Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Simon Paynton on June 2, 2016 at 3:18pm

I think it's not surprising, as Neanderthals were the sister species to Homo sapiens, and our parent species, Homo heidelbergensis, used fire in a controlled way from 400,000 years ago. 

Permalink Reply by Stephen on June 2, 2016 at 7:42pm

Interesting article  JBO its fantastic they can date things so effectively.

Permalink Reply by Stephen on June 2, 2016 at 7:52pm

But none it can be true, Cos the earth is only six thousand years old. Don't ya know.

Permalink Reply by SteveInCO on June 3, 2016 at 12:02am

The building of the structures was actually the bigger news.

Permalink Reply by Unseen on June 8, 2016 at 12:15pm

To say there was fire in a cave (only one, so far, right?) is one thing. To jump to the conclusion the fire was being used and what it was being used for seems a wee bit unscientific.

There was fire...in a cave. Was it used daily? Was it used for a purpose? Did they know how to make fire or did they bring it in after, say, a lightning strike or forest/field fire.

Who knows?

Permalink Reply by TJ on June 29, 2016 at 8:11pm

Cooking and other functions were evidenced, etc.  IE: It was not "A fire in a cave"...it was the use of fire...and some specifics are mentioned in the full article, such as for cooking.

:)

Neanderthals were very similar to us in intelligence it seems...they had art, jewelry, burial rituals, knew how to make fire, etc, had larger brains than homo sapiens, and were not merely less hirsute apes.