Before our time
Anthropologists have long taken a keen interest in that Palaeolithic predecessor of ours, the
Neanderthaler, and there seems no end to the studies published on him and his habits, and none
to the strange mystery that still surrounds him.
In a commentary by Richard G. Klein of Stanford University, published in Science for
7 March, the author states that "The Neanderthals are the longest known and best understood of
all fossil humans." Indeed, the partial skeleton that gave the man his name turned up in a limestone
cave in 1856. Today, writes Klein, several thousand bones are known, from 70 individual sites,
but debate still rages over the precise differences which existed between the Neanderthaler and
his modern relative and the question of what characteristics led to the complete disappearance
of the fossil man once he entered into competition with our real ancestors.
Homo sapiens neanderthalensis evolved 1n Europe, unlike H sapiens sapiens, our
own genetic ancestor, who arose in Africa. From about 130,000 years ago he occupied an area from
Spain to southern Russia, extending into western Asia by 50,000 to 30,000 years ago. From studies
of mitochondrial DNA it appears that the last common ancestor of Neanderthal men and modern man
lived about half a million years before our time.
The Neanderthalers had large heads, massive trunks and short and powerful limbs, with a brain
size often larger than our own. Their skull dimensions were strange, and they possessed a singular
structure of the bony labyrinth of the inner ear. It is supposed that their strenuous lifestyle
promoted physical rather than mental development, and they came into competition with the Cro-Magnons,
who had superior mental capacity. However, both races shared a spirit of caring for the aged
and sick, something demonstrated by the state of skeletal remains discovered.
Yet there were important cultural differences between the two races. The Cro-Magnons had artistic
tendencies, according to their remains, while the Neanderthalers did not, nor did they carry
out burial rituals. Whether the two interbred is undecided.
The large Neanderthal brain is apparent, but we have no evidence of cognitive capacity. Speech
and language developments may have lacked, and so made way for a new and more adaptive race. "Almost
certainly," writes Klein, "the Neanderthals succumbed because they wielded culture less effectively.
The main question that remains open is whether Neanderthal genes explain their failure to compete
culturally." There might be food for reflection for us in this idea.
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In the summer issue of Folio the editor comments that the lending of books is "an essentially
spontaneous act, stemming from an overmastering desire to share a revelation, a delight, a piece
of nostalgia with another". Yet, she warns, the lending and borrowing of books may prove hazardous
for collectors. It is the odd,
highly-valued volume that tends to disappear without trace.
