizons.com...
Originally posted by Aquarius1
A possible Neanderthal burial ground suggests that they practiced funeral rituals and possessed symbolic thought before modern humans.
April 20, 2011
Evidence for a likely 50,000-year-old Neanderthal burial ground that includes the remains of at least three individuals has been unearthed in Spain, according to a Quaternary International paper.
The deceased appear to have been intentionally buried, with each Neanderthal's arms folded such that the hands were close to the head. Remains of other Neanderthals have been found in this position, suggesting that it held meaning.
news.discovery.com...
A few dozen documented Neanderthal burials from Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia have already been documented.
Neanderthal skeletons found in apparent burial poses have been unearthed at a site in Spain.
The site, Sima de las Palomas, may be the first known Neanderthal burial ground of Mediterranean Europe.
Remains for six to seven other Neanderthals, including an infant and two juveniles, as well as associated tools and food, have also been excavated.
Why wouldn't they be spiritual, evidence shows that that they had loving close family relationships like we have today.
It may be that they were born with what we call today the G-d part of the brain that allows us to worship something.
It is only in the the Western world that an afterlife or reincarnation isn't embraced, it is still common in the Eastern world today.
Related topics:
Anthropology
Neanderthals
Isolated tribes today who have never been exposed to the outside world worship something, it could be as simple a rock.
They were were found covered together with rocks burying their remains, this certainly says they were more intelligent then we thought. Scientists today know very little about the Neanderthals, much of what we read is assumption on their part.
They wore clothes, used tools and it seems cooked their food over fires. We cannot assume that they were primitive and couldn't take care of themselves.edit on 21-4-2011 by Aquarius1 because: (no reason given)