Neanderthals eaten by Syt's ancestors?

[Ed Anger]

Neandertals eaten by the Galactica's crew.

[KRonn]

Neandertals eaten by the Galactica's crew.

Mystery solved... Hmm... the Galatica crew did see primitive humans when they landed.   

[PDH]

How many sets of Neanderthal bones have been found? A lot I think...and no butchering until now.

Actually, a fair number of Neanderthal bones show typical marks of removal of flesh from the bones.  A good reason for doing this is to prepare the meat for cooking, and the marks seem consistant with game bones so treated.

[PDH]

Also, for the "how did Neanderthals die out?" people, remember that the the time span is long here, not decades, not centuries, but thousands and thousands of years to decline and disappear...

[Josquius]

How many sets of Neanderthal bones have been found? A lot I think...and no butchering until now.

Actually, a fair number of Neanderthal bones show typical marks of removal of flesh from the bones.  A good reason for doing this is to prepare the meat for cooking, and the marks seem consistant with game bones so treated.

I have read in the past theoriest about Neanderthal's preparing their dead in this way. But why is this the first we hear of humasn eating them?

[PDH]

I have read in the past theoriest about Neanderthal's preparing their dead in this way. But why is this the first we hear of humasn eating them?

There seems little reason to deflesh a corpse, especially when very little other ritual activity takes place among Neanderthals (and yes, the "burials" are still contended mightily, do not let one side or the other fool you), unless it is to use the flesh for some practical purpose.  The marks are very much (exactly, perhaps) the same as used to butcher game.

[The Minsky Moment]

My own opinion is that the extinction was a very gradual process, rather than some violent campaign of "ethnic [or species] cleansing".

Whatever they were, Neanderthals were apex predators: evidence suggests they were more or less exclusively carnivorous. Apex predators are usually very vulnerable to ecosystem changes.

Maybe, but Neathanderals lasted for a very, very long time.  They appear to have been quite adaptable and able to thrive under very difficult environmental conditions.

Until we know one way or another whether they could breed with HSS, it's all just speculation.  If they could interbreed, I think we have our answer.

[Malthus]

My own opinion is that the extinction was a very gradual process, rather than some violent campaign of "ethnic [or species] cleansing".

Whatever they were, Neanderthals were apex predators: evidence suggests they were more or less exclusively carnivorous. Apex predators are usually very vulnerable to ecosystem changes.

Maybe, but Neathanderals lasted for a very, very long time.  They appear to have been quite adaptable and able to thrive under very difficult environmental conditions.

Until we know one way or another whether they could breed with HSS, it's all just speculation.  If they could interbreed, I think we have our answer.

Certainly. Recent evidence on DNA tends to suggest that they did not interbreed, but it isn't conclusive.

In any event, my theory is not of a sudden disappearance, but of a very gradual displacement. Even a small difference in birth and death rates would, over millennia, account for the disappearance quite easily.

[Siege]

How many sets of Neanderthal bones have been found? A lot I think...and no butchering until now.

Actually, a fair number of Neanderthal bones show typical marks of removal of flesh from the bones.  A good reason for doing this is to prepare the meat for cooking, and the marks seem consistant with game bones so treated.

I have read in the past theoriest about Neanderthal's preparing their dead in this way. But why is this the first we hear of humasn eating them?

Yeah, exactly.

And even if somebody was eating them, why did it have to be humans?
Maybe eating the flesh of their own dead was part of the Neanderthal burial ritual.

[PDH]

Yeah, exactly.

And even if somebody was eating them, why did it have to be humans?
Maybe eating the flesh of their own dead was part of the Neanderthal burial ritual.

maybe they threw the flesh down the wells of the H. sapien sapiens.

[Siege]

Besides, aren't you some kind of creationist?  Doesn't it contradict the Torah or some old book that there was a humanoïd species not totally human before we appeared?

Of course I don't believe in any of this non-sense, the same way I don't believe in Aliens.
However, in both cases I found it to be very interesting.

[Valmy]

Of course I don't believe in any of this non-sense, the same way I don't believe in Aliens.

Except we do not dig up bones of aliens or have aliens swinging from trees all over the world

[viper37]

The local Algonkians where my family now has a cottage, for example, had traditional lakes and rivers which were the "property" of individual families for purposes of hunting, worked out over generations).

Small nitpick: Algonkians refer to the language family.

Algonquian tribes range from the Yurok in California to  the Powhatans in Virginia, from the  Cheyennes in the Great Plains to the  Naskapi Innu in frigid northern Labrador. Obviously, the Naskapi couldn't keep warm wearing grass skirts like the Yurok, and the buffalo-hunting culture of the Cheyennes would have been useless to the Powhatans (no buffalo roamed the forests of Virginia!) Making generalizations about "Algonquian Indians" is difficult at best.


most likely, they were Montagnais/Innus or Cree (closer to Hudson&James Bay), depending on where your cottage is.  My bet would be on the Montagnais.

[The Brain]

They had it coming if you ask me.

[viper37]

Actually, a fair number of Neanderthal bones show typical marks of removal of flesh from the bones.  A good reason for doing this is to prepare the meat for cooking, and the marks seem consistant with game bones so treated.

but where they hunted for their meat or were they killed in war, then eaten?