4/28/2002: Neanderthal injury

Undertoad · 04-28-2002, 11:58 AM

The skull fragments pictured on the right were found in 1979. When newly-examined using computer modeling, they determined that the guy whose skull it was -- 36,000 years ago -- had suffered a skull fracture from getting whacked by a fellow neanderthal!

Sounds like they're jumping to conclusions, but the New Scientist article says they did CAT scans and compared the fracture to modern injuries to rule out the idea that it was an accident.

Hard to imagine how they worked it out. The article says this is only the second piece of evidence of neanderthals being violent towards one another. They also believe that the act was performed by someone in the same social group, not a warring tribe. How they could work that out is beyond me...

Totally amazing that they can at least try to figure out how societies operated tens of thousands of years ago. And a little sad that such violence has not been completely bred out of us or educated out of us yet.

On the other hand, it's possible that this kind of violence actually WAS bred out of us over time, as successful tribes developed social norms that allowed the groups to succeed.

(BTW: there was no image yesterday cos I was outta town.)

04-28-2002, 11:58 AM	#1
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	4/28/2002: Neanderthal injury The skull fragments pictured on the right were found in 1979. When newly-examined using computer modeling, they determined that the guy whose skull it was -- 36,000 years ago -- had suffered a skull fracture from getting whacked by a fellow neanderthal! Sounds like they're jumping to conclusions, but the New Scientist article says they did CAT scans and compared the fracture to modern injuries to rule out the idea that it was an accident. Hard to imagine how they worked it out. The article says this is only the second piece of evidence of neanderthals being violent towards one another. They also believe that the act was performed by someone in the same social group, not a warring tribe. How they could work that out is beyond me... Totally amazing that they can at least try to figure out how societies operated tens of thousands of years ago. And a little sad that such violence has not been completely bred out of us or educated out of us yet. On the other hand, it's possible that this kind of violence actually WAS bred out of us over time, as successful tribes developed social norms that allowed the groups to succeed. (BTW: there was no image yesterday cos I was outta town.)

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