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Lethe, whole no. 5, January 1947

Page 4

CAVE MEN by Herman Meader

Neanderthal was more animal than man. He lived in caves, could not talk and didn't possess fire. Then a mutation occurred and Cro-Magnon Man was born who later supplanted Neanderthal Man because he was more intelligent, faster on his feet and stronger physically. Another mutation occurred in Cro-Magnon and Modern Man was born. The above statements are a mixture of fact and falsehoods, mostly falsehoods. At any rate I used to believe that story until fairly recently.
It seems that in 1907 a Dr. Otto Shoetensack of the University of Heidelberg was one of many who were probing around a large sand pit about seven miles from the city of Heidelberg. In the pit almost eight feet below the ground level was found the famous Heidelberg Jaw, almost a million years old. The Heidelberg Man was the probably parental form of Neanderthal Man. The jaw was more ape-like than human, but the teeth proved it definitely human. 

Thirty-nine years have rolled by and by now anthropologists have a fairly clear picture of what Neanderthal himself looked like, as almost complete skeletons have been found, among other things. The Neanderthals actually buried their dead under the floor of their caves together with stone tools, pointing to their possessing a religion of sorts. To clinch the matter of religion, a row of cave bear skulls was found in one Neanderthal cave plainly serving as a shrine. They undoubtedly had the power of speech as is indicated by formation of the inside of the mouth and other features, wether they actually talked is another matter, although it seems probably that they had an extremely crude language of some sort. Their stone working was excellent for that period in which they lived. The Neaderthals of the caves lived at the very end of the Lower Paleolithic (perhaps from 100,000 B.C. to 50,000 B.C.) and killed the cold-weather animals of that period, during which the fourth and last glacier was making its advance southward and reaching its peak.

Neanderthal Man's remains have been found all over Western Europe (excepting the British Isles), in Yugoslavia, Palestine, Malta Russia, North Africa, and Italy. Some of the remains differ in size and shape according to whatever area they are found, pointing to the possibility of their being divided into races.

Neanderthal's head was not balanced like ours but hung forward in a primitive manner, somewhat like an apes. Our spine tilts slightly back at the top of the neck vertebrae whereas their tilted forward. The forehead sloped back from the heavy, bony brow ridge over the eyes. The nose was immense with something of a bridge and he had a large mouth and no chin at all. A brutish-looking specimen whom I wouldn't care to meet in a dark alley, although he just might pass as a modern human with a hair cut and a shave. He was squat, standing a little over five feet and the females just under that;was heavily built and had great strength especially in his arms. A much stronger man physically than Cro-Magnon or Modern Man. His lower
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CAVE MEN by Herman Meader Neanderthal was more animal than man. He lived in caves, could not talk and didn't possess fire. Then a mutation occurred and Cro-Magnon Man was born who later supplanted Neanderthal Man because he was more intelligent, faster on his feet and stronger physically. Another mutation occurred in Cro-Magnon and Modern Man was born. The above statements are a mixture of fact and falsehoods, mostly falsehoods. At any rate I used to believe that story until fairly recently. It seems that in 1907 a Dr. Otto Shoetensack of the University of Heidelberg was one of many who were probing around a large sand pit about seven miles from the city of Heidelberg. In the pit almost eight feet below the ground level was found the famous Heidelberg Jaw, almost a million years old. The Heidelberg Man was the probably parental form of Neanderthal Man. The jaw was more ape-like than human, but the teeth proved it definitely human. Thirty-nine years have rolled by and by now anthropologists have a fairly clear picture of what Neanderthal himself looked like, as almost complete skeletons have been found, among other things. The Neanderthals actually buried their dead under the floor of their caves together with stone tools, pointing to their possessing a religion of sorts. To clinch the matter of religion, a row of cave bear skulls was found in one Neanderthal cave plainly serving as a shrine. They undoubtedly had the power of speech as is indicated by formation of the inside of the mouth and other features, wether they actually talked is another matter, although it seems probably that they had an extremely crude language of some sort. Their stone working was excellent for that period in which they lived. The Neaderthals of the caves lived at the very end of the Lower Paleolithic (perhaps from 100,000 B.C. to 50,000 B.C.) and killed the cold-weather animals of that period, during which the fourth and last glacier was making its advance southward and reaching its peak. Neanderthal Man's remains have been found all over Western Europe (excepting the British Isles), in Yugoslavia, Palestine, Malta Russia, North Africa, and Italy. Some of the remains differ in size and shape according to whatever area they are found, pointing to the possibility of their being divided into races. Neanderthal's head was not balanced like ours but hung forward in a primitive manner, somewhat like an apes. Our spine tilts slightly back at the top of the neck vertebrae whereas their tilted forward. The forehead sloped back from the heavy, bony brow ridge over the eyes. The nose was immense with something of a bridge and he had a large mouth and no chin at all. A brutish-looking specimen whom I wouldn't care to meet in a dark alley, although he just might pass as a modern human with a hair cut and a shave. He was squat, standing a little over five feet and the females just under that;was heavily built and had great strength especially in his arms. A much stronger man physically than Cro-Magnon or Modern Man. His lower page four