Reconstruction of a Neanderthal girl. Image courtesy of Christopher P. E. Zollikofer, Anthropological Institute, University of Zurich.
Joel Kontinen
Recently, science writer Robert Adler wrote an article in New Scientist, asking whether it would be time to accept Neanderthals as fully human.
Early Darwinists thought that the Neanderthals were primitive ape-like beings who lived in caves, walked with a stooping gait and communicated by grunting.
Much has changed in a hundred years. Now we know that the Neanderthals knew how to light fires; they built wooden structures, made musical instruments, buried their dead and most probably also knew how to speak.
Eric Trinkaus, professor of anthropology at Washington University at St. Louis, Missouri, says: ”Neanderthals were people, and they probably had the same range of mental abilities we do."
Some skeptics assume that Neanderthals had to be less intelligent than modern man. However, new scientific discoveries have caused the ranks of doubters to become thinner.
According to the model based on Genesis, the Neanderthals were Adam’s descendants just like us. They probably lived in Europe during the ice age following the Flood.
Source:
Adler, Robert. 2010. Are you really smarter than a Neanderthal? New Scientist 2789, 32-36. (Reading this article online requires registration.)
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