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MasterCaneman -> RE: For Anthropology Buffs (9/25/2013 9:55:51 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: njlauren
In recent years a lot has come out about neanderthal man and cro magnon man, and there is evidence that among other things, they interbred, and that they also weren't that much less advanced then homo sapien (us). The old myths of the big forehead brute has been out to rest, Neanderthal had many attributes of modern man (and they were definitely way more advanced than homo tea partyalis).
Besides climate change, one of the more interesting theories is that the mastodons and mammoths were driven to extinction by our ancestors, that it may have been one of the first examples of extinction caused by human beings.
There has been speculation that a cosmic impact may have had something to do with the extinction of the larger mammals. Some have said a comet struck the ice sheets of North America, wiping out the Clovis Culture at around the same time. While the evidence is contested, it's too coincidental that both populations disappeared in the same slice of time.
The event is called the Younger Dryas, and it's entirely possible that the repercussions may have driven mankind to begin agriculture and civilization rather than hunting and gathering.Granted, this event occurred more than ten millennia after the last vestiges of the Neanderthal have been found, but I wouldn't be surprised if someday, an archaeologist finds evidence they lived past than 29,000 BCE.
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