HAT SIZES
It has been found that Neanderthal Man had a greater brain capacity than ours. The important factor,of course, is not size but quality of the contents and we have been confused as to what use N-Man made of his larger brain-box..
A marked disservice has been done Neanderthal Man man from the moment he was first discovered in the Neander Valley in Germany. They were a leading Stone Age people over much of the world. The “scientists”of a by-gone era, whom we think should have known better, did not realize that the specimen they were examining was the remains of an old man who had suffered from arthritis to the max 'n other debilitating diseases and, in all likelihood, possible skeletal malformations to start with severe or injury in his younger years.
N-Man has, over the years, had a “poor press.” Scientists continued pass down the same basic information even after discovery of other Neander relic proved some of it be untrue. No one likes to argue with anyone who claims to have been first to say, do or think anything. It became evident, for instance, that the first specimen examined was indeed that of an old man – of probably as much as twenty years or so and that he had lived an arthritic and other wise harsh existence for his alloted one score of years.
Seen in his true condition we can appreciate more of what N-man achieved. He was hunter-scavenger, he lived in natural caves, crevices, behind cliff sides to escape wind and foul weather, even built crude walls of piled up rocks to ward off worst attacks of Nature's wrath. Evidence has been found that he also buried his dead, which as an early sign of progress in a world where scavenger animals promptly removed anything thrown aside. Neander men buried most often in cave floors where a pit was scooped out and filled with fresh grass and greenery. The body was placed upon the mat of grass and handfuls of flowers, covered the corpse. The dirt and rock pounded down securely.
Our total knowledge about such early men, is fragmentary, of course. The world proved to be rough place for such men and they did not endure long. One reason - other than the cataclysmic, world-shaker, era-enders used to explain away the death of dinasours centuries earlier – is simple. The extra large size of the Neanderthal infant's head and the pelvic structure of the females were, perhaps a major cause of death among N-man infants and Mothers. We do not know for sure what caused their demise. Unfortunately they have lived in the public mind as a brutish, short and ugly cartoon-like character caused by mis-reading of evident by “experts” of a later time – those who who miss-read the facts about the very first such body found.
We might resolve to look carefully, today at whatever interests us, to to be sure our understanding we have of it is based on fact rather than half-baked conjecture.
Question even the best of so-called authority on the subject. And, we might do well to remember, as we learn, that brain capacity can be costly when exalted. We all need to check our hat size from time-to-time see that it remains constant.
. September 1, 2004 [c557wds] A.L.M
