Neanderthals v Humans

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Littlestone L
Littlestone Nov 5, 2012 16:57:24
Replying to Harryshill

Harryshill wrote:
I would speculate that they were far too busy trying to survive to have time for such things.

Daylight hours being spent on hunting and gathering.

You can of course apply that argument to the Neolithic (if not to most periods in human evolution) but that (trying to survive) hasn’t stopped any of us from producing some of the most astonishing and enduring monuments – on a shoestring budget you might say.

But I take your point, life must have been unbelievably hard but not without some ‘premium’ time, surely. We know they buried their own with ceremony, had the time and the inclination to decorate shells and wear them as jewellery, made clothes and tools and even had an understanding of natural medicines. What else they knew, and may have achieved, is still a closed door to us but the possibility that they may have been responsible for some cave art really is very exciting.

H Harryshill
Harryshill Nov 5, 2012 17:08:09
Replying to Littlestone

I see the above activities as being evening and nighttime activities. accomplished in the safety of the Caves. While Stone structure building strikes me a a daytime activity and at a time when hunting and gathering could be carried out.

The megaliths of the neolithic comes at a time when people had more control over their environment and therefore control over their time management.

T thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Nov 6, 2012 21:34:27
Replying to Littlestone

Littlestone wrote:
Harryshill wrote:
Daylight hours being spent on hunting and gathering.
You can of course apply that argument to the Neolithic (if not to most periods in human evolution) but that (trying to survive) hasn’t stopped any of us from producing some of the most astonishing and enduring monuments – on a shoestring budget you might say.
One thing that occurs to me is that Homo Sapiens Sapiens didn't start building ceremonial monuments (as far as we know) until the Mesolithic, and on a larger scale until the Neolithic. I've always thought this was due largely to a change from a migratory/seasonal hunter/gatherer way of life to a more settled life where being in one place for most of the time was critical (i.e. farming).

If so, this would suggest that only a settled population would be likely to build ceremonial monuments that would require a big investment of time and manpower. As yet, there is no evidence that Homo Sapiens Sapiens adopted an agrarian lifestyle that would lend itself to such "permanent" monument-building until much later than the periods we would need to be talking about for the Neanderthals to have done something similar.

This suggests (although obviously it doesn't prove or disprove) that megalithic monuments are associated with a settled community, which itself requires a non-migratory means of sustaining itself, i.e. farming. If so, unless evidence comes to light that the Neanderthals adopted farming techniques millenia before HSS did, it seems unlikely that they would have spent their energies on building permanent megalithic structures, even if they had the capacity or technology to do so, as it would be inconsistent with a largely migratory/seasonal way of life.