Thursday, July 23, 2009

Was A Shanidar Neandertal Killed by a Modern Human?

Steve Churchill thinks that the person represented by Shanidar 3 may have been killed by a modern human. According to a story in FoxNews:

"What we've got is a rib injury, with any number of scenarios that could explain it," said study researcher Steven Churchill, an associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University in North Carolina. "We're not suggesting there was a blitzkrieg, with modern humans marching across the land and executing the Neandertals [aka Neanderthals]. I want to say that loud and clear."

But he added, "We think the best explanation for this injury is a projectile weapon, and given who had those and who didn't, that implies at least one act of inter-species aggression."

As Churchill, himself, says, though, the evidence is scant. In other areas, it appears that they coexisted for quite some time and, of course, anytime you get two groups of people together, there are bound to be skirmishes.


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2 comments:

  1. In other news, upwards of 16,000 modern humans were killed by modern humans in the US last year.

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