Call me inquisitive if you like, but I admit to a long-standing, burning curiosity about the Neanderthal people. That prolific, brilliant author, Isaac Asimov, once wrote a novel about modern humans transporting a young Neanderthal child to the modern world to try to find out what had happened to them. I read his novel eagerly but, like him and like everyone else, I cannot explain with any certainty what could have caused these highly adapted, community-minded people to die out, leaving us as the only species of humans on the planet.
(Incidentally, the novel by Asimov was called “Child of Time” and it was originally a short story called “The Ugly Little Boy”. That last title is not very complimentary to how Neanderthals might have looked, but you get the idea.)
It seems to me that the Neanderthals were tantalizingly similar to us, yet mysteriously different as well. They didn’t farm, but then neither did we at that time in our past. They didn’t create rock art (at least to the best of our knowledge). Yet they buried their dead and looked after their old and infirm. In some respects one would think they would have been more likely to survive than we were. For instance, they were better adapted than Homo sapiens to a frozen world. They survived thousands of years of Ice Age. Their bones were far stronger than ours. Our bones are finer, more fragile, much more breakable. They would have won a wrestling contest with us easily.
So why did they, around 35000 years ago, become extinct?
href=”https://year7historygr.edublogs.org/files/2009/02/neanderthal-from-wpclipart.jpg”>
Image from wpclipart.com and used with gratitude
Here’s your chance to plumb the depths of this mystery and go back to the time before homo sapiens were the only human beings on the planet. Have a look at each link below to view some fascinating speculations about Neanderthals:
Neanderthals could have had red hair and freckles…like the Weasleys.
Neanderthals may have been less likely to suffer from mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia.
Of course, many of these ideas are theory rather than fact.
Now, write down what you think. You might have a theory, a question or a perceptive comment to make on the life and the fate of the Neanderthals. Don’t forget that if you find a fascinating site or interesting piece of information you can leave a comment with the details to inspire and interest others (including your inquisitive teacher).
Kind regards,
Ms Green.
Jan’s wonderful Stone Age Timeline is featured below. Well done, Jan!
Shelley’s is also a wonderful work of art. You are both stars in the history firmament, girls!
they look so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In my opinion, Neanderthals died out because although their brains were bigger, they weren’t necessarily more intelligent.
I think that they would have been an advanced species and if they were still around today they might be as ahead as the modern humans, maybe even smarter or more developed than us. The information you have provided is very helpful but i was just wondering if there is anything you have left out. Also you said that they may have had red hair, do you know why there was no diffrent colours in hair colour and in the stone age did we have the same hair colour or were we as diverse as we are now?
Regards,
Vienna
I don’t believe that Neanderthals existed in the first place. They may just have been a tribe/clan of humans who were designed to fit the environment in which they lived in – which accounts for their strange physical appearances.
I think that it’s freaky how they were so much like us humans and they disappeared. How they looked like us (but a little bit different) and maybe even talked like us (but in a different language probably).
If (and i say if) the neanderthals actually did live, i’d imagine that the changing environment would of been very difficult to adapt to. I mean, if we had been in the same situation, would we of survived?
Besides, who’s to say that their intellect was better than ours? They might of had difficulty thinking of another way to survive, and, in the end, they might never of thought of a way.
Plus the neanderthals could not give birth properly so they probably died out because of that too.
PS the spelling mistake in my last comment is very silly, please dont mind.
I personally don’t belive in the whole evolution thing, or that Nenderthals even existed the first place but according to the information on this blog and links this is my theory on what made the Neanderthals die out.
According to the article’s links there may have been several reasons and causes that have made the Neanderthal people die out.
Some was because of lack in variety in their diet therefore not being able to have proper childbirth and things that a baby needs. Perhaps their adaption to the cold temperatures and other things that may have helped them to survive their circumstances were changing into something else, probably more ‘human’ therefore making it harder to survive and soon enough they died out.
The websites you chose were interesting to read and very informational.
I think that the Neanderthals lived many years ago and that not all of them died out in 33,000 BC. I believe that at least two of them mingled with our ancestors and passed as one of them. I believe this because not all the bones have been found. I think they survived on by adapting to the new climate with the rest of the Homosapians.
I I think the neanderthals may have died out because their bodies couldnt deal with the temperature change that occured when modern humans first appeared, and that maybe the modern humans had a disease that their immune systems may not have been able to cope with.
Hi guys heres a website i thought you might find useful. It contains info about why the Neanderthals died out but we survived. The author points out useful ideas as to how they disappeared and how the Humans survived. He notices all the factors that lead up to their end such as climate change etc. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427335.800-why-did-our-species-survive-the-neanderthals.html
regards
Vienna
I reckon they died because of wild animals, or climate change.
Tricky questions, Vienna! There is bound to be plenty I have left out, I’m afraid. It is a massive field of study and I tried to find some sites that were not too difficult but still informative. On the hair colour issue: we can’t be sure about hair colour because, like soft tissue (e.g. skin), that does not usually survive for archaeologists to dig up…I would have assumed that the whole range of human hair colour we have now would have been around in the Stone Age. But I am not a scientist, Vienna. That’s one reason I directed you to all those sites that are written by seriously expert types. Ms Green.
They died because animals they hunt and eat died
i read a thing that thought that neanderthals and homo sapiens mated and kind of, mingled into one species, which is modern humans. Maybe.
I think the neanderthals died out due to difficulty in childbirth and the babies amost unnatural rate of growth. In childbirth, due to neanderthals large heads, children’s head have to turn their head before it can fit through the narrow space of the pelvis .Neanderthal babies needed rich protien and a large quantity of fat. Many of the mothers had to eat many calories to produce enough milk for their children and sometimes caused them to age.
I think that when the climate started to warm up the Neanderthals had to adapt to a new environment and because they where used to the cold so much, they did not know what to do and they may have died from heat-related issues.
they died out probably cause they couldn’t hunt without ambushing and then their population shrank and then they were very vunerable to any threats aka the guys were doomed
I think that they disappeared because of the climate change or maybe because the animals that they hunted became extinct.
I think Neanderthals died out because they were simply out bred by us humans-not because of any superiality by us humans
To tell the truth, I neaver really believed in Neanderthals, or any of the human forms/species before it either. But here’s a theory of why they became extinct(bearing in mind that is still don’t belive in those kinda stuff…)
Neanderthals hunting technique was very unreliable. As said in the BBC article, when the climate warmed up, more and more of those hunting grounds that were suitable to their hunting technique were destroyed. So food was harder to come by, and soon the would be a shortage of food. Since the Neanderthals needed to consume more food than us, they would die of starvation. At least, that’s what I think.