I just got through watching the new Nova program on the Neanderthals. It was quite interesting. They showed some evidence that
some paleontologists are using to say that the Neanderthals were more like us than we think. Obviously they were more complex than we like to think they were, but they still seem to have been much different from us in some ways.
One of the big differences between Neanderthals and us seems to be the use of symbols in our lives. Evidence for a significant symbolic content in the lives of the Neanderthals is still thin on the ground. There have been some recent findings that show the possibility of some use of symbols, but nothing like what grew up with the intrusion of modern humans into Europe. That's my opinion, which I got largely from
Ian Tattersall's books. One thing that isn't clear is just how well they could talk. They certainly could communicate fairly well. They had to or they wouldn't have been able to hunt as well as they did. But they probably didn't communicate as well as we do.
The main part of the Nova program though was about the results of sequencing the Neanderthal genome and comparing it to the modern human genome. Most of this section is based on the work of
Svante Paabo with a discussion by
John Hawks. The amazing fact is that the comparison between the Neanderthal and modern DNA showed that most of us have some Neanderthal DNA included in our genes. The exceptions are people from Southern Africa. This seems to indicate that the Neanderthal genes were taken in after we left Africa around 60,000 years ago. There also seems to have been more interbreeding in the Tuscany region of Italy than elsewhere in Europe. I'm not sure exactly what this means, but it is interesting. Off the top of my head I think it may just mean that there were more Neanderthals in that area than in other areas.
One thing that showed up in the testing was that we seem to have Neanderthal genetic material in the part of our genome that is concerned with our immune system. That may mean that we got some benefit from a Neanderthal immunity to diseases that existed in Europe, but not in Africa.
Over all Europeans tend to have the most Neanderthal genetic material, with decreasing levels at different distances. This would seem to be in keeping with the fact that the Neanderthals were mostly confine to Europe, but did range into the mideast, as
shown here.
The biggest problem I had with the program was that they kept showing Neanderthals using modern humans, but not trying to mask, the modern features. For example they showed a "Neanderthal" woman with a pronounced chin. Well, not that pronounced, but you could definitely see it. That is one thing the Neanderthals did not have.
Bill Gill
