The More Things Change…
There’s been a story going around the various news sources about a Neanderthal skull found in France. What’s special about this particular Neanderthal? Well, this one has a big gaping hole in its skull caused by a heavy sharp object swung at considerable force and velocity.
Seeing as car accidents were rare in those days, one can surmise that this trauma was caused by the actions of another Neanderthal - pissed off and yielding a sharp stone weapon. The plot thickens as we learn that our Neanderthal may have been bashed from behind. This all seems to jive pretty well with what we grew up thinking about “cave people“:
1. Cave man A sees cave woman B.
2. Cave man A beats cave woman B over head with club A and drags her to cave A.
3. Cave man B returns to cave B from hunting trip, and finds cave woman B missing.
4. Cave man B grabs club B and walks to cave A.
5. Cave man B beats cave man A over head with club B, and drags cave woman B back to cave B and cave children B,C,D,E, and F.
But apparently this is very interesting to the archaeolaeolaeological community; primarily because they will learn what types of heavy sharp things were used by Neanderthals to kill other Neanderthals, but also because it appears that some of our Neanderthal’s friends tried to take care of him and nurse him back to health.
36,000 years later, the only things that have really changed are the weapons. People are still hurting people by stealing from them, maiming and killing them, and defacing their websites. Fortunately, the remedies are pretty much the same too. When we get beaten down, we stagger back to our friends and family who, for some reason, like us enough to put us back together again.
Bye for now.