I absolutely buy Danny Vendramini’s theory on Neanderthal-human interaction, because it throws out the anachronistic, humanistic overlay, and anthropomorphic view of our ancient, vanquished foe. After seeing this theory, much of ancient myth, from Humbaba and Grendel, to the Windigo, Sasquatch and the Yeti make much more sense. As a horror writer I have found myself tapping into this King Kong complex at the base of our nocturnal psychology. As a science-fiction writer dealing with early humanity I have found my higher self bowing to the horror writer. In my novel, Beyond the Ember Star I separated the narrative as far from standard scholarship as possible without looking like a crank. After viewing the videos below I want to do another Neanderthal novel.
Six times stronger than humans!
One thing about their diet that Danny does not explain is that 50% of the meat Neanderthals consumed was the auroch, a positively massive breed of giant cattle, which would have had to have been killed hand-to-hand, with spears and knives, not with bows and arrows and atlatls. Neanderthals would not have been able to throw, due to their musculature, which prevents the development of throwing tools and thus does not provide the leap to the invention of the bow and arrow, which may well have been the weapon that did them in. Imagine though, if you could give a Neanderthal a bow and teach him how to use and make it? They were larger-brained than us and seem to have invented wind instruments and religion. That was the premise of my novel, that a time traveler might be able to stave off Neanderthal extinction if you gave them bow and arrow technology.
The aspect of his theory I disagree with is that man’s genocidal proclivity was born when early modern humans were forced to adapt to Neanderthal predation and turn the tables on the beast men. There is ample evidence that earlier forms of hominids wiped each other out, and current populations—such as Central and Southern Africans—with no DNA trace to these monster-hunting “Cromagnon” men, were quick studies in the genocide game and were responsible for wiping out the capoid races who had previously dominated Africa.
The discussion of the genome on this Red Ice Radio show is very good. The population bottleneck they are discussing was caused by the Toba Super-eruption 74,000 years ago.
The predatory nature of Vendramini’s Neanderthal turns some readers off but it makes me feel better to have Neanderthal DNA in my genome. I’m looking forward to watching King Kong again.
Neanderthal: Profile of a super predator
Red Ice Radio - Danny Vendramini - Hour 1 - Them & Us: Neanderthal Predation Theory
A Well of Heroes
I knew I should put more veggies in my diet! Goddam a potato! Chief Washakie.
“After all it is better to be efficiently armed than not; and ever since prehistoric man invented the sling or the bow, weapons that keep the enemy at a distance and disqualified mere personal strength have been popular.” - Captain Hugh B.C. Pollard, "The Book of the Pistol & Revolver” (1917)
Fascinating. I recall seeing a TV presentation some years ago in which an orthopedic surgeon was asked to examine fossilized Neanderthal skeletons. The surgeon noted that the adult male skeletons had many healed-over bone fractures and that the fractures resembled the types of injuries modern rodeo cowboys typically suffer. The anthropologists on the program theorized then that due to the Neanderthals inability to employ throwing spears they were forced move in close to kill their prey with thrusting spears, which lead to the Neanderthal hunters getting gored, thrown and trampled a lot. Especially since the Neanderthal's favorite prey, the Auroch, was bigger than a Brahma bull. Thus the fact that Neanderthals so often had to risk death or crippling injury every time they went grocery shopping contributed to their eventual extinction. Sort of like living in your neighborhood, eh James? LOL!
Yes, I am the last of the Neanderthals!
"Sexual and Cannibalistic Predation"!!!! THEY MUST BE STOPPED. KILL THEM ALL! For 50,000 years no less. Let the Negros top that. They weren't hunted down and eaten by vicious Neanderthals for 50,000 years. They should be paying us. CroMag Lives Matter.
This is a field that will be dominated by fiction writers. Geneticists and anthropologists are too reticent, and the opportunity for creative embellishment is too great.
I am proudly Team N, though I have below average N variants. Neanderthals were undoubtedly white (WHITE WHITE WHITE!!!!), though I would allow the fiercer features and body hair depicted. But come on, who is going to look more like an ape, the guys living side by side with them, or the ones with no common environment for 500k years? His accent sounds South African, so I am guessing there is some continental chauvinism at play.
I definitely do believe that N vs Sapiens competition is reflected in our ancient myths.
The most chilling thing to me is that we beat them using their own genes. Even into the modern era, N genes make an impact to health and life expectancy. Be careful who you mate with. Your descendants might need only 3% of your genes to gain an advantage and wipe out the other 97%.