Some Interesting Facts and Discussions about the Neanderthals

Do you know that there were another specieses of man? The Neanderthals were another sentiment animal on earth except humans. They are not anymore. Thousands of years ago the last of the Neanderthals has died. Who or what killed them? Why an intelligent species has been swept away from the face of earth? These are the questions which are bothering the thinking minds for long time. Now, the main question is: “Are we the direct killers of our brothers, the Neanderthals?”

Before going further I want to make it clear to you that the Neanderthals were not humans like us. They were another species or subspecies of human like creatures. The subspecies of which all of us, the modern human beings, are member is called “Homo Sapiens”.

We have all read about the cave men who lived on raw primitive forests. The Neanderthals were also like those cavemen. But they were not exactly human like us. They were intelligent, they could speak, they could haunt, they were strong, but they were not human beings. Do you not consider this fact creepy? The description of a Neanderthal resembles with our ancient stories of Trolls and other Norse monsters. We are always afraid of anything which is intelligent like us but is not of our species.

Every ancient human civilization has the stories of demonic humanoid creatures. Some of which are described as huge, blood thirsty monsters, often with magical powers. I think it is very much possible for the following reasons:

As far as we know that the mythologies of Trolls were from the Norse people. They were from Scandinavia, the coldest part of Europe. The Neanderthals were adapted to live on very cold lands. They lived on Europe at a time when the whole continent up to Middle East was covered with thick, permanent layers of ice. They were the dwellers of the Ice Age. When the ice began its retreat to its own country, the Poles, human beings from Africa began to invade the new found lands. Man was best fitted on warm conditions but the Neanderthals were built for cold weather. So, with ice they made their retreat to the coldest parts of Europe, Scandinavia. So, the people of Scandinavia had a long time encounter with them. We, human beings, do not like other sentiment beings. We are afraid of them, so too were the Norse people of the pre historic past. As humans haunted most of them down, the last few members of the species hid on the deep, dense forests avoiding human contact.

According to the mythology, the Trolls were nocturnal creatures. It is very much possible that the last few surviving Neanderthals could become nocturnal creatures. They were afraid to come near human habitats on day time. Those who were braver were killed long ago by the more intelligent homo sapiens.

It was told that the Trolls were turned to stones if the ray of sun could touch them. It is probably an imaginary explanation by some ancient thinkers of the Neanderthals nocturnal behaviors. In my opinion, there could be another point. It is possible that some of the Neanderthals went far south on night in search of food. They could withstand the cooler night weather of the areas which were warmer. But there body was not suited for the heat of a warm sun. So, it is possible that some of the old men saw some Neanderthals die because of direct sun light on a hot, sunny day of summer. I do not know it is possible or not, may any more learned person can tell us if my explanation has any merit or not.

But, one may ask, did the Neanderthals have such huge bodies to be considered as a monster? They were well built and strong. But they were not as big as mountains. It is just imagination of the later generations who did not have the chance of seeing any “troll”. They tried to make the things more monstrous to make their story sound interesting. Gradually, the myths have converted human like creatures into some huge monsters.

We all know that the trolls were man eaters. Were the Neanderthals too? I think it is very much possible. The Neanderthals needed more energy to survive then a human being with same age, gender and built. Man had usurped almost all of their territory. The so called trolls were cornered. They needed much food which was scarce. The change of weather in Europe had changed it flora and fauna. Large games like mammoths were no more. So, for survival, the last few of the Neanderthals could become man hunters and eaters. Now, it sounds certainly creepy. Imagine, a very strong creature is lurking on night in search of human flesh and blood. The thing is almost intelligent like a man. He can use a heavy wood or stone made weapon to break your skull. He can set a trap for you. How very dangerous it is. How would you feel if you were a Norse wood cutter lost on a deep forest and the night came? You might be upon a tree hiding for the denizens of the darkness. When the dark ghost like figures will roam around the jungle below, what did you feel? Do you understand the origin of trolls now?

I think the answer would be complicated. Man and Neanderthals were in collision course. It was the fight to rule; the fight for gaining the control of earth. We have won the world war and wiped them away. To us, they might appear ferocious demons but so were we to them. We, as the experts claim, have raided their habitants, killed them all. There are even evidences of humans eating Neanderthal flesh!

Actually, they were intelligent beings. They had emotions and cultures like us. They buried their dead on graves. Those guys lived in families. They could use stone tools. They have their own languages too. There brain capacity was very close to pre historic human beings.

In my commoner’s opinion, when they were numerous and the weather was appropriate for them, Neanderthals were not less civilized than the cavemen. According to some, they were more advanced. But when Mother Nature went against them, they were cornered by us. One by one, most those humanoid tribes were forced to withdraw from the lands where they were supreme. At last, they became an endangered species. At that time only the most savage members of them were still alive. They were fugitives, driven from their home lands by their cousins, humans. At that stage, they lost all of their previous culture and sophistications and became monsters like “trolls”. If the table was turned, and they were the winners, at that time a civilized modern Neanderthal would read about human “trolls”.

Neanderthals were on earth for a long time. They ruled on Europe. They were adapted with cold, frozen weathers. Unfortunately for them, the weather of Europe became hotter and hotter. So, they faced problems to fit themselves with new weather conditions. Change of weather brought change in available animals to haunt. At that time, another species of man came from the hotter continent of Africa. They were physically better suited for the weather of hotter Europe. The struggle for existence began.

“Homo Sapiens” people were better suited than the Neanderthals for evolution. The most dangerous animal on earth is man. Humans are called as “Super Predators” by the scientists. In pre historic era, both of these species were nearly the same as capable predators. But humans were smarter than their competition. The Neanderthals had big, muscular bodies and powerful, sensitive eyes. Probably, there hearing and smelling powers were much higher than men. So, they did not need much high level of intellect to gather food. But man is physically weaker than most of the big, wild animals. Our vision hearing and smelling capacity are not very suitable for haunting a big game. So, humans were evolved as a more intelligent animal. Sharper brain gave them edge over every other animal, including the Neanderthals. We all know that “trolls” are known as fools. So, the humans developed much better strategies and weapons. We could learn much faster than them. So, we had learnt more and more. As a result, our nearest cousins lost the race.