Timeline
You might have a mental image of Neanderthals as some ancient, sloping-browed, granting human beings who carried quite funny large clubs. But recent discoveries claim that Neanderthals were anything but brutish cavemen. About 200,000 years ago they lived in Europe whereas we, modern humans showed up on the continent 40,000 ago. There were actually a lot less different from us. Funny thing is, many experts doubt Neanderthals and modern humans being different enough to count as different species.

Industrial Inception
For a civilization that was existed fifty centuries ago, they were surprisingly advanced. They didn’t just use roped up stones to make stone tools, they went through a lot of steps, they shaped pieces of rock into forms they wanted which is known as knapping and attached them to handles. Moreover, these knapped stones were glued using a substance called pitch. Pitch is made of birch bark which is not so easy to get. Apparently it requires heating at 400 degree Celsius in absence of oxygen. This was an action which proved difficult even for archeologists to replicate. Pitch was found in several Neanderthal sites and they were reported to be distilled from birch bark. Many regard this as the first industrial process.

Culture
We still use one of their tools that they have invented hundreds of years ago, its called lissoir, a smoother, designed to make leather hides tougher and more flexible. They made them out of bone to ensure more flexibility than wood or stone. There was also evidence of culture among Neanderthals. For example they not only buried their dead but also used pigments for paintings, even used beads for decorating purposes. These findings are quite controversial as many experts doubt them.

Language
Did they have the capacity for language? As there could be no fossilized evidence of language, scientists had to get creative to find one. The biggest clue was found in their skeleton, the hyoid bone that holds the tongue. This bone although exists in other primates needs a special positioning to make the complex vocalization that we can. Australian scientists made a computer model called ‘Neanderthal Hyoid’ to stimulate the movement. The analysis showed results that it could have been used the way we use it. Another clue on whether Neanderthals could use language can be founded in their genes. One gene known as FOXp2 helps in language and cognition. Modern humans have two small changes in that gene that make it different from other animals that also have this gene. A group of German scientists found that Neanderthals had the same two genetic changes. Scientists think that our common ancestors had passed those changes on to both of us. Apart from all this, language is still too complicated for a single gene to tell us.

Transcripted By Benazir Elahee Munni