About 30,000 years ago, the Neanderthals disappeared. Before that, they safely lived on Earth for a quarter of a million years. Where did they go? Modern research allows us to open the veil of secrecy over this issue.
Cousins
The name "Neanderthal" (Homo neandertalensis) comes from the name of the Neanderthal Gorge in West Germany, where a skull was found in 1856, later recognized as a Neanderthal skull. This name itself came into use in 1858. It is interesting that the mentioned skull was already the third in the time of detection. The first Neanderthal skull was discovered back in 1829 in Belgium.
Today it has already been proven that Neanderthals are not the direct ancestors of humans. Rather, cousins.
For a long period of time (at least 5000 years), Homo neandertalensis and Homo Sapiens coexisted together.
Recent studies by the German professor Svante Paabo and Dr. David Reich have shown that Neanderthal genes are present in most people, with the exception of Africans. True, in a small amount - from 1 to 4%. Scientists believe that in the conditions of migration to the Middle East, Cro-Magnons came across Neanderthals and unwittingly mixed with them. The human and Neanderthal genomes are approximately 99.5% identical, but this does not mean that we are descended from Neanderthals.
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Rituals
Contrary to popular belief, Neanderthals were not underdeveloped semi-animals. This ignorant stereotype is refuted by numerous findings.
The burial found in the La Chapelle-aux-Seine grotto in France proves that it was the Neanderthals who were the first to put flowers, food, and toys to the deceased. Probably, it was the Neanderthals who played the first melody on Earth. In 1995, a bone flute with four holes was found in a cave in Slovenia, which could play three notes: "do", "re", "mi". The rock carvings of Neanderthals from the Chauvet cave in France are about 37 thousand years old. As you can understand, Neanderthals were a fairly highly developed branch of the human race. Where have they disappeared?
glacial period
One of the main versions of the disappearance of the Neanderthals is the version that they could not withstand the last glaciation and became extinct due to the cold. Both due to lack of nutrition, and for other reasons. The original version of the reasons for the death of the Neanderthals was proposed by the anthropologist Ian Gillian and his colleagues from the Australian State University. They believe that the Neanderthals became extinct due to the fact that they did not master the skills of sewing warm clothes in time. They were initially better adapted to the cold, and this played a cruel joke with them. When the temperature dropped sharply by 10 degrees, the Neanderthals were not ready for this.
Assimilation + cold
A scientific group led by Professor Thierd van Andel from Cambridge in 2004 carried out large-scale research and gave such a picture of the disappearance of the Neanderthals. The global cooling began 70,000 years ago. With the advance of glaciers, both Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals began to retreat to southern Europe. Judging by the archaeological finds, it was during this period that ancient man made attempts at interspecific crossing, but such offspring were doomed. The last Neanderthal was found in the Pyrenees, 29,000 years old. Physical data: height - about 180 cm, weight - under 100 kg.
Genocide
According to another version, the reason for the disappearance of the Neanderthals could be the first genocide in history, according to anthropologist Stephen Churchill of Duke University (USA).
The genocide was committed by the Cro-Magnons - the ancestors of modern people. Early Homo Sapiens came to Europe about 40-50 thousand years ago, and after 28-30 thousand years the Neanderthals completely died out. These 20 thousand years of coexistence of the two species were a period of intense competition for food and other resources, in which the Cro-Magnons won. Perhaps the decisive factor was the ability of the Cro-Magnons to handle weapons.