tbh I think if we saw a neanderthal on the street we probably wouldn’t know they weren’t quite…us…we’d just be like “huh, that guy sure had a broad face also he must deadlift”
The newer reconstructions that they are doing show this so clearly. Both men and women, they looked….pretty much like us. Just heavier bone structure. Clearly Not Quite Us if you studied closely, but put on modern clothes, modern hairstyles, and…. yeah, they’re human.
They just look like us if we had slightly thicker bones and bigger skulls.
I love the facial expression!
Grandpa about to tell me a story about mammoth hunting……
I know I bring him up a lot but I have to talk about Shanidar 1. He is a Neanderthal man who lived in what is now Shanidar, Iraq. At some point in his early life he suffered a serious blow to the head,possibly leading to paralysis on the right side of his body that caused him to lose the use of his leg and arm, and he might also have been blinded in one eye. Around 40,000 years ago that would’ve been an immediate death sentence unless he was cared for by his tribe, and he was. He was cared for so well that he lived to be 35-45 years old, an advanced age for Neanderthals. They were capable of compassion, perhaps even love. This also means that “survival of the fittest” is a bit bullshit imho.
