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Judi Lynn

(162,491 posts)
Sun Oct 15, 2023, 08:14 PM Oct 2023

Sneak Peek Into Neanderthal Cooking Habits Reveals They Were Just As Intelligent As Homo Sapiens

PUBLISHED
Yesterday

Our hominin cousins mastered fire and used it to cook food, just as we did millennia later.

MADDY CHAPMAN
Copy Editor and Staff Writer

Neanderthals were just as intelligent as Homo sapiens – that’s the conclusion of research that, based on more than 20 years worth of excavations, demonstrates our ancient cousins knew how to control fire and used it to cook food.

It’s perhaps not that surprising given what we already know about the extinct hominins. In the last few weeks alone we’ve found out that they hunted lions and used their pelts, and that they made their own glue.

"This [new finding] confirms our observations and theories from previous studies,” Diego Angelucci, an archaeologist at the University of Trento and co-author of the study, said in a statement.

"Neanderthals were capable of symbolic thought, could create artistic objects, knew how to decorate their bodies using personal ornaments, and had an extremely varied diet. Add to that that, based on our findings, we can say with certainty that they habitually ate cooked food. This ability confirms that they were as skilled as the Homo sapiens who lived millennia later."

More:
https://www.iflscience.com/sneak-peek-into-neanderthal-cooking-habits-reveals-they-were-just-as-intelligent-as-homo-sapiens-71121

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Sneak Peek Into Neanderthal Cooking Habits Reveals They Were Just As Intelligent As Homo Sapiens (Original Post) Judi Lynn Oct 2023 OP
Which brings us to the true mystery. PoindexterOglethorpe Oct 2023 #1
I'm inclined to agree. But then I wonder why wnylib Nov 2023 #2

PoindexterOglethorpe

(26,764 posts)
1. Which brings us to the true mystery.
Tue Oct 31, 2023, 08:25 PM
Oct 2023

Why did they die out? Why are we homo sapiens the only surviving hominid?

Over the years I've read various books about Neanderthals, and of course our understanding of them constantly changes. I have no hypothesis to offer as to why they died out and we survived, other than to notice that's what happened.

Actually, I'm willing to propose that for whatever reasons, there were far fewer of them than of us, and so we more or less overwhelmed them. I am one who has a measurable amount of Neanderthal DNA, which I happen to think is pretty cool.

wnylib

(24,537 posts)
2. I'm inclined to agree. But then I wonder why
Wed Nov 1, 2023, 08:47 AM
Nov 2023

we outnumbered them. A difference in social structure? Hunting technology? Genetic differences in immune systems? Climate changes pushing more and more waves of Sapiens out of Africa?

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