Neanderthals weren't the strong, strapping cavepeople we imagine

[Judi Lynn]

Neanderthals were often ill or disabled, and many were cared for by the group.

16th September, 2019 at 10:30

Neanderthals were not all strapping, healthy beings like we have been led to believe, a leading scientist has said. Instead many of our prehistoric ancestors were ill and disabled, looking like they had been “in the wars”.

Dr Penny Spikins, a lecturer in archaeology at the University of York, said the notion of a caveman past where everyone was strong and healthy is “kind of worrying”.

Speaking that the British Science Festival in Coventry and Warwickshire, she explained: “We are not very good at vulnerability, and we are vulnerable to being lonely, we’re physically vulnerable. Nobody likes thinking about death and we have this image of ourselves as competitive and individualistic which is often unhelpful and unhealthy. Then we apply that back on to the past and then that justifies the present again and that’s slightly worrying.”

She added: “But when you think, ‘well, actually, throughout our evolutionary history we’ve been interdependent and everyone has periods of vulnerability’, maybe that might help you find it easier to handle being vulnerable, something just part of being human — not a fault.

More:
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/neanderthals-werent-the-strong-strapping-cavepeople-we-imagine/