Introduction
The Neanderthal skull was firstly found in 1848 in Gibraltar. Future studies showed that, in the beginning, Homo sapiens and Neanderthals had the same group of ancestors in Africa. Then a part of this group moved to the European region and became Neanderthals. The rest of the group stayed in Africa and created the beginning of the modern human. Therefore, Neanderthals developed separately from the modern species, primarily in Europe and Western Asia regions.
Neanderthal Species
Neanderthals had to adapt to the new environmental conditions, including climate changes, natural resources, such as food, and geographical characteristics of the new territory. Crossland mentions the confrontations between Darwin’s publications and researches conducted by Henri Bergson (82). Despite the unclearness in the past historical data, there is still some evidence that may describe the way of living and behavioral characteristics of Neanderthals.
Neanderthals, as well as other species, had their social structure. Genetic says that this species lived mainly in the small subpopulations (Rogers 9859). Neanderthals had a short and muscular body that was adapted to low temperatures. It shows that this species was flexible and adaptable to the external environment. Geographical separation and the DNA comparison results outline the clear difference between the modern human and the Neandertal. However, it is not enough to deny the possibility of any interbreeding between the Neanderthal and the Homo sapience.
Behavioral Traits of Neanderthals
Neanderthals buried their dead. They used a variety of natural resources. For instance, according to Crossland, this type of species used plants for medical purposes (95). This fact outlines their advanced intelligence and complex adaptability system. However, archaeologists mention that Neanderthals may have a different way of thinking. On the one hand, the archaeological evidence shows no or a few symbolic objects used in their day-to-day lives. Scientists suggest that this type of species did not have any symbolic thoughts. On the other hand, researchers state that they had a possible adaption for speech.
In addition, Neanderthals were able to identify speech or language. According to Banks, the studies of the inner and outer ear outline the similarity in characteristics with Homo sapience (5346). Moreover, the following investigation showed that Neanderthals used hunting as the primary source of food. They also used ambush techniques to hunt large types of animals, especially in their migration routes. Then they took the meat to the settling to share it with the rest of the group. Places for hunting were not far from the settling and covered a limited geographical location.
The Social Structure of Neanderthals
Neanderthals had close social structure and demographic characteristics to Homo sapiens due to the similarity between species and their mutual ancestors. Hayden states that Neanderthals lived in small groups of 10 to 20 adults (qtd. in Crossland 98). The childhood period was shorter than Homo sapience’s due to the brain’s size and its development processes. Scientists suggest that because of the earlier growing up, they had a better opportunity to reproduction. Therefore, the population had to increase. However, Neanderthals had a shorter life period as well, which, at the same time, decreased the size of the population.
Males and females had a variety of responsibilities that were differentiated from each other and were shared depending on the gender. Rogers mentions that the bottleneck of Neanderthals could be caused by environmental factors, such as challenging Northern climate, lack of plants and animals in the surrounding environment (9862). These conditions created a difficult external criterion to survive, especially in the isolated geographical location.
The End of the Species
Researchers show the last dated artifacts that are about 40,000 years old. Scientists and archaeologists suggest that Neanderthals lived in challenging conditions that decreased their population size and did not allow them to develop further or increase birth rate. For instance, significantly low temperature affected the fauna, natural disasters in the region of habitation and other predators, which lived in the exact location, could create several problems for local species. Churchill said that Neanderthals have disappeared right at the same time when the modern people have come to that location (qtd. in Crossland 98). Scientists also suggest a theory with an illness that could kill the whole population. However, there is no clear evidence why exactly Neanderthals disappeared.
Conclusion
To conclude, there are still some debates regarding the history of Neanderthals. Even by having the same ancestors as Homo sapiens, Neanderthals were not able to develop in any other species. Their type of living, social structure, habits, and physical identification had their unique appearance. The responsibilities were divided between the group members. Archaeological evidences show their high intelligence that resulted in the structured hunting methods, the proper usage of plants, and increased physical abilities among group members. However, external environmental conditions, including climate changes, in their place of living decreased the number of males and females, which resulted in disappearance of this species.
Works Cited
Banks, William E., et al. “An ecological Niche Shift for Neanderthal Populations in Western Europe 70,000 years Ago”. Scientific Reports, vol. 11, no. 1, 2021, p. 5346.
Crossland, Zoe. “Unknown and Indeterminacy: Neanderthal Histories”. Social Research, vol. 87, no. 1, 2020, pp. 75-100. Project MUSE.
Rogers, Alan, et al. “Early History of Neanderthals and Denisovans”. Proceeding of the National Academy of Science, vol. 114, no. 37, 2017, pp. 9859-9863.